best part of the day: duck duck goose

23rd May
Some pics from Holyrood Park and Dr Neil's Garden.

first Small heath of the year? Quite shy!

shield bug

I've always been a fan of shieldbugs. Less so since I discovered they take that straw-like thing (stylet) they have and suck caterpillars (or even butterflies) dry with it. But hey that's nature and it would be hypocritical of an omnivore to complain about this too much. I mean I'm about 94% vegan but with a small meat side-dish. And a lot of cheese. Maybe 87% vegan when I think about all the cheese. Although it is a small part of the cheese that requires an animal's life. (A rennet, which is killed as humanely as possible.) The milk is well, that's like adopting a cow as a mom. You are not killing a cow for milk. In fact if you didn't milk a cow it would die, so you are doing it a favour. A lovely milky favour. Because all the antibiotics and hormones cows are pumped full of to overproduce the milk would make it explode in a couple of days of non-milking. This may not be the official vegan line, that milk is okay. In fact if you google milk and vegans you get quite the telling off. Suggesting vegans are better at coding and the internet than dairy farmers.

Also vegans who grow fruit are not keen on shield bugs over here on holiday from Asia. The brown marmorated stink bug (Americaneeze for shieldbug) appeared in Surrey last year. When it went to the US 30 years ago it ran up quite a sizable bill binge-ing on fruit crops. So it is not v popular. Can we expect the same here? Who knows? Maybe. Meanwhile its cousin the I-can't-be-bothered-to-look-up-my-shieldbug-laminate shieldbug is looking at me with small friendly eyes as if to say "look at my pretty wings and dimpled back, sorry carapace". Actually it's a Hawthorn shieldbug; quite common - Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale - there's piles of them. Had to look it up on my laminate to find its carapace is actually the pronotum (pointy shoulder panel), the scutellum (backward pointing triangle) and corium and membrane, hardened wing sections folded to make a carapace-like upper. Also I see the stylet is called a rostrum. Just been speaking to Mr Google and the stylet is housed within the rostrum. I hope we're all paying attention in class. This is fucking gold-dust!

hawthorn shieldbug - see his rostrum hanging down?
(no, the other end)

silver-ground carpet moth

picture from the "other" side of the super duper security fence
well that was worth all the expense

know what this is?

No neither did I. But again Mr Google likes to share his secrets. BTW I took the end off and it had a strong smelling (watermelon flavour) bit of fibre inside and other stuff I didn't recognise. First guess was marker pen, second was strong drink. In fact it is a disposable vape thing. A smokers dildo! A cigarette bubblebath. Who knew? I felt unclean. I mean I don't mind handling virtually any dead animal I come across, but touching something that's been in a teenager is a bridge too far.

After scouring the place for early Common Blues or NBAs (none of either) I went to Duddingston to pay the geese for a shot of the goslings. I saw a father and daughter and dog doing similar although the dog was very keen to get in among them.

canada geese and super keen pup

how much you got then?

Naturally the geese are very wary of humans when they have offspring about the place. However they can be bought for a handful of sunflower seeds. They are then your friends forever and quite happy to have you just a few yards from the fluffy yellow goslings which mill about in a super cute way. I was also there to check out the damselflies. I found common blue ones and blue tailed. The blue tailed females come in 5 flavours, I mean colours, and when all in the same place look a little like a pack of felt pens. I think I must have been denied felt pens when I was a youngster. Or maybe I just never got my fill of them. With the result that I often linger in Tesco's stationary section or buy packs when I see them in WH Smiths. I am almost always disappointed by the results I get using them to try and do far more subtle drawings and shading than they are designed to fulfill, and they are best just used to write shopping lists, and multicoloured messages in greetings cards. And doodles. Except I never doodle anymore. I bet the last 30 years have been hard for felt tip manufacturers.

blue tailed

pink footed goose

This goose was all by itself. Or rather was the only one of its sort there. I think it might have missed the migration or just be here in recovery. It seemed to have had a substantial head injury which was healed, but the feathers had not grown back. It seems unlikely it was brain surgery as their big webbed feet would struggle to hold the instruments or do the delicate work required of brain surgery. Its one eye (the one in the photo) was bright and inquisitive, the other less so, and it shook its head from time to time as if to say "I can remember something bad happened but dashed if I can remember what". Maybe flying into something like a cable. With a person you can ascertain recovery by asking "who is the prime minister? what day is it? What car were you driving when it left the road?" With a goose, not so much.

common blue

Crane flies are a strange one. I have never really warmed to them, associating them with lanky, out of control insects that fly in my face and get tangled in my long flowing hair. But recently I have really enjoyed seeing photos of them - their beady eyes and long narrow wings, like stretched and doped tissue paper on balsa aircraft I used to build. I think I like the photos more than the flies. I have been stopping to photo them more recently so you'll have plenty chance to form an opinion yourself! I like their antennae too.

marmalade hoverfly
which is easier to remember than Episyrphus balteatus

sleepy monday!

not sure what duck this was but I liked its colour
prob a mallard / domestic hybrid

canada goslings

small tortoiseshell

into Dr Neil's garden

peacock

I have seen red admirals and peacocks up at the bench and wall just behind the small pond. I couldn't really check it out properly because there was a couple snogging away on the bench. I was embarrassed on behalf of them. Which was daft as they should have been embarrassed on behalf of me. I should have gone over and said Nice day for a snog! Are you having a lovely slurp on each others faces, getting the tongues right in there? Maybe some fingering next?

Dang! No Entry.
(I went in anyway!)

love the stripes just at the curl

and again

lots of beautiful blooms in Dr Neil's

all these damselflies collected on a couple of stems,
when there was a strong gust of wind they all moved together

felt pens?

nicely done sign
next door to Dr Neil's

As I was on my way home from Duddingston I saw a brown shape moving about down in murder acre. There didn't seem to be any livestock in the field but there was a fairly large fox hunting for truffles. Or similar. It would sniff and then dig up something which it ate. The farmer or someone with a saw and bag passed by and the fox was relatively unafraid just a few metres away. I enjoyed watching it unobserved from high above on the road.