happy vaisakhi!

 

19-04-26. I'd love to say we are so multi-cultural we made sure we got to the bottom of Pilrig Street in perfect time for the Vaisakhi parade, but should probably admit it was a happy accident rather than good planning. Nevertheless we enjoyed the bright colours and bare feet going past in honour of this major Sikh festival celebrated annually around the 13th or 14th April, (or in this case the following Sunday) marking the birth of the Khalsa, (the Sikh community.) I have seen Sikhs setting up food hand-outs and looking out into the community rather than being insular or narrow-minded like some of the misguided Reform types. And the parade was a visual delight.

Someone is not shy about being a member of several tribes: the one-wheeled boarders gang,
the photography crew and the white-and-bald-but-wearing-a-turban-anyway sect.

There were (paradoxically!) sweepers at the front of the parade with stiff brushes to sweep the road so that those braving the bare feet thing would suffer less damage. I only had the zoom lens which was rubbish to get decent crowd scenes with, but took a few shots including the one below which has a gold leaf tonenail and adjacent toe ring that I only discovered much later.

We watched the parade with Mark Kennedy who has swapped running
for biking these days. Last seen going through East Linton with the peloton.

speckled wood
dozens in Warriston

hover and harlequin

Very pleased to see a red admiral above the crypts as we entered Warriston. It was a fine welcome - very few of these beauties about this year so every one is cherished. This one flew up from sunbathing before landing high in a (sycamore?) tree. 

I accidentally uploaded this photo of Mary into Obsidentify and it said it might
be a Hard clam or Quahog. (How rude!) However it was only 47% sure. 

In the In Loving section (which is fast becoming known as Comma Corner thanks to Colin R) (much better name!) between the war memeorial and tunnel there are usually a few butterflies about. I was taking a pic of this spread-eagled peacock when a cheeky speckled pretty much photobombed it, landing and making itself very comfortable, right beside the peacock. The peacock closed its wings in high dudgeon before the sun coming out prompted it to slap them open chasing off the speckled.

At this point in the season orange tips were still fairly rare and highly regarded so when one scooted through the cemetery I chased after it. Comedy shots and in-flight failures the inevitable result. 3 or 4 more did similarly.

blue tit

blackcap

Siberian Springbeauty

wallflower(?)

Another big excitement - while looking for blackcaps over near the East gate we saw this female holly blue skittering about the tops of a small holly tree. It was prone to sitting tight high up out of sight so I went over and gently shook the small trunk and it flew about in circles. I was directly underneath but Mary had a better angle for shots. She refused to swap places (it required a wade through undergrowth) and shake it for me. But I managed a couple of record shots. Nice to see that the HBs have not left the cemetery entirely. They had been appearing regularly a few years back however sightings have been much reduced in the last couple of years. Possibly due to a wasp parasite that targets the holly blues.

comma - not at comma corner!

another OT chase

speckled

Mary

such pretty flowers

Photo sequence of the day was this kestrel-and-mouse-combo. (Near the war memorial.) Mary saw something drop to the floor like a stone. I saw this kestrel fly up to the nearest tree carrying prey and quickly zoomed in and shot off a few frames before I realised it was the male kestrel that hunts here regularly, and it had a mouse in its left talon. It saw my interest and flew up to another tree and I instinctively shot a few more frames as it landed, not expecting at that range to be able to crop in to get acceptable photos. It saw I was still tracking it and flew off with mouse to eat somewhere less public. It was more a case of being in the right place at the right time and having the camera set up with high enough shutter speed to catch the action without movement blur. Happy days!

lucky hit-and-hope shot!

off and away

teamwork makes the dreamwork

more orange tip fun

Mary took this photo of me chasing the orange tip to the right!
chopped my head off too!

So to give Mary some revenge I put the above photo into Obsidentify. (It says not to put in selfies and pets.) It called me Lucilla Scintilla, (48% certainty), which sounds quite elegant until you find out that is a small air-breathing land snail. The cheek!

another masterful result

Finally the OT stopped for a refuel. And on bluebells, hurray! Every year I try and get a shot of orange tips on bluebells. (The colours go so well.) The cemetery is heaving with bluebells currently so there is a high chance of this. Getting the right angle and direction of sun etc is more of a bunfight though, and results were decent but mixed. (Top tip: reduce the exposure (on the exposure +/-) by 2/3rds of a stop or more to avoid blowing out the white bits.) You can always lighten in post but you can't retrieve over-exposed wings. You should just be able to make out the difference between front and rear uppers, the hindwings (only) having cryptic markings on the underside that slightly show through on a sunny day.

if you zoom in you can see the falling grains of pollen between the flowers

frozen by 1/6400 of a second shutter speed

Adventures in photoshopping! These 2 photos had unfortunately placed twigs poking into the frame and spoiling the aesthetic. So I spent a couple of minutes tidying them up old style with a clone tool - none of your fancy A.I. here! 

female blackbird

there seem to be dozens of wrens in the cemetery these days

and many of them quite loud and shouty

chiffchaff

coal tit

marsh marigold

Japanese cherry

A nearly perfect day in Warriston with various excellent treats. (Andrew saw the kestrel photos and it inspired him to get down and check the place out again, although of course you can't just determine to see specific things like choosing food off a menu; it is rarely the stuff you go hunting for that comes home in the camera.) It was good to see A & E on the last visit and nice to catch up. More later.