best part of the day: return to earth

rendezvous with Aberlady Bay

no sign of the fourth bridge

Cramond Island

Almond Estuary

With something of a plop I was back from sunny Spain to conspicuously less sunny Scotland. I was supposed to return on Tuesday 10th Sept. but there was a BA strike and the Heathrow ~ Edinburgh flight was cancelled. (Nick opted for a couple more days of holiday.) An extra night in Heathrow was mitigated by free bus passes, a free hotel and a free buffet all of which was quite luxurious if a bit soul-less. I had to get up before 4.30am to get the shuttle bus just after 5am back to the terminal to catch the 7am flight back up the country. There seemed to be less chaos than expected after the 2 day strike and it all went smoothly. As I flew over Aberlady I wondered if I would be running there later. Mary had the day off and suggested we resume normal service by doing the Gullane run. What had started as a rather lovely day deteriorated, and by the time we got to Gullane it was overcast and blustery. But nice to be back.

Aberlady beach

speckled wood

very little else about

That was a fortnight ago and I have little memory of the specifics. We returned on the Saturday and did much the same run. Similar weather and not a lot more about...

terns?

I seem to remember we cheated on our usual coffee dealers (Village Coffee House) and went to Goose on the Green (larger scones). The enthusiasm of the owner (making sure all orders promptly are attended and nobody is neglected) is offset by that of the staff of slouching teens who just about work up a smile, but only at gunpoint. Again, nothing that memorable. I think we had a nice time! One lonely Admiral on the biuddleia.

Obvs (according to the photos) we returned on 17th (a Tuesday??) The weather was much improved and I can only assume it was the weather and having days off that inspired another Gullane visit. I seem to be having trouble returning to a normal work life. Probably not my fault. Almost certainly.

Lots more butterfly action on the buddleias, near where we park by the public loos. I have been trying to do more macro and less zoom. With a DSLR you would have to change the lens. With the compact cameras Mary and I have, you stand much closer rather than zoom in from a safer distance. It is fraught with more difficulty as you have to put the camera to within 30mm of the subject which is likely to disturb them, and often you can't put your eye to the evf or even see the screen, so it has to be done with an amount of hit-and-hope. The reason to do this is more of the background makes it into the image and you often get better, crisper detail although there can be a drastically short depth of field (the bit in focus). Best practised when there are lots of subjects about and they are not overly bothered by company. ie when butterflies are distracted nectaring.

macro

zoom

A fair bit of wildlife along the John Muir Way. We got the feeling it might have been making the most of the decent weather before the season turned to Autumn and dismal cloudy rainy days fill the calendar.

geese in flight near Marl Loch

I risked death by nettles clambering round the side of Marl Loch, in search of dragonflies, but they were all too flightly. This Speckled wood landed near a common darter and I took shots from a couple of different angles trying to get them both in the same frame, while jaggies tickled my legs.

possibly a ruby tiger moth

fox moth

dune the beach

A few sprints along the beach as far as I can remember. Mary had initially signed up for a longer run down to Archerfields, but by Gullane was trying to wriggle out of it. I was keen to visit a couple of buddleias by the JMW on the other side of Gullane (wonder why?) so argued we go beyond Gullane Bay to Archerfields before heading inland. Mary was not a happy bunny but reluctantly allowed it. I felt bad as her aches flared up and she stopped having fun. We stopped to photograph tiny fish in rock pools near Gullane. They were nearly transparent or exactly the same colouring as the surrounding rocks. I diverted off the trail by the beach to check out some oxeye daisies (wonder why?) and found an ancient small copper.

ancient small copper

There were loads of Speckled Woods about. I spent ages waiting for one to land in the Sea Buckthorn which is blooming with orange berries currently. So much more interesting as a background for butterfly pics than grass or (worse still) dirt trail/ground. Eventually one agreed to land in the buckthorn but it was a bit too high and distant. And not very well lit. The trouble with rising standards of butterfly photos is, it is no longer acceptable to just take a mediochre image and post that. I am always looking at ways to improve the outcome, though you wouldn't necessarily know. Mary has been experimenting with macro too, though she was also getting a bit hacked off because it is harder and there are far more deletes after a day out.

Just where the JMW pops out onto the main road about a mile East of Gullane there are a handful of buddleia bushes and some brambles and fruit bearing canes. I was hoping for commas, but there were none that I could find. As a consolation there were plenty Speckleds and a couple of RAs. The latter began to get weary of me jabbing a macro'd camera in their funny faces and I knew they'd fly off entirely if I persisted. They tended to fly off but loop round and glide back to the same flower they'd just left. The speckled woods were happy to sit for pics if I kept my distance. Mary's spirits rose or perhaps the enforced rest let her aches improve. Then we ran back up the last mile and a bit to the car.