best part of the day: 2026

I am posting a selection of my favourite photos during the second year of owning the Lumix G9mk2. (Mostly in chronological order.) I bought it in November '23 so the second year starts in Tenerife December '24 and goes up to, but doesn't include, Tenerife December '25. Apart from the photo above which was taken on the '25 trip (and with Mary's camera, not mine.) It shows my current set up using a harness which helps distribute the weight of the camera evenly.

I planned to show maybe the best hundred from 2025. I haven't done a shutter count nor know where to find that on the camera menus, however I was reckoning if I post on average 50 pics per blog (and posted 135 blogs for last year) that makes about 7000 photos published. And probably ten times that taken. So when I first went through the selection process I came up with over 400. Which I whittled down to under 300 which I'm going to do in 2 parts along with my favourite videos and movie clips.

Video became a thing I developed this year. I was getting used to working the camera year one, and video was a thing I hadn't really got the hang of. I'm still only vaguely aware of all the possible settings and what they mean, but have found a slow motion setting (120frames per second which slows the action by a factor of 4.8) which has revolutionised my videos. I suspect it emulates the timeframe nearer to that which many birds and insects operate on, and has opened the door to a new world of wonder. Anyway, less chat more pics...

The first photo to make the grade is of a (Blue) Emperor (f) dragonfly by the sports track at Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. One was patrolling there and it is nearly impossible to get a photo like this as the camera will focus more readily on the background. You have to ask it to pull the focus nearer and then shoot hoping the subject remains in the frame. It is an appropriate subject to kick off with, as many of the groundbreaking photos and videos taken this year were trying to capture dragonflies, with a few successes. They have grown in my affections to equal (and maybe occasionally surpass) the joy I get from butterflies and birds.

Sometimes a photo has made the grade due to its subject's rarity rather than visual delight. The southern brown argus above is one such example. The only one I've ever seen on Tenerife.

rainbow lorikeet at the Mariposario, Icod de los Vinos

glasswing at the same butterfly house
(macro lens)

zebra longwing at the same place

back outdoors and one of the many kestrels
that love to perch on street furniture

clouded yellows, not seen much in 2025 trip
were commonplace in December 2024

2mm ghost ant

Tenerife: always hilly, never boring

clouded yellow

hike up the hill to Chinamada
an annual pilgrimage

Chinamada

rare shot of a Wandering glider or Globe skimmer
Pantala flavescens

Plain tigers at Punta de Hidalgo

small copper in mint condition

rare shot of a Tenerife hoopoe
only photo/sighting in about 4 years

Berthelot's pipit - charming and unafraid birds

gecko - very scarce
(the only one I saw on 2025 trip was dead)

kestrel

Blue emperor (m)

And back to Edinburgh...

nice to see this kingfisher (f) on January 3rd, Powderhall
I have had little luck since although many are seen nearly daily!

January starts with a Jay.
Cammo

nuthatch at Cammo

always a joy to see the grey wagtail around Warriston

On 30th Jan I went to the hide at Bavelaw in search of ^ bramblings.

goldfinch

siskin

brambling

reed bunting

treecreeper

great spotted woodpecker

siskin

rat at Lochend Pk

more Cammo residents - nuthatch

jay

coal tit

up to Monymusk
2nd trip in March saw honeybees and toads

goosander (f) WoL

hoverfly mid-March on Botanics rhodie

Still on the same day - 14th March and this RA is the first butterfly of the year (for me), although I wasn't making that much of a fuss about it. Perhaps because a couple had already been recorded (by Ken and others) this year.

It may not have been as early as some but I really like the background of rhododendron flowers. Botanics seems to be the place to see early RA as 2 years in a row, the rhodies have produced the goods.

18th March and this comma at the gallery bridge on the WoL was the start of an uncanny festival of butterflies posing on daffs. I was expecting to be accused of using AI.

The next adventure was Saltoun Wood on 20th March which almost proved disappointing leaving the place I bumped into a small tort and peacock who both posed on a daffodil. The admiral I seen earlier and more traditionally posed on willow catkins.

coal tit

nuthatch

grey wagtail on the Almond

bat, 25th March, Warriston cemetery
rare to see in daylight

more butterfly on daffodil action
comma

bullfinch at Warriston

couple of sparrowhawks at Warriston

crow!

sparrowhawk

wren

bee-fly

One of the harbingers of Spring is the bee-fly. Iain C reckons a week after a bee-fly sighting, the first orange-tips will appear. I like them for their cute look and the way they fly and hover poking their long proboscises into flowers.

blue tit

this year was fantastic for commas at Warriston

When I first started visiting Warriston regularly in lockdown, commas were fairly rare. Since then they seem to have really increased their numbers, although these days I also know where they hang out which might make a difference. (The In Loving area being the most reliable place where the top dog spot would change almost daily with maybe 8 or 10 being seen coming and going over a month there.)

and then... a speckled wood on a daff!

the stock doves are now regulars at Warriston

bee-fly

comma at the abbey ruins, Postman's Walk, Aberlady

a successful emperor hunt at Bonaly, 7th April, but too early for green hairstreaks
by a few days, although they appeared at the firing range Castlelaw around then

fun trying to photo hoverflies

back to Warriston for bullfinches bathing

Back to the Botanics for butterflies.
As well as a red admiral, I was pleased to see a holly blue and a speckled wood

Holly blues have gone back into hiding. Possibly from the parasitic wasps that follow them around the country. Or maybe they preferred when they were mythical-status butterflies before they were seen all over the place. They will always be special to me and Mary (who spotted them in Gullane and was first to notice their becoming widespread in 2019!) Even if/when they return to the more widespread status they held from 2020 for a couple of years.

getting a hoverfly hovering against a non-sky background
is high on the almost impossible photo wish list

another trip to Monymusk and Muir of Dinnet - lapwing

red kite

orange-tip!

First OT this year was 1st April (Warriston) although the above is a later version as they tend not to stop for a day or two when first emerged. (Year before was 19th April. Underlining how warm and early things were this year. It was really great, as was the majority of the Summer.) I know global warming is a problem but I do not worry about Scotland getting a couple of degrees warmer in the next few years. In fact I look forward to it.

chaffinch with grub

When there is nothing else about (which is most of the time) I do enjoy taking pics of the pheasants who've taken up residency in Holyrood. They are fantastically dumb but also fantastically coloured which offsets their limited brainpower. And many will come up and take seed out my hand or on the ground near enough for a photo. I forgive them their invasive status because really they are not smart enough to invade an open field. Also, almost every so-called invasive species was brought here and released by humans. Instead of invasive we should call them kidnapped or hostaged species.

nomad bee

orange-tip up close

tufted duck on St Margaret's loch
flowering gorse behind makes lively reflections

29th April small copper at Luffness

wall (f)

pond skater

green hairstreak

green hairstreak at Blackhill, Borders, 3rd May
rare sight of wing uppers - rather dull brown!

skylark - the sound of the Summer

peacock

green longhorn moth - fabulous!
didn't manage a decent film this year

large white
the best of the plainish whites; I met loads this year

I suspect it was a very good year for large whites. Although that might just be overstating the case due to my proximity to fields of cabbages and cruciferous veg near to where I was butterflying last Summer. I had several pleasant encounters and found the pre-burst mode worked well to capture them taking off and showing their large graceful wings. For comparison that same mode did not work so well with smaller butterflies, such as the small coppers - there is an animated video showing the two species taking off, in part 2.

small copper

orange tip female

small blue
I went down to the Berwickshire coast to meet these tiny butterflies
a special treat: one landed on me and enjoyed the salt lick (I'd been running)

the smallest in the country (shot with macro lens)
which accounts for the focus drifting

sedge warbler

small blue

Partonhall, extremely charming cottages
just North of Burnmouth

9th May. Prompted by Chris S, I went in search of pearl-bordered fritillaries North West of Pitlochry up a small hill. I eventually came across a few but actually had much more fun with a much larger showing of green tiger beetles (using the macro lens). Best photos ever of these amazing but shy creatures that tend to fly off as soon as you get close enough to take a photo. I found I had to slither low like a snake to approach without my outline blocking out the sun like King Kong.

a lot of scrabbling about on all fours on the hard ground
to get a few shots like this

Along the road at Linn of Tummel there were more PBFs
than usual and I spent the remainder of the day chasing them

Three days later a cycle to Haddington to find broad-bodied chasers, perhaps my favourite Scottish species of dragonfly. The females and immature males (both yellow/gold) fly up the hill at a logpile, the mature males (powdery blue) descend to a pond and patrol for females who tend only to appear to mate or egglay. They are not terribly keen on humans coming close and have great eyesight.

female egglaying

male BBC

four-spotted chaser (with large red damselfly)
another early dragonfly

another trip to the North East
corvid vs buzzard

large red damselfly beside Andy's pond

green-veined white

nice surprise to find small pearl-bordered fritillaries out at Muir of Dinnet
almost identical to the rarer Pearl-bordereds (Mid-May)

even had a snake cross our path
(after many hours searching for them)

a rare example of the kit or street lens (12~60mm)

4-spot chaser

and again

a 14 spot ladybird - first I'd ever seen - at Levenhall

red admiral

large skipper at Levenhall
great to be able to find them in Midlothian these days

soldier beetle going on manoeuvres

NBA

Although a great year for several species, (the weather being incredible,) a poor year for Northern Brown Argus, as far as I could see. Normally I see quite a few in Holyrood. This year maybe just a handful (all in the stone trap) with none where the authorities brought down rocks on top of the flowery layby on the top road. Another piece of mismanagement by HES.

NBA

This has to be one of my top shots of the year. It was a rather unsuccessful day out to Linn Dean and very little was showing up until I spotted this mating pair of small pearl-bordereds on purple flowers. They sat well for me while I took a million shots from lots of angles with a macro lens while hoping not to scare them off. The detail the macro lens picked up is outstanding.

the only other shot of interest that day was one I'd been after for a while:
a small heath showing its upper wings, which you don't see while at rest

crow pal at warriston
happy to pose to order for peanuts

Now you may think I'm joking but one day I was chatting away to this one or his other half, and was saying stuff like can you look a bit more noble, yes that's it, the camera loves you and the like. And when I said can you now turn to the left for a profile, he did. Just coincidence, right?

Mesopsocus immunis (f)

If not much is happening at the cemetery I get out the macro lens and go bothering the tiny things that run around on the gravestones. I love the way some barklouses (above) look almost digital when you get in close. They are very tiny btw, about 4mm, and almost invisible.