woodhall dean

 

30-04-26 I can't remember exactly what sparked the idea to visit Woodhall Dean but Mary had been talking about taking the car out for some exercise, and Woodhall Dean is not easy to get to any other way. Too early in the year for purple hairstreaks and too late in the day for snakes, it was both a great idea and bound to fail. Actually it was a really fine short walk, although not without moments.

My memories of this place are that you won't see snakes. And often very little other wildlife. But it is also very sceneic. I see people posting snake pics from round Whiteadder Reservoir but hardly anywhere else in the Lothians. They are becoming very thin on the ground. Pun intended. If there were dozens wriggling all over the paths and chasing you, I might feel differently but they are super rare in Scotland (in my experience) and so I go places where there are warning signs. But they rarely show up. None today. Understandably; it was really warm and we only arrived late on, long after they'd have warmed up and slithered back into the undergrowth.

One thing I was delighted to see (again) were house martins. I'm not sure where they were coming from (a nearby barn or eaves) but they were arriving at this muddy puddle right beside the car park and collecting clay and straw for nest building. We must have been here at a similar time in years gone by as I can remember them doing the same, and largely failing to get decent photos on that occasion too! They were just about putting up with me crouched along the road, but when Mary appeared they flew off and didn't return. I hoped I'd get them at the other end of the walk. They are very charming and have rather daft looking legs not really made for walking about on. The air is far more their natural habitat.

house martins collecting mud for nest building

obsidentify says willow warbler

My plan was to carry the DJI pocket. I am still using the Pocket 1 but have plans to buy the Pocket 4 which came out just recently. Reviews are good and it is a slight improvement on the Pocket 3 which I was thinking I'd buy but was hoping the Pocket 1 would break first. I hate to replace tech which hasn't done its maximum lifespan. Actually I plan to give the Pocket 1 to Mary (she already sold it to me!) when I get the 4 so it won't lie in a drawer unused. (It will be in Mary's backpack unused.) 

Meanwhile I planned to use it for wide shots and video on the very narrow contouring paths round Woodhall Dean where you can't really get a feel for the brilliant scenery with a long lens. However it had done that thing again. It was over-exposing the landscape (see first few clips of video) despite being on the sunny weather setting. Why? I didn't know and it was very frustrating. I decided to go through every possible setting and see if I could fix it. However there was bright sunshine on a screen that is about the size of a tooth and I wasn't wearing reading glasses. Mary was walking on regardless; didn't realise I was desperately scrolling through pictograms and arrows the size of writing on a coin and failing to resolve the issue. It was like a bad dream and steam was beginning to come out my ears.

The tiny screen size - 20 x 14mm - was addressed in later models and the Pocket 3 (with much larger screen) went on to sell nearly 10million units: the most popular camera in the world. So they are keeping the Pocket 4 largely the same.

By the time we got to the top of the hill I had toggled PRO mode and suddenly the auto aperture and settings were recording just fine. I don't know whether I turned PRO mode on or off. Such is the irony of a lot of tech I find. However I had nearly managed to ruin the day with my insistence that Mary not run off ahead and scare off all the wildlife while I reprogrammed the camera. After another suitable interval we were back on speaking terms and the serenity of the surroundings slowly revived us. It really is a magical place. 

One red admiral very disinclined to be photographed.

some aesthetically pleasing black cattle at the far end of the loop.

In the past I have run across the cattle field and climbed a fence to get onto the path to Pressmennan Lake. Today there was no call for that and we just waved hello and took some photos.

I was pleased this yellowhammer sat still watching us while I filmed him with the good camera. One species you don't get in town and it's only when out in rural areas I see them. On this occasion it was not doing its famous "a little bit of bread and no cheese" call.

yellowhammer

wild garlic - ramsons - Allium ursinum
and about 10 other common names

nice to see it hasn't been overwhelmed by invasive few-flowered leak

a few speckleds about

we stopped at this bench for lunch

I thought it woud be too windy at this bench to sit and have our sandwiches but it was perfect. There was a stiff breeze in the treetops but much less at ground level. And no dogwalkers or hikers for as far as we could see. I ran back along the trail when I saw another yellowhammer fly to the ground and walk through the grass field collecting invertibrates. 

Just as we were getting ready to move on we heard a strange birdcall. Not disimilar to a grasshopper warbler. I've heard it described as being like a laser, but I was thinking musical striations or like a buzzing noise. We spent a long while looking straight up and I thought I saw the culprit. I got a couple of photos and Obsidentify ID-ed it as a redpoll. When I googled redpoll song I found a video which confirmed the 'laser zapping noise' is one of the best ways to know a redpoll from other finches. Every day a school day. Of course from underneath I couldn't see the telling red cap of the redpoll.

redpoll

one of the few butterflies stopping for a photo
green-veined white

lower down the trail there were a couple of peacocks
perched on the dead bracken

Mary's legs at the time were not in great shape. She didn't enjoy the gradients, partly because she'd been at the gym the day before, getting beasted by a personal trainer, who is trying to get Mary and her legs back into running condition. So she wasn't walking that normally which you can see in the video. So on the return trail I suggested we follow the stream back along the valley floor to the car park. I think at first she thought I was leading her over walls and through swamps but we both really enjoyed the stream-side lower path and all the butterflies going back and forth around the flowers. It was really pretty and we had fun taking photos of the butterflies, mostly orange tips, peacocks and GVWs.

Back at the car park no house martins but there were quite a few small birds in the trees nearby - whitethroats and blackcaps but they mostly avoided the camera. A buzzard lazily flew circles above. After a while we got in the car and drove home. I shot some video out the window because the countryside was looking FAB!

odd looking buzzard

whitethroat, in hiding

3.5miles South of Dunbar

video clips mostly out the DJI Pocket 1

east lothian lovelies

 

29-04-26 Another day of sunshine!  The forecast was great so I caught the train to Longniddry with the idea of running and walking to Gullane then bussing home. It has been a successful formula several times this year and is about the right distance (about 10miles) with one or two longer pauses along the route, finishing as the butterflies head indoors about 3pm. I got off the train just before 10am and the orange tips were already out and about, in the first gardens I ran past.

The Suunto app says it was my first run in 3 weeks. I'm not sure this is entirely true as I have encorporated some running into the walks I have been doing. Also I didn't do much solid running on this occasion as I was wearing a heavy pack and carrying the camera. However I intend to get back into it. Not competitively but to the level I could go run 15 miles without killing myself. After getting over the sciatica (it is entirely gone which is fantastic!) I no longer have an excuse and do actually enjoy it. Trouble is I have plenty other things I enjoy as well. Although being fat isn't one of them and running is the best defence against that.

orange tip avoiding the focal plane of the flowers

I read the train timetable badly the night before and thought I saw 9.30am. The trains to NB have been 9.39am for an age so I suspect I read it wrong as it was last thing before bed and I would have had bleary eyes. I should have double checked but instead it never occurred to me that I read a zero for a 9 until I got to the station about 9mins ahead of schedule. I had slightly overslept so every morning minute before I left was at a premium and I didn't have time for every morning ritual. (Had to make up for that on the train!) I bought a ticket, a station coffee and felt slightly shortchanged.

I had a few things on the wish-list today - whitethroats, large whites and walls. (The three Ws!) I would be going along Postman's Walk after Aberlady so holly blues were also candidates. However I'd seen a good few this season and so they weren't such a

 high priority. Almost as soon as I got to the coast at Longniddry I saw a whitethroat atop a stick and thought that was far too easy and fish-in-a-barrel. It flew off before I got a proper close up but 10 mins later I was wading into the long jaggy grassy (and brambles) and very nearly got the close up I was after.

whitethroat

offshore windfarm supports

careless BBQs cost lives
please don't set the dry grass on fire, arseholes

very nearly the required whitethroat close-up

So that got me thinking I'd be brushing whitethroats out the way all day. However that was the last interview all day. Odd and somewhat frustrating.

I went into Waterston House before Aberlady and enjoyed the wonderful plants there as usual. 3 or 4 senior ladies were busy gardening and I did my best not to disturb them. I spoke to a bloke as I was leaving to say thanks for the lovely garden and asked what the 2 superb trees were. Both crab apples apparantly. They should have been covered in butterflies and hovers. They weren't although there were plenty flies about.

speckled wood on blossoms

I love this image - I made a point of crouching and pointing
the camera up to get some blue sky in which seems to make the difference

blue tit

large white at Postman's Walk

Postman's threatened disappointment. Initially, where we'd seen holly blues last visit, all along the North perimeter there was an acute absence of HBs. I wondered if the station coffee was just hurrying me past without sufficient patience to find the elusive butterflies, but once I got to the corner of the field and hung about a while there was still no sign. There were orange tips and GVWs breezing through and what looked like an occasional large white but not holly blues. Odd, as last visit there were plenty males plus, eventually, a female.

after quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing
this large white landed and gave me the shot

peacock on lilac bush

even a comma eventually turned up

The sky was blue and the sun hot. It was perfect weather and quite a few whites began to zoom about. I was particularly happy to get a threesome of different species (below) nearly in focus, in the one frame. There were a good many less successful shots of passing butterflies as the camera tends to focus on the greenery behind the tiny subjects.

large white, orange tip, green-veined white!

gvw

orange tip male

in flight

gvw

I went to inspect the narrow ivy clad corridor between the fields.. Actually it probably originally was the named walk, but most use the field perimeter now. I saw a perfect female holly blue right at my shoulder but was so close I knew I couldn't raise my camera without distrubing it. Before I could retreat and get a photo, it took off and despite my telephathic beseeching to land, it flew over the ivy to I knew not where. Bummer. Only one I'd seen today, and such a beautiful specimen!

However there were still lots of butterflies flying about and I quickly got distracted by them and trying to get take-off shots and the like. About 15~20mins after seeing the un-photographed female HB, she, or another nearly identical, landed right under my nose and sat posing in superb fashion, wings open! It was the unexpected highlight of a very decent day out and I took several hundred photos very quickly, and then some more just in case. It was the only holly blue all day but it was an absolute cracker - maybe because I'd already lost it and it came back to me apparently voluntarily. Maybe just the strong sun on my naked head. (And station coffee.)

perfect specimen

even did some egg-laying maneouvers (see start of video below)
(too far away (over brambly undergrowth) to inspect ivy afterwards for eggs)

GVW in flight

I felt I'd exceeded expectations at that venue (even though I'd not seen any male HBs usually more common than females) so headed East across the next field and up the road to Luffness Quarry. Although there were a couple of small coppers, there was no sign of wall butterflies. This is often a great place to see early walls and I did worry they might have been eaten by sand martins who have formed a colony over and in the piles of grass cuttings from the golf course that have been dumped just East of the quarry. There are a dozen or more of the supersonic birds who enjoy swooping very low over the high edges of the quarry which is exactly where the walls have fluttered about in previous years.

a couple of small coppers at Luffness quarry

I took my pack off while at the quarry

saw this marvelous 'woolly bear'
a garden tiger moth caterpillar, on the pavement along to Gullane

it was heading onto the busy road so I turned it around 
and it seemed happy to head back onto the gold course rough

Possibly the strangest encounter of the day was this roe deer buck and youngster who were chilling out in the shade in St. Adrian's churchyard. I always look over the hedge as holly blues lived in the 2 high holly trees there for several years. The deer were picnicking on the back lawn like the unlikely illustration in some church leaflet for pastoral care. I didn't want to disturb their calm moment but had to sneak quietly into the garden to get a closer photo/video. The nature of where they were and the entrance into the churchyard shielded my approach and it was only after I got past the bushes that the deer saw me. I was moving glacier-slow and although they stood up and had a look, they didn't bound off. (See video.) It was quite the encounter.

no galloping off

Leaving the deer in peace, I climbed Hill Road up to Gullane Hill to check for any hilltopping walls, admirals and painted ladies near the Millennium Cairn. None. And I always check for walls on the red stone of the boundary wall. None. A little bit disappointing but can't complain given the good stuff that already landed on my plate. I reckoned I was still hitting well above average for the area and time of year. 

I then took a moment to go say hello to Hazel at the ice cream van. Our first hello this season although I had passed her van last time here, but was too weary to go over and chat. I think that might have been her man sold me a brilliantly cold bottle of water while I interrupted her lunch (a pot noodle, did I see that right or was it just something in a pot-noodle-like container?!?!) and we were so busy blethering I forgot to get her to introduce me to himself! I probably chatted WAY too much due to the station coffee and half a day on my own with nothing but internal caffeine monologue rattling round my head.

She described business as well you know, up and down. I know exactly. We both, for different reasons, watch the forecast like hawks and benefit from the sun being out. Which, being Scotland, is a very unreliable game plan. Sorry for interrupting your lunchbreak Hazel, great to chat. Summer starts here. (Anytime now!)

Feeling the day was coming to an end and somewhat deflated after an unremarkable Gullane Hill, I went along to a hotspot on the far side of the car parks. I start by going through the back of the dunes just below the car parks to where the new pond has been dug. There were a few butterflies along the way and none of them landing for photos except a tag team of a raggedy comma and smarter but still unimpressive peacock. They were chasing each other back and forth like old friends, then landing half a metre apart and catching their respective breaths. I took quite a few photos but they were meh. 

Obsidentify says redpoll

The stream coming down the slight incline had totally dried up at the point I photo-ed bathing birds last time. However lower down it had some water and there was an amazing species count regularly dropping in for a drink and splash. Initially I thought the redpoll was a tree sparrow but it may well have been a redpoll as they like to hang out with siskins and goldfinches, both of which were present and more obvious.

I found it ironic that this tiny section of water was getting loads of bird traffic, while the large manmade pond next door (created to improve the habitat for... em... birds etc.) was absolutely devoid of all bird action. This was due to the stream having loads of immediate cover and grassy containment with trees directly above to allow gradual and safe approach whereas the pond was cleared at the edges of bushes shrubs and all the necessary cover that nervous birds prefer. It will no doubt bed-in and the necessary cover grow back but currently it is strikingly obvious as a well-meaning white elephant.

goldfinch

this beautiful blackbird dropped in to give it max decibels
and sing out like a champ. Right beside me. Ace!

a slightly more shy pair of bullfinches were hanging out too

robin

I spent a glorious 40minutes in the zone, video-ing the birds as they came and went. There was a nearly continual stream of siskins, goldfinches and chaffinches with an occasional redpoll, bullfinch, blackbird and robin. With fly-through speckleds and orange tips. It was brilliant compensation for the lack of butterflies up the other end of Gullane and a great way to end the day.

On the way back to the bus stop I bumped into Olive and Rosie. I think Olive was quicker to recognise me this time, than I her, as I had to do a double take. And then unaccountably Rosie gave me a bit of a barking at - something she has never done in the past. Olive reckoned she might have thought the camera was a weapon of some sort. Lovely to see them briefly before heading up to town to catch the bus. Can't remember how long the bus took to arrive as I was chimping my way through the day's photos at the stop and then continued once on the bus. Maybe I got lucky again, it did feel like a day full of very good fortune!

a sandy small tort and one of the best of the day

youTubed variety of today's best stuff
ran up over 200 views on facebook in 90mins

just under 10miles in 5hrs42m