last orders at Saltoun Big Wood

It has been such a busy Summer that several things on my must-do-list just didn't get ticked. Visiting the Scotch Argus at the rickety fence was one. Went a day or 2 too early. Never went back. Open water swimming. Been neglecting that. Only had the wet-suit on once this year. Must try harder. And dragonflies. Have hardly seen any all Summer. Rather, I saw a few in Spain but didn't get many photos. It was fellow wildlife enthusiast Richard who flagged up Saltoun Big Wood as a decent late season venue for dragonflies and also commas. He discovered an oak tree which he called a butterfly tree. I had to see it for myself. I cycled there on Friday 20th Sept, primarily hoping to see commas, but also some dragonfly action.

The forecast was for blue skies and I left around 8.15am as Richard had said the butterfly tree rush-hour was not long after 9am. I arrived in a sweat, taking 75minutes to crank up the 16.5miles. I found the oak tree between the first and second pond. It was less busy than Richard described (only an occasional RA rather than the loads he had photographed) but did have a few speckleds and a comma or 2. They seemed to be attracted to the south facing sunbathing opportunities but kept dipping into a crease in one of the limbs that seemed to give access to sap, or resin. Something of value. Impossible to see from the ground and I wasn't climbing up there. There were also wasps and flies in attendance. Mostly everyone was getting on okay but the Speckleds like to play tag and were stirring it up with the Commas and RAs.

oak leaves echoing the pattern of a commas wings

ongoing discussions about who will be chasing who

sunbathing

I had meant to check out the tree and then visit the ponds. They are great for odonata particularly the first pond. Only I kept going to leave the magical tree than something else would arrive there and I found I couldn't leave for fear of missing anything. I got my comeuppance for neglecting the dragonflies and nearly jumped out my skin when a large common hawker landed on the back of my neck, it's cellophane wings clattering in my ears. I'm sure I must have made a funny noise and run about flapping my arms in a rather unmanly way. The dragonfly was keen to remind me of my duties and it returned several times landing on my camera (how do you take a pic of that?) then hovering right in front of me, too close to focus then buzzing my head again. I was a little unnerved. It may well have been drawn to the salt licks on the back of my neck and face. They are usually fairly skittish and tricky to get close to.

okay, message received

So I cycled back to the first pond (nearest to car park). It was just beginning to warm up though there was still lots of dew on the spiders webs in and around the man-made ponds. The Common Hawkers (males - the largest blue jobs) were patrolling the edges for females, rarely landing for a pic. A lot of photographers spend a lot of time trying to get in-flight shots. I try not to follow suit but usually come home with several dozen deletes trying to snap the buggers as they zip past. If I was properly interested I'd set the shutter speed way higher and do a manual focus but I find they are more interesting when landed, if you are lucky enough to get one sat down.

common hawker male

damselfly

hurray - sat still for a photo!

couple in cop

geese

people were photographing the results of these RAF(?) maneuvers

from all over the country

common darter (male)

darters in cop

Richard had also mentioned that if you go past both ponds you'll come to a T junction. Turn left and the path has devil's-bit scabious (succisa pratensis) (a purple flower the butterflies love) lining the path as it gently rises to the Eastern boundary. I laid my bike down on the path and spent an hour or more, completely in the zone, taking photos of Peacocks, Commas and Red Admirals. Never more than 2 or 3 of each at any spot; but a continual supply, and enough that I risked chasing them off with the macro setting. The RAs were not that keen for me to get up close and in their faces, but the Commas were surprisingly tolerant. It helped that they were all getting stuck into the purple flowers. I walked the length of the path and it was difficult to tell whether I was meeting new individuals or whether the same 3 or 4 were following me up and down the path. A mix of both probably. I was far too involved with taking photos to notice, at times lying or crouching in the ditch either side of the path trying to get a shot from underneath as they invariably held on upside down to probe the plants.

these 2 were defo pals and always within

a short distance of each other

2 commas in the same sentence

there were a couple of aged small coppers

as Jane L wrote, "inverted comma"

the upper (second) pond

black darter

black darter (male)

I was really pleased to get so many comma photos. Thought I might have missed them for this year. And to see a few odonata around the ponds as well. Thanks Richard for the excellent directions, it was such a great day out, and wasn't even spoiled when I rode over a hawthorn twig on the Pencaitland cyclepath on the way home (after popping in to see Tim and Nicky) and 2 thorns put a couple of punctures in my tyre. I suppose if it's going to happen, better that it happens on a sunny day. 

44 miles mostly cycling