lucky streak in the borders

I was overdue a trip to the borders and the forecast for Tuesday 23rd July was perfect. Iain had noticed this too and strove to get off work for a visit to his obsession, the white-letter hairstreaks at Kelso. Back in Scotland after a hundred year absence this smallish brown job is causing something of a stir in the butterfly watching community. Around 40 folk travelled to Kelso for Iain's tour, 10 days previously. I had opted not to, as the weather was bad. Now was my chance to get a solo tour from Iain and his brother Robin, both of whom have spent many hours looking up to the tops of elm trees around here. I jumped on the train to Tweedbank and cycled the 15 miles to Springwood for just before 10am. The weather was not quite what the forecast promised but slowly improved all day.

We went for a walk up the Teviot River while waiting for the sun to come out. It is a very scenic part of the world and I hoped to see Banded Demoiselles, a damselfly we don't get further North. They are properly spectacular in a sci-fi way. We were also on the look-out for commas and brand new peacocks.

longhorn beetle

common blue

early on we spotted this comma

small tortoiseshell

banded demoiselle (male)

eating its lunch

female

mating

A bit further on and Iain took a wander off into the undergrowth. I wasn't sure if he was taking a familiar route or just charging into the long grasses and nettles following his nose. He found a brand new Peacock which was huge and had the blue-est of rear eye spots, a thing of great beauty to behold. I had to push through the nettles to get a photo but it took off before I got anything better than this (below). It was about now I regretted wearing cycle shorts although Iain remarked the nettles were still stinging through his long trousers. You'd think after a long Summer of marching through nettles you'd build up a resistance to them, but no. They still sting and irritate as much as on the first day of Spring. I keep forgetting to buy a hefty long pair of gaiters.

We returned to Springwood and when the brothers adopted a sitting on the ground like we're having a picnic approach I realised it could be a lengthy wait. However within a few minutes Robin jumped up and pointed out a female hairstreak at no more than chest height or lower, mooching about in the elm leaves behaving like she was egg-laying. She didn't even flinch when all 3 of us stood around watching closely and taking photos. This was far too easy! I had expected distant silhouettes above the trees (we saw a couple of males flying high in the treetops earlier) and here was one right under our noses. It was so excellent I felt I had had the full experience and after 20 mins of taking photos I made my excuses and departed to continue on my ticklist of Borders fun. So far I'd seen the banded demoiselles, a comma, a new peacock and the full white-letter hairstreak show. Now I planned to cycle to Gordon Community Woodland another 10 miles away, to see large skippers, and had a wild notion to return to Tweedbank via the rickety fence at the foot of the Eildons to check out if the Scotch Argus season had kicked off.

white-letter hairstreak

Iain and Robin

Gordon Community Woodland is a splendid 200+ acres of mixed broadleaves near the borders village of Gordon. On the cycle there I stopped 4 times to jump off and get the camera out to photograph butterflies at the roadside. On at least 2 occasions I felt sure I had seen Scotch Argus but by the time I got there with my camera there was no sign. The sun was blasting down. I wondered if the heat was playing tricks on me. Similarly when I got to the woodlands I found plenty of skippers but were they small or large? I stopped and took photos thinking it will all make sense when I see one larger or smaller than all the ones I had seen so far which seemed mid-sized. I took lots of photos but was never convinced till some while later when I saw some smaller ones. They must the large ones and just a bit faded. Large Skippers have more patterns and colours in their wings and slightly different antennae I thought. But I hadn't done a full pre-trip swat-up as I would normally do and didn't have any references with me. 

Although I bumped into 2 (or more) sizes someone else said that small skippers come in different sizes and there are males and females. They thought the middle of the 3 skippers (photo above) was a large. I am not really sure about any of this, except there were skippers and they were different sizes. I might not have a decent photo of a large but probably saw some along the way. That is all I know for sure! I had a really fine time wandering around the place and stopped for my sandwiches on the disused railway where I watched common blues flirting and chasing each other over a small stream. After lunch I clambered around the area trying to get pics and got wet feet and a blast from the electric fence and more nettle stings. All good fun!

Time was marching on and I wanted to get to Melrose before butterfly bedtime. I cycled South but I took the turn-off for Mellerstain a large estate and country house. I had been studying google maps and saw that the road (then trail) took a long straight line back towards the station. The map above is the output from the gps. I had hoped to continue on a straight line South West to the quarry (seemed possible on google maps) but just after the comma on the thistles, the trail ahead turned South East and I was forced to go that way. Just no way through a grassy field ahead up the hill to the quarry. I also had to climb over a couple of 5 bar gates and a couple of barriers with my bike on my shoulder. 

After you have done this a few times you think no way am I retracing my steps. And climb yet another fence specifically put there to stop the likes of me coming through. At one point the farmer on his quad bike saw me and I waved a cheery hello. He didn't tell me to f off which I took as a tacit encouragement to continue up the same near vertical gravel trail and climb yet another barrier. So while I would NOT recommend this particular route (although it would be easier if on foot) I did come across a couple of very delightful things which wouldn't have happened if I had taken the main road. One of these was a rather plump deceased mole. I didn't realise these charming underground engineers were so large. I took a photo alongside my foot for comparison...

bigger than a mouse and with a funny tail

Halfway down the long straight there was a clump of thistles. There were thistles bordering the trail all the way, but this stand contained a colony of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies all slightly drunk on nectar and not concerned about me wandering in and about them taking photos, trying to capture the sense of just how many were fluttering about in the tropical sunshine. I was there about 20 minutes baking my head and playing about. After a while I went from zoom to wide angle. In zoom mode you have to stand back about 3 meters then zoom in till the subject fills the screen. In wide angle you have to hold the camera as close as 3cm from the subject and hope it is in focus because you don't always see this on the screen. It has a different feel and focal distance although it's difficult to say exactly what the specific difference is. It is easier to take photos on zoom, but wide has a more spontaneous feel that I like. More deletes though, as it is more hit and miss.

typical zoom shot - taken from a distance

typical wide shot - jamming the camera up to the subjects

and getting more background in

back to zoom for the comma

I was shooting some video of the dozens of tortoiseshells when I noticed a solitary comma among them. It was a cracker with a very hairy mane and green body and dazzling orange wings. I went back to zoom as it was a wee way away, and took dozens of photos. After a bit more, I reluctantly got back on my bike and cycled (and climbed over gates), with the hill rising quite steeply before descending to the main road.

what a view over to the Eildons

It was a further 8 miles to the famous rickety fence behind Melrose Golf Course. And it was about 5pm when I got there, or later. I had not seen any further roadside maybe-Scotch-Arguses and reckoned there was no way I'd see any here. However the sun was still out so I humfed the bike over the rickety fence which isn't rickety at all but looks like it should be, and leant it up against a small shrub. No sign of the hundreds of SAs I saw here last year. Pretty quickly I realised they either weren't out or if there were a few early outliers they were all off to bed. The grass seemed more overgrown than I remembered. I took photos of a small skipper, and, on the way back out, a rather fresh small t-shell on the oxeye daisies, that was just too photogenic to cycle past.

It was a totally fabulous day out! Lack of Scotch Argus photos notwithstanding! I bombed back to the station knowing I only had 20 mins to catch the train but it was closer than I remembered with lots of fast downhill from the golf course back into Melrose. I was there 10 mins ahead of the train. I stood around thirsty as bejesus cursing a bottle shop at the station that is NEVER open. I am bringing a crowbar next time, be warned. The train journey passed swiftly in about the time it took to review the 800 photos in my camera.

about 50 miles cycled and a couple walked