speckled wood hunt

I had seen a post on East Scottish Butterflies (fb group) that Ken D had spotted a Speckled wood in the Botanics. He was keeping an eye on the holly for those mythical blues on Monday but meantime had photographed a Speckled near the holly. There has been some super early sightings of this attractive brown and yellow butterfly along the coast - Port Seton or Longniddry - but I was unable to find them in the places I see them most, near Gullane, so had dropped the search until now. A quick trip, while the sun was shining, to the Botanics would sort it out. Haha!

The Botanics are ablaze with flowering Rhododendrons and many other wonders, budding, blossoming and burgeoning. It is a marvelous place to visit. Tuesday; and half of Edinburgh and their kids seem to have gone for a walk there. Or maybe I was just a little cranky after a tough drizzly weekend with a parkrun on Saturday following on from 31miles on Friday. Although the sun was out it was pretty cool and there was a chill wind in unsheltered parts. I walked round past all the most likely spots for butterflies and past the holly hedges where Ken had seen the Speckled Wood, but there was nada. Just nothing. Not even peacocks. Despite all the beauty my mood worsened and I contemplated leaving.

holly hedges and the scene of Ken's SW

a chaffinch having a bathinch

 

OK one last turn around the rock garden. I had seen a peacock land briefly on a sunny spot near a bench and then, over the small naturalistic pond behind, there were (maybe) 2 Speckled Woods in combat, flying in spirals over the trees with no sign of touch down. I had scoured the place all the way down to the boundary fence but just no sign of any butterflies. 

Then, as I followed 2 indistinguishable teens, holding hands and with matching permed haircuts, I saw a Speckled Wood. It was about to land on the same sunny spot as the peacock had already favoured. Just at that point the teens choose the nearby bench to sit on and smooch. I was 2 metres behind and squatted down to take a photo of the SW but to anyone else including a snogging teen it might have looked like I was taking a photo of these rutting youngsters. I had my explanation to hand and was about to make my excuses but happily they were too busy doing their stuff to bother with me. At some point they must have left and I quickly occupied the bench to discourage any other passers-by from lingering. The Speckled Wood would fly off when anyone passed by but returned a couple of times, landing on the path or settling on the raised bank or plants. I got a few photos.

While I was sitting there I noticed several peacocks in the blossom on the tree directly above and took a few photos of them too, though they were fairly distant. A couple of guys with expensive cameras came round the corner and I heard they were discussing the peacocks so we got speaking and it turned out to be Ken D who had taken the SW pic the day before, and his pal Andrew. We waited for the Speckled to return, which it didn't. So they showed me a couple of areas where they had found commas in the garden, and we chatted about local wildlife and best places to see it. I was really glad I hadn't left earlier. And pleased to get the first Speckled of the year exactly a month ahead of last year. And great to chat to fellow enthusiasts about venues, wildlife and butterflies.

the (snoggers) bench at the back of the rock garden
Speckled Wood was landing on the sunny patch lower left.

arboreal peacock

Ken pointed out where commas can be found.
This one was too distant to get a decent photo.

chiffchaff

Chinese garden robin

over 4 miles of walking!