27th Sept
Ahh those heady days of summer when you could turn up at Gullane and expect to see folk swimming in the sea and butterflies on the flowers. Just a month ago. Nothing much to say about this Sunday run with Nick doing the usual 6 miler except it was very pleasant. I probably held everyone up at the start of the run taking photos of the Admiral / Small Tort mix on the buddleia, or maybe Mary was doing warm up stretches while I stalked them near the famous public toilets.
At Aberlady there were thousands of (prob pink footed) geese collecting. A bit like a music festival but with geese rather than addled young people. Nick and Mary were keen to get across the bridge but there was a near constant stream of folk returning from the other side and notices suggesting we don't mingle or wait on the bridge. I hoped this would give me loads of time to photo the darters that were mating and egg-laying on the mini-ponds just left of the bridge. But then M&N got bored waiting and just barged across so I had to cut short the dragonfly photos and darted across behind them.
goose festival
darters
if you've got it flaunt it 😱
Not really warm enough to inspire being naked on the beach. I really don't get the compulsion some of the nudists have to expose themselves. And they seem to need to be seen to be practising their sport. When we appeared on this otherwise nearly empty stretch there was a definite response and display from Mr. Bowler-and-belly to get up and show off his insubstantial best self. Creepy or what? And the sharp spikey grass they otherwise lurk in up in the dunes does not lend itself to exposing naked flesh. I'd call this a psychological aberration rather than an innocent expression of freedom.
When we got back to Gullane, rather than chat to my other girlfriend who sells ice creams from the van in car park, I said I'd run ahead to Marine Terrace and see if there were any RAs on the asters in Kilmory. There were loads! And Nick and Mary patiently waited (were forced to - I did thank them) about 10 mins while I filled my boots. There was also a Small Tort and a Silver Y moth. Not sure if these are defo asters but a quick google suggested they were those or similar. Nothing like the numbers of RAs on them we saw there a couple of years back when I took a photo with 14 RAs on one (of three similar) clumps. Chat on facebook butterfly groups suggest RAs are not out in the numbers of previous years with one of the factors being an increase in parasitic wasps laying eggs in caterpillars.
small tortoiseshell
this sequence shows the one on the left pushing the other off its perch
6 miles of lovely
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