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14-08-26 A whole week since I was last at Saltoun. I was trying to hold off for a better weather window but realised one may never materialise and today looked the best of a bad bunch. I had "enjoyed" a few cycles recently and wanted to keep the mometum going, so thought even if there was below average wildlife, at least I'd get a decent workout on the bike. Getting started and back in the saddle is the worst part of the process (literally a pain in the arse,) and once you've got over that it becomes less of an ordeal to put in 30+ miles. 

common hawker (m)
a few warmed themselves on the trail near the first pond

I had given myself permission to coast along the coast but the old competitive spirit kicked in when I noticed the first five miles were covered in good time; around 20m55s. There was supposed to be a tailwind and this was helping, but also with the recent bike rides I had been getting stronger. I pushed up the hill out of Musselburgh and gasped up the gradient to Tranent and hit the 10mile mark (my gps bleeps every 5 miles only, when on the bike.) at 42m43s. If I kept this up for the 16miles I could get under 70mins for the first time in a long time. Despite nearly throwing my chain on the last hill I stopped the clock at 68m22s. A good start to the day although it meant the cycle home into the same wind wouldn't be great.

old friend Volucella pellucens

It was after 2pm. I hadn't planned to arrive so late but the morning was pretty crappy weather and I didn't rush to get out the house. There were glimpses of blue skies and I hoped they would appear again after the huge grey cloud overhead had blown past. I thought it might be a sizeable waste of time so rather than padlock my bike in the usual spot, I cycled it up to the backtrail, in case I was going to be cycling home in half an hour, in the rain. 

emerald damselfly

This meant laying it down on its side while I checked out various spots. I put on my camera-carrying harness. This gives me quick access to my camera, while avoiding clattering the camera on knees while cycling. Not much going on at the first pond. It looked dead although as I was about to head on up the backtrail I caught sight of a large hawker which I was pretty sure was a Southern. They can be curious and can helpfully hover near a photographer, checking them out. Although that didn't happen on this occasion.

I was digusted at my 2 photos above. I was sure I'd set the shutterspeed for around 1/6400 but seem to have turned to aperture to f/9 to get a larger dof (maybe on the damselflies above) which put the 2 images above at 1/400. Hence the blurry wings and them both being a bit mushy. I was annoyed because I knew there was no way the Southern would come back and hover as it had been for the second photo. 

Again I was about to leave to go see if there were any butterflies about when I heard the cellophane rattle of a dragonfly in the reeds beside me. It was a female common hawker egglaying. It was trying to keep well covered by the reeds as it knew if spotted by a patrolling male it would be grabbed and taken off to the treetops. I didn't have a clear line of sight and only got fairly rubbish pics and video, despite it being a reach-out-and-touch distance away.

female common hawker video

emerald damselfly

there were a few butterflies up the back trail
but mostly just peacocks and painted ladies sat on the warm trail

bike abandoned on trail

when the sun came out a few sat on the flowers

trail looking FAB!

hard to believe just the one red admiral

first small tortoiseshell I've seen there in a while
but just the one

the scabious still only partly out
and not much of it fully in bloom

The woman on the left is the one who took Diesel, the lost alsatian ex-police dog, off my hands almost exactly eleven months ago. Full story here. I didn't say any more than hello because I only properly realised who it was after she walked past with Frank, her dog. Frank stopped and sniffed at my pannier bags on the bike. The red shirt woman asked if I had a ham sangwich in the pannier which I said I did, although technically it was a cheese salad sandwich, which I ate about 10minutes later.

I think the majority of whites out today were Green-veined

I was just randomly taking photos and not making much progress so stopped and spoke to myself firmly to start doing this properly. I started getting down low and shooting towards the sun to get more dramatic images and it began to work more successfully. I also started lining up some take-off shots, employing the pre-burst mode. Not all sequences worked - either they flew off in the wrong direction or left the plane of focus too quickly - but there were enough to make a little animation by running the unedited shots together, each lasting just over half a second and trying to match the rhythm of the music, which is not as easy as it looks.

I was very pleased to eventually come across this comma. It was the only one I saw all afternoon. I kept a decent distance back not wanting to scare it off, but it was not that bothered about my presence as it went from scabious to scabious. 

mostly peacocks with a couple of comma lift-offs
all shot using pre-burst mode
soundtrack: Only You Can Tell by Croquet Club

sunny comma video
soundtrack: escapism by swiftly

I thought the most successful thing about this video was the out-of-focus waving grasses catching the sunlight and crossing the edges of the frame. It was quite breezy and although this made everything, especially shooting video, more difficult, the blowing grasses add a cinematic look. Again, getting down low and shooting through them adds to the ambience.

a peacock flying off

Going back passed the ponds I had hoped to bump into some late afternoon dragonflies. Very little initially and I thought they had maybe all finished flying for the day. Just a few roosting common darters on the tops of shrubs. I went down the path at the crossroads to check the buddleias. There were no butterflies on it but I came across a few common darters sitting on the path and on bushes beside the path as I went. I laid my bike down to try and get some photos but they mostly flew up into trees as I approached.

some of the vegetation was looking exemplary in the low sun

tyred common darter

When I returned to my bike I was amused that a darter had chosen my tyre as a perch. I managed to get close enough to ge a photo before he flew off.

common darter (f)

Southern Hawker (m)

At the lower pond I noticed a couple of large Southern Hawkers. It was nearly 5pm and they were mostly zipping about at great speed but would return to a couple of places to check for females. I stood at these spots and got a few clips of them hovering or slowly scanning the reeds for females, who might be egglaying. 

At one point a beautiful green female flew in and was busy looking for somewhere to land and egglay (presumably) when a male without warning charged her down into the reeds. There was a great deal of cellophane clatter but the female cunningly escaped leaving a very remorseful looking male sat pondside, before he clambered up and out, and flew off. I failed to get any photos or video of the entire incident even though I had my camera switched on and at the correct settings to capture it all. It was just too fast. Bear in mind all of these clips are at 4.8 times slower normal real life speed. Slowing it all down allows you to see life at something like the speed they probably experience it.

Southern Hawker video
soundtrack: Don't Wait Up by Mexican disco-electronic funk band 
Midnight Generation

2.6miles in 3hrs
Although pushing my bike or sitting on it pedalling I recorded the time at the wood as a walk.

The cycle home was a long and fairly arduous 85minutes although I felt I had kinda snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by bringing home a few decent photos and video clips from Saltoun on a less-than-optimal day.