My legs were surprisingly fine the day after the 39miler to Berwick. I had had the good sense to avoid a work day so last Monday Mary and I drove to Gullane and did an 8mile jog round the beaches and trails there. The sun was out and it was very pleasant. Unfortunately Falkos also take Mondays off so we had to make our own coffee.
There was quite a breeze so instead of the usual run heading West then back along the beach we went East to Yellowcraigs then back on the road. The tide was fairly far out so we ran a lot on the low wet sand looking into rock pools for creatures to photograph. Quite a lot of small halfseen things darting into the seaweed, but no octopus or lobsters
At Archerfields we went up onto the trail above the beach where I reckoned the combination of buddleia bushes and sunshine might attract a few butterflies. Just a couple of Red Admirals but they were accommodating enough to have us spend 15 minutes getting some backlit shots.
We ran on seeing nothing much of interest until the scrub just before Yellowcraigs directly inland from Fidra. There are usually a few bugs and birds around this corner and we slowed to see what was out and about. It's one of these places where not much seems to be going on until you stop, and then you get caught up in the minutiae of Small Heaths and Blues. The highlight was a Blue and Small Skipper both being on the same ragwort as a couple of Cinnabar moth caterpillars - beating heart be still! I only got one establishing shot before I fluffed it - zoomed in just too far and took several out-of-focus shots before the Blue got twitchy and buggered off.
Mary had done likewise several minutes before letting me know I could catch her up. I was pretty sure I knew she was heading back along the JMW into Gullane but realised as I sprinted to catch up I had been distracted when she said some stuff then left. I tried to replay the audio tapes but all I could recall was 2 butterflies on the same ragwort. Happily I caught up with M and we did the traditional half-marathon-pace return into Gullane. My legs were a long way off super fast but it was nice to be out in the sunshine.
Small Heath
(not so) Common Blue
too much excitement!
Small Skipper - note sex brand (dark line) on wing
lots of these planted round the edge of the fields
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