best part of the day: bbc at sbw

10th July. This was the second day I'd attempted to visit Saltoun Big Wood.

The previous day I'd stood at the Carlton Terrace bus stop for around 50minutes. A Lothian bus eventually stopped and I reckon the driver realised I was extremely hacked off, because he asked what I was waiting for. The 113 to Pencaitland I answered (an every-30-minutes-service allegedly) and he gave me a lift to the next stop (Abbeyhill, between London Rd and Meadowbank) saying that many buses were re-routed due to the large fire on Princes Street the day before, where someone was doing some insurance-based property development. I was extremely grateful although the electronic sign at Abbeyhill made no mention of the next 113. I'm not sure whether there was one or whether all the drivers on the 113 route just had the day off, because it was sunny.

(I wrote an email to the bus company mentioning this in case I ever wanted to travel on the 113 again this Summer. While they emailed back by way of apology, and accepted my account, they didn't try to offer any reason or excuse for non-appearance of said buses. So I was left clueless about future 113s. Maybe nobody knows why none appeared that day. And why I was royally stiffed waiting for more than an hour on a no-show bus.)

I eventually just got on a North Berwick bus because by now I was really unhappy and needed to go and chill somewhere nice. I had a walk around Aberlady and Gullane which was pleasant but there was insufficient wildlife to make it worth a blog.

Today, the 10th, I decided to cycle to Saltoun instead, as clearly the buses could not be relied upon. It took a while (around 80mins) as there was something of a headwind on the way there, but at least the return was super quick, I think about 63minutes for the 16miles. I padlocked my bike behind the old car park before checking out the first pond.

common blues

small skipper

The dragonfly season was well underway. It was a sunny day and there were damselflies, four-spot chasers and common hawkers. I hadn't been there long when I noticed at least one of the larger jobs was too blue and green to be a common hawker and must be an emperor, one of the largest dragonflies in the UK. I'd seen records on iRecord of emperors at Saltoun but I'd never seen any here myself and I think the last conversation with resident expert Alan Brown (a couple of years back) suggested their presence maybe mythical bordering fictional. Not easy to get decent record shots as they were very cautious and don't tend to hover in front of you like hawkers.

I could see it occasionally parked itself on the long grasses and reeds on the opposite bank. I could get distance pics of it but nothing a bit closer. I had to settle for in flight shots which weren't great.

4-spot chaser

emperor (m)

4-spotter

emperor, settled on other side of pond

in flight

common blues

nearly close enough!

This 4-spotter kept returning to perch right beside me!
- obviously wanted to be on the blog

not many admirals out and about

The place was looking just marvelous. No sign as yet of the purple scabious flowers that will appear trackside towards the last week in July and fill the air with butterflies. Traditionally peacocks first which are then superceded by admirals and eventually the largest showing of commas I know of in Scotland. It is (in my opinion) the highlight of the Lothian butterfly calendar and an excellent finale of the butterfly season.

lots of GVWs

video selfie

This holiday hat has had far more exposure than I anticipated. I am not a fan of slathering my thinning hair with sun screen which sweats down into eyes over a long day. And I can't wear sunglasses and operate my camera at the same time. So it sits on my head on sunny days keeping the sun out my eyes (and off pate and face) and I can cut back on the factor15. It is nice for once to have to keep the sun out my eyes, not always a condition you have to accommodate in Scotland!

emerald damselfly

I didn't see many of these and no common darters at all on this occasion. A few more of both turned up later on subsequent trips but possibly both species lower in number than usual. I seem to recall seeing common darters on a red list or towards the most endangered dragonfly a year or 2 back. This might be that, although it would be nice if there was a late surge. I will be returning lots in the next few weeks and keep an eye on things.
Edit: I checked and common darters are not in imminent danger: worst three in steepest decline are Common Hawker, Black Darter and Emerald Damselfly. Although that might be out of date by now.

bad news for emerald damselflies!

broad-bodied chaser (m)

This! Now this was groundbreaking. First time I'd seen BBCs at Saltoun. Pretty much my favourite dragonfly species or top three anyway. More precisely first time I have photographed them here. Several years ago before I'd ever heard of BBCs, I saw a huge yellow wasp travelling through the woods here. So impressive it seemed like CGI and although I chased it, it never landed and no photos were taken! I meant to look up exactly wtf it could have been.

I was fairly sure it was a species of dragonfly, and of course now know it would have been a female BBC. (Or immature male, but far more likely a female checking out the place and maybe dropping off the kids at the pool.) They are often the first species to occupy a new pond and possibly quite adventurous about travelling to new places. I had only seen them around Coulstoun Woods, South of Haddington. But clearly they have been expanding their range*. I was really delighted to see a couple of males at the upper pond here.

*Malcolm regularly photos them near Dunbar at the John Muir Park.

It would have been easy to miss them as they had gone by the time I returned on the 19th. And yet on this occasion they were in perfect condition. I wondered if they moved to another venue looking for females? They also perched on the pondside reeds very helpfully where, with a bit of stretching and half a wet foot, they could be photographed. They could easily have been as difficult as the hawkers on that pond, who mainly stay away over the bad side or up in the trees.

just delighted to see 2 of these fab creatures

basking and perching in full view

azure damselfly

4-spot chaser and broad-bodied chaser video

newt

common hawker - mostly absent but came over and hovered
while checking me out. I was annoyed I didn't manage to get slo-mo video of same

2.5 seconds and it was gone

small skipper

ringlet

I really enjoyed the lack of people and general tranquillity of the back trail. There weren't that many butterflies but it felt very relaxing as I looked forward to the next month when the place comes alive. I ate my sandwiches (homemade) and they were fantastic!