best part of the day: agm and more hairstreaks

28/04/19

That three lettered acronym AGM is enough to send shudders down the spine of anyone who has ever sat through the dreariest of admin / powerpoint lectures. However the (East Scottish) Butterfly Conservation AGM last month was an utter delight. Well the first half anyway. I was called away after lunch by the lovely weather to go for a run in the Penltands. More of that later. A few words about the AGM first.

It was held in the Botanics and since it only started at 10.30 I had 20mins to check out the holly trees there for Holly Blues, as Ken reckoned he had spotted one or maybe more, earlier in the week. The trees are about 40' high, so tricky to get sightings or photos. I saw nothing blue/silvery so hurried back to the entrance building for 10.30. I was looking forward to meeting a few people I swap butterfly stories with on facebook pages but hadn't actually met in person. Great to meet Mairi and also Colin. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to speak to Barry and Barbara; haven't seen them since St Abbs moth trap bio-blitz. Apithanny did a great job of chairing the meeting and chose not to do all that boring accounts-and-treasurers-report etc but cut to the chase and introduced Nick and Abbie who spoke really well about their massive project to transfer some Graylings from a site that was being developed to the lagoons at Musselburgh, which they have christened Butterfly Braes. It was a fascinating talk and shows what can be achieved with a large amount of enthusiasm, a relatively small amount of funding and rounding up knowledgeable people. Really admirable project to re-home some butterflies that could easily have been lost to yet another housing estate on the outskirts of town.

wren in botanics

We then had another superb talk, this time from Matt Doogue who takes really amazing photos. He talked about his macro work but also about mindfulness and how photography helped him when he was at a really low spot in his life with mental health issues. Finding a hobby that quickly became a love and a focal point (pun intended) rescued him and gave him a direction in life. He has a string of awards and successes through photography and gave us a brilliant slide show of his favourite photos. I really liked how when he was starting out he would just concentrate on the tiny insects available in his small back garden - watching them for hours. He now leads butterfly and insect enthusiast holidays abroad and says things like "my favourite praying mantis is...." which is pretty cool in my book. You can find his excellent work on Matt's Macro page on facebook.

The AGM then stopped for lunch. The weather was really glorious so I had decided to miss the afternoon talks and cycle to the Pentlands. Only I wanted to say hello to Abbie M. To say well done for the Graylings project but also just to say I was a huge fan of her work. I had never met her but greatly admired her photos and knowledge of East Lothian wildlife. Sometimes I almost felt taunted by her knowledge and skills and was very keen to meet this person. Last year as everyone had stopped posting pics of butterflies around September Abbie was still producing photos well into October and November. How did she do this? Did she have a drawer of butterflies she kept indoors and would take out for a photo then put back afterwards? Then again in Spring she would get out the same tame butterflies a month before I so much as got a blurry distant photo of the tattiest peacock. How did she do it? I was intrigued and had a hundred questions (mainly how and where!!!!!) yet she passed on photos for others to post and stayed clear of social media herself. The woman became a myth, a legend to me. And here was a chance to meet her. This was for me the main draw of the day and the reason I missed at least one race and a Carnethy social run in favour of this AGM.

I was about to have another look for the H Blues then dash off, but felt I had to at least say hello to Abbie before I left. I mosied over in her direction and she said "now you are Peter...." I was so pleased to be recognised by a legend I forgot to ask how she knew. I suspect another one of her superpowers, (and also she had seen some photos I had taken) and I told her I was going to check out the Holly Blues then leave. She was thinking similar thoughts so the 2 of us walked across the botanics discussing butterflies, photography and best places to see stuff in East Lothian. I told her I had seen her amazing photo of 3 stoats and she graciously didn't correct me that they were weasles! Haha, I am such a chump!

We didn't see any Holly Blues but we did bump into Ken who was also there looking for the same. Ken has been great for discovering and sharing the best places in the botanics and Holyrood Pk for butterflies. (As has Mairi.) (I really have to slow down and not just run past places.)

It was a delight to meet and chat with Abbie. (Who says you shouldn't meet your heroes?!) She left me with the impression of someone who has led a rich and varied life (background in politics!!!!) and if I knew a quarter of what she does about East Lothian wildlife I would know considerably more than I do now.

I cycled off to Balerno in a warm glow! I had mentioned to Abbie I was hoping to see Small Pearl-bordered Fitillaries and she said "too early". Of course she was right. Although we have been seeing really early appearances this year, I was perhaps just too keen. Last year I was late to the SPBFs party and only caught the raggedy tail end. So this year wanted to catch them still box fresh. I checked out the same sites as last year in the Red Moss area but no signs.

Then, as I was traversing the Red Moss boardwalk I saw the flicker and flutter of something small zip past. More Green Hairstreaks! I had heard a couple of mentions of GHs here, but thought maybe folk were mistaken. Because last year the ranger led surveys made no mention of this as a venue. I was surprised as I couldn't see much blaeberry. Instead the little charmers were up in the foliage of these shrubs / small trees (as well as down in the heather). They would act like miniature solar panels, landing on a leaf then angling themselves to absorb the maximum sunshine. They would hang upside down or lie horizontally. And were well camouflaged being the nearly same colour as the leaves.

so like a leaf a tiny fly has landed on its wing

While there (and I was there some time!) I saw a couple of red/brown insects buzz past at great speed. I thought they might be either Emperor Moths or Painted Ladies. They would land 200 yards away and I would try to approach in max stealth mode. They would see me coming and zoom off again before I even saw them. Still no idea what exactly they were. Other than quicker than me. Also saw 2 common lizards. Not common and not hanging around for photos.

sinister pic of the day

On this tree stump were lots of tiny white sticks. I looked closer and picked one up to examine. Bones! Maybe mouse bones? 😢 Perhaps an owl pellet or similar, which had disintegrated. They must have been there a while to be bleached white and so clean. No skulls? Or fur. I bet Abbie would know! I really like just mooching about looking at the details. Second most sinister pic of the day was this Ichneumon wasp, below. I say sinister as they have unpleasant parasitic habits, though it's all a part of the rich tapestry of nature. Though come on; laying eggs on caterpillars etc. Naughty naughty!

storm damage?

I think this GVW had bedded down for the night and didn't bother with me taking photos fairly close by. What do butterflies do every night? And when it rains for a couple of days? I'm guessing they hide under leaves and in trees. Running down at Aberlady in dull weather recently I was wondering where all the hundreds of whites you could see there in the sunny flowery fields, just where do they all disappear to? I ran through the fields looking to stir up any but there was not a single one. Are there nearby trees just choc full of them? On a rainy run round Holyrood Park recently we saw lots of snails you don't see in the sunshine and wondered if the butterflies turn into snails in the event of a downpour. Now that can't be right?!

I'm lichen this

(assuming the pronunciation to rhyme with hikin'

if it rhymes with kitchen then please ignore this and move on)

On the cycle home I saw an Orange Tip male fluttering about near those new houses under the bypass. It was late in the day and I suspected it was looking for a roost and about to land. I got off my bike and got the camera out. Did it land? Did it hell! I walked and ran up and down that 200 yards following it like a crazy man. Every time I went to get back on my bike, it would settle, or pretend to settle just long enough to have me trot over to where it was. (Due to having my gps on I can tell you I chased that scoundrel for 20 minutes and nearly a third of a mile!) Then haha, big joke, it would do another circuit of the houses, the Water of Leith, my bike, the cycle path, those bushes, back past the houses again, then nearly settle on the fence. Again. I got so wound up, that if it had come within kicking distance I would have stomped the little dirtbag into the ground. Then, around the time I had pulled most of my hair out, it landed on a twig with the brown fence as background, the low sun making a warm yet sharp photo that was so perfect it hardly required any cropping or tweaking in post. Possibly my best OT shot of the season if not all time. A satisfying if hard won pic to finish a really fine day.