fly zone

 

29-08-26 Another trip to the Botanics. Not the best weather but I felt it might be the place to find some end of Summer butterflies, or failing that, some hoverflies to macro. First place I checked was the Ceratostigma minus in the rock garden; a vibrant blue shrub often visited at this time of year by admirals, and memorably a very late humming-bird hawk-moth a couple of years ago. I am beginning to lose faith in this late blooming beauty as there has been nothing on its flowers last few visits. But the petals themselves are worth a photo. 

ceratostigma minus

In order to add some interest and challenge myself I put the 90mm macro lens on from word go today. There is a slight reluctance to do this: I love the lens and the results I get from it but there is always the fomo, the worry that something like a kestrel will land on a tree and I'll be racing to swap to the 400mm zoom and it flies off before I can swap. The macro lens can shoot more distant objects, it just doesn't have the reach of the zoom. In its favour it is lighter to carry around and gives me a window into the world of tiny creatures where you get to see small flies in amazing detail. Almost too much at times! It is slightly harder to operate (aperture (+dof) becomes imperative and so much more than just a blurry background or not) and you can't shoot stuff from a distance easily. You have to get down and dirty, kneeling or lying down alongside the subject. But the results are really worth it. Especially on a day like today when there is (spoiler alert) heehaw about.

So the downside of the macro lens is you can't get close ups of more distant butterflies (without walking across the planted area) However there was nothing apart from painted ladies in the rock garden and then on the buddleias at the cafe. Not a great loss.

nice but currently v commonplace

13.29 and the nearest the cafe sundial gets to accurate

note the lack of a strong shadow, due to weak sunshine

note the Syrphus hover is in focus and petals not,
camera autofocus animal eye detection seems to recognise insects
which is a huge boon

Over at the Herbaceous Border there were some hovers and zero butterflies. The purple torch is only just unfurling long plumes and last year it failed to attract the numbers of butterflies seen in previous years. Favourite areas are the Demonstration Garden and the Queen Mother's Garden (weekends only) next door, both of which have lots of flowering stuff and plants that attract pollinators. I bumped into Ken at the Herbaceous Border and we chatted for quite a while about what was where and the state of the (butterfly) world.

lily

small white - one of the few butterflies about today

Following on from the poppy seedheads photo-ed at Cammo I have developed a hankering for them. Possibly because they are like hand-crafted pottery or shonky architecture, and have good textures and colours. Also they stay fairly still for photos and don't fly off which is nothing short of well mannered. Have you noticed in quality films or Netflix series where they are doing thoughtful camera work they will often use a similar (thin depth of field) shot where the actors eyes are in focus but the depth of field is minimal and the edges of their head and ears (and background) might start getting a little blurry. Often used for intense dramatic scenes. Or stoic self-reflection. All the rage in a quiet way.

intense dramatic poppy head

The depth of field (how much of the image is in focus) becomes a crucial part of macro. The most expensive (Prime) lenses often boast really low f/stop numbers (meaning wide aperture (and blurred out background) is available) but in macro (due to the tiny amount of focal plane) you probably want to shoot somewhere between f/8 and f/22 depending on your equipment. Too wide an aperture and only a tiny bit of the fly will be in focus.

Getting the right aperture becomes crucial and so I try to keep an eye on the results as I shoot them. Oddly I am not sure if I can change the video aperture settings easily and suspect that is done in auto response to how much light is available. (It works really well in 95% of the stuff I shoot so I haven't needed to investigate it.) All the footage I shot today was slo-mo as these hoverflies move so frantically that slo-mo brings their actions down to a more comprehensbible rate. In real time they just fidget madly for a second or two then fly off. At 120fps one second becomes 4.8 and they go about their business in a more relaxed and understandable fashion!

Eristalis pertinax

fl'eye

Sheepstrike greenbottle - Lucilia sericata

did not make the video cut

Syrphus ribesii

campion

Eristalis pertinax

as above

more poppies

French marigold

Myathropa florea

as above (Batman hoverfly)

some sort of ichneumon

Lygus pratensis

Inula helenium with retreating hoverfly

There are lots of great looking apples growing in the Demonstration garden, alongside notices saying do not pick them. I restrained myself to taking only photos, going for maximum apple flavour.

honey bee on pot marigold

lots of tapered drone flies about
Eristalis pertinax

Myathropa florea

as above

I had loads of material to use for this video. I came across a wonderfully tranquil piece of music "Rest This Worried Heart" by Benjamin Gustafsson to use as soundtrack. I laid some clips out and then inserted the music and the two did not match. So I shortened and lengthened* the clips and moved them about until I had something that worked. Nomally I'd just place clips in the order they were shot, however that wasn't working here, and I had to work harder to get it just right.

Given the finite limit of the music (a bit over 2minutes only) I had to work within this. Quite a few clips were binned entirely; a thing I am reluctant to do, especially if they are good quality or of an insect otherwise not shown in the video. (Bye-bye greenbottle and ichneumon.) My compulsion to be complete had to be contained! However the sacrifice was worth it, as the resulting video is one of my  most successful (in my opinion). I find the 2minutes passes like 20secs and nothing jars or disturbs the flow of the visuals. I was initially concerned the clips were a bit soft with too much out-of-focus, but that adds to the dreamy nature of the whole, which the soundtrack enhances.

North side of Botanics

*It is far easier to cut a clip short, than extend it, which can be done by slowing the timing of the clip. The very first clip I needed to go a second or two longer to match the phrasing of the music. I played it at 0.8 of the original speed and that gave me enough distance without it looking jumpy or using the less well focussed section. I don't use a terribly modern editing software (PowerDirector 16) but it gives me options to tweak clips slightly - like cropping in and panning or lightening the clip. (Although not darkening.)

The thing I use most often is a stabilising function which you can use incrementally to decrease camera shake. Being handheld (not using a tripod) and filming in max close up there can be some camera shake but the slo-mo setting helps avoid too much. Plus I have various ways when squatting or lying close to the ground to support my camera arm. Top tip: rest your right elbow on your right knee to give stability when shooting (kneeling) at half height.

The only remarkable butterfly of the day was this small copper in the rock garden. I had just bumped into Ken again on my way towards the exit and he was asking had I met Alan C who was also in the gardens taking photos today, and had found a couple of small coppers. Just as we were discussing this a perfect small copper dropped out of the sky behind Ken and landed on these ragged (hosta?) leaves. I had to lean towards them to get a photo with the macro lens but well worth it as the specimen was the best small copper I'd seen in ages. A nice finish to the day. I said bye to Ken and headed home with 10GBs of material. Mostly video, which uses a lot of data. If I shot RAW it would be about about 5 times that amount on my hard drive. 

how to get your money's worth!

5.6miles in 4hrs

pretty fly

 

26-08-26 I had been thinking about Cammo. Not the usual nuthatch fest or even jays but the two rows of flowers that appear every year in the walled garden for pollinators. Rudbeckias and asters I think. They are a visual delight and I presume are there for the benefit of the honey bees whose hives are over in one corner of the walled garden. Last year I had a jolly time there photographing mostly admirals, a comma and painted ladies on these flowers. I relished the prospect of visiting somewhere other than Saltoun. I also took some birdfood, just in case.

target flowers

Things did not start well on the 26th. The weather looked to be overcast to such a degree that I did not leap out of bed and hurry anywhere. In fact I probably dicked about on blog reports and tweaking photos until the sun appeared early afternoon and only then shouldered my backpack. I remember sitting at the computer to ask google what bus combination I should take to get to Cammo. (Due to the Princes St fire disruption.) It recommended a 25 to the East End (Waverley Steps) where I should change to a 43. Good to hear the 43 was still running. Now what time is the 25? It was at 13.20. And the current time? 13.18. SHIIIIIIT! I ran out the flat, down the stairs and along Iona Street to where the 25 had pulled away from the bus stop. A 16 was also leaving or I would have got that. Both stopped at the lights at the crossing, so in a challenge to my age, my lungs and all that is sensible in the world, I raced the bus up Leith Walk to the next stop. I overtook the 16 and then the 25 but the latter reached the stop way before I did. Happily there was a decent queue of folk getting on and I nearly induced a heart attack sprinting to the stop.

I caught the bus and since the downstairs was nearly full I climbed upstairs to find a seat. The exertion nearly overwhelmed me and the hot air of the bus mixed with antipersperants and hairsprays had me breathing hard wondering if I was about to pass out. It was a close thing. I really must do a bit more run training.

Once or twice a week I have been doing a four mile route down to Leith Links and back on the WoL cyclepath. It is deeply unpleasant as I seem not to be able to run at a measured pace but always compete with my last time, trying to go faster by a tiny increment and seeing how high I can get my heart rate. The other day my heart rate averaged 160. That should be my max rate for my age. Well 157 if you take my age (63) from 220. (Apparently a more modern method is age x 0.7 taken from 208 which gives 164 for max heart rate.) Anyway during these 4.2mile pain fests (although the pace isn't what I'd consider fast) my heart rate is and regularly gets into the 170s. I think it might have been towards 175 upstairs on the bus as it really did feel I was about to black out. Anyway I caught that bus and got off at Waverley where I stood for maybe 20minutes on the 43. I could have walked there from home and caught the same bus.

When it travelled West, the 43 had to turn off Princes St due to the fire and head to Queen St. before heading back to Princes St. a block or 2 later, (all done in a shuffling queue of about 8 buses) and then trundle down past the West End and out to Cammo. The Princes St shit probably cost 40 minutes extra. And at Barnton the driver came upstairs and said could we all move onto the bus up ahead. (Fans of Limmy going to Yoker will be familiar with the scenario.) Rather than get on the bus ahead since we were only 3 stops from my destination, I again raced the bus there. I think it won this time but only by 30 seconds.

When I got to the walled garden it was 3pm, often the time I pack up and head home. There wasn't a huge amount of sun and I felt like crossing the road and catching the next bus home, but persisted because I was there anyway. The rewards were not immediately apparent - too dark under the foliage for birds and there were no butterflies on the two rows of flowers. None. Zilch. Zero. 

f/16,  ISO 800, 1/160 flash on

However there were a few flies. I had prepared myself for a lack of butterflies, and should such a thing occur there might be hovers and the like on the same flowers. There were. Not swarms, but a few. And I have been really enjoying the challenge of macro pics lately. The 90mm lens I have is one of the best in the world and the micro four thirds system I operate seems to really suit macro work and to produce many of the best macro photos I see on the internet and social media. I had forgotten how challenging it is though. An art rather than a science and I had forgotten all the settings I used previously.

An example of the art vs science might be that I use the semi-opaque cover for the speedlight (flashgun) to reduce the amount of light it produces. Even at the lowest setting the flash has a tendency to over-expose macro photos in decent light. To curtail this I cut three rectangles of normal photocopy paper and put them into the semi-opaque flash diffuser. That seems to work better although I don't seem to be able to change the shutterspeed when the flash is engaged and it always shoots around 1/250 or 1/200. Google A.I. tells me I can unlock higher speeds in HSS mode but that I do not want to do that. Okay I won't. 

Anthomyiidae indet.

Today I started out using the flash with diffuser. Not the £55 one I bought off the internet because it is large and scares off anything with eyes and wings. But the £10 softbox that sits not much bigger than the flash and gives off a soft glow. And folds flat into the camera case. Because the flowers were reflecting a bit of light and the sun was threatening to peep out from time to time I found I was actually getting better results when I switched the flash off. The shutterspeed could then be cranked up to 1/3200 by changing the ISO and the images seemed sharper. If there were dark shadows I could tweak them in post. So after a while I took the flash off. I'll note which pics are with the flash and which aren't as it is not obvious.

this was a practise shot to check lighting and depth of field

f/16,  ISO 800, 1/125, flash on

f/16, ISO 800, 1/200, flash on

f/13, ISO 800, 1/250, flash on

fungus the size of a dinner plate
growing out a tree stump

a handsome pair

There is a very charming mini-orchard of apple and pear trees between the bee hives and the flower beds. All quite small sized trees and all producing some good looking fruits. When I got tired of tweaking camera settings and kneeling beside the flowers I'd go for a wander round the orchard and check for butterflies and birds. (I was surprised the fallen rotting fruit didn't attract more than a solitary red admiral I photographed mid-afternoon.) The afternoon warmed up and the sun began to peak out a little. It was very nearly pleasant and I was glad I'd stayed rather than returning home in a huff. There were some old poppy seedheads which I'd try taking pics of. Unlike the flies they held still and made it easier to test settings (depth of field) and chimp the results. Same with the fruit. I liked the almost architectural tops of the seedheads.

f/9, ISO 1250, 1/250 flash on

just the one Volucella pellucens all day
and I didn't really do it justice

flash off for all butterfly shots

There was a small buddleia round the back of the flower bed behind a hedge. The RA (I think there was only one) was flying between the rotten ground fruit and the buddleia, which I couldn't see from the flowerbed. I'd have to get up off my knees and then traipse round the back of the hedge and see if either the RA or a very pretty comma were nectaring there. Most of the time they weren't. When they were I'd use other parts of the buddleia to hide behind and push my macro lens through the plumes and branches to get close. I got some leeway but if I got too close the butterflies would bugger off to the tops of the small apple trees and wait for me to leave, till I went back to the rudbeckia etc.

my old friend the Tachina fera/magnicornis
(image 1)

The most numerous species on the flowers were these Tachina flies. Lots of them. A bristle fly or as I call them hairy-arsed flies. They have appeared all over lately and I quite enjoy how non-glam they are. Obsidentify does not discern between Tachina fera and Tachina magnicornis because it claims the differences are too slight to observe in most cases.

Google AI seemed to be more ambitious in its identification confidence. I had a chat with the AI bot after asking for the differences between the two sub-species and it asked would I like it to try and tell the difference using my photos. This was its response which came just as I was beginning to think the species was definitely fera rather than magnicornis.

Based on the visual evidence in your photos, this fly is Tachina magnicornis.

Here are the key identifying features visible in your images:

• Dark Front Feet (Tarsi): If you look closely at the second and third images where the front feet (the very tips of the front legs) are resting on the flower petals, they are distinctly dark brown to black. Tachina fera would have noticeably bright yellow or orange front feet.
• Broad Forehead (Frons): The side profiles (especially in the third image) show a very wide, broad space between the eyes and the front of the face, which is characteristic of the "broad-fronted" Tachina magnicornis.
• Large Antennae: The third image gives an excellent look at the antennae protruding from the front of the face. They are notably large and prominent, which gives magnicornis its specific name (meaning "large-horned").

f/11, ISO 3200, 1/1600 no flash (no noise reduction in post)
image 2

Which is all very well. However it was worth a little more investigation and backtracking because Obsidentify is a Netherlands based app and has a slant, a bias towards European identifications which most of the time (but importantly not all) overlap with UK species. (Also confirmed by my Big Book of (Britain's) Insects only mentioning fera and not magnicornis.) 

Finally I got round to asking Google AI was magnicornis ever recorded in Scotland. NO!!! End of. Fuck sake, this should have been picked up by Obsidentify when I input the area the pics were taken. It (magnicornis) has been recorded in the channel islands and is making its way slowly up the South of England but basically all the Tachinas I have ever seen are fera. Despite the assurance of Google AI re these photos. I think this underlines the potential for errors using apps and AI.

The trouble is basing an ID on a factor like a wider forehead when I don't have a reference for the other narrower forehead. I have to admit to feeling let down by technology that is giving me misinformation all over the place while missing the most important aspect which is where the sighting took place. Basic schoolboy error. 

Tachina fera NOT magnicornis

f/11, ISO 3200, 1/1250, no flash

image 3

After asking AI about the distribution of Tachina magnicornis in the UK I happened to put the 4 photos above into Google AI again and it has now changed its tune entirely identifying the fly as fera. I did not ask why last time it said the reverse using the same ID pointers. At least one of us appears to be learning.

This rather worn specimen was the liveliest of the three commas flying in the walled garden. There was another similar and they would go spiralling up into the sun every now and then. Mostly it stayed over to the North West on shrubs.

number 2 comma - less tatty, less aggressive

rare shot of admiral enjoying fallen apples

Tachina fera

Phaonia angelicae

f/7.1, ISO 1250, 1/250 flash on

Syrphus ribesii

f/10, ISO 1250, 1/250, flash on
I tended to use the flash on the rudbeckia because of the dark centre.

poppy seed-head taken with diffused flash

the third comma - something special

comma number 1

no.3

apple tastic

Okay this is the third comma and you can see it is different from the other commas I've been seeing recently at Saltoun and elsewhere. Since there is only one other form I know of, I thought it might be that - a Hutchinsoni, named after Emma Hutchinson 1820~1905. She bred commas and noticed there are two distinct types; those that respond as Springtime caterpillars to the lengthening of the day signalling approaching Summer, and quickly mature into lighter coloured, less jagged-winged butterflies that will breed quickly in June / July and produce eggs for a second brood late Summer. 

So that suggests this could not be a Hutchinsoni form as they would likely all be dead by mid-August. It is probably just a female which also have less jagged wings than the males. When I asked Google AI was this a hutchinsoni form it said yes it was. But we already know AI is full of shit. 

Rubeckia hirta  - black-eyed Susan

video clips of Tachina fera and Apis mellifera (honey bee)

soundtrack: eyes like water by Maple Sun, Holly Jones

f/3.5, ISO 500, 1/5000, no flash

honey bee

f/5. ISO 500, 1/1000, no flash

Syrphus vitripennis

It was getting late and not any sunnier. Time to go home via a wee walk about the lawned area next to the main house ruins where I occasionally see jays and butterflies round the tree deep edges of grass. Sure enough a worn holly blue was fluttering about, reluctant to land at first. A male, perhaps looking for females but also nectar. I set the camera to pre-burst to try to get the wings open to confirm gender. It obliged quite nicely. The problem is always what distance to shoot from: too close and you get only one or two shots of it taking off. Too far away and it becomes just a white detail-less blob. I got lucky but the specimen was a bit worn for anything special.

honeysuckle

And that was that. I walked back to the bus stop at Barnton junction and caught a Stagecoach bus back to the bus station and an easy walk home. Much more efficient than the diverted 43 along Princes Street. I had far more than I thought I might get today but at the same time I might hold off before returning soon, although I had a great day there mid-September last year managing to bribe some nuthatches out the trees to the camera. I do like it as a place, even if it is on the wrong side of town to access easily. Maybe I should cycle next time although there are no easy direct cyclepaths from D'mains to Cammo.

just under 3miles in just under 3hrs

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