Saltoun again!

 

1st September 2022

Another trip to Saltoun - the fourth in 2 weeks. And it was a cracker!

We started the day knee deep in rubbish on every street corner. The bin men had gone on strike and I worried that their return to work would give them the miserable task of clearing up the rubbish that had accumulated round the bins. The bins had long since filled to the brim and then folk had continued to put their rubbish out next to the bins. Gulls had opened binbags and there was a stink of spilled and fermenting waste on every corner. It would be an unenviable task to try to sort this out. I am not terribly neat around my flat - far too many old tins of paint and bits of wood that will come in handy later - but the amount of manky horror piling up in the street gave me the shudders. So it was a huge relief when I saw 2 brave Eastern European guys - not sure if they were council workers or scabs and didn't care - clearing up the mess. They weren't emptying the bins, just tackling the overspill, brushing up and scooping up the yuck that was mouldering next to them. I made sure to say say thanks you're doing a great job, really appreciated! to them as I left to go cycle the 16 miles to Saltoun. 

at last - brave men tackling the rubbish overspill

I wasn't in the mood for a race today. I was feeling a bit tired from work and missed the cyclepath turn off Leith Walk just through not paying attention. However I was lucky with a couple of sets of traffic lights and found myself on target for the 65 minute previous best. Which made me stand on the pedals from time to time. However it was 66+mins by the time I touched the gate 16 miles later. Noting the time at various points along the route makes the cycle pass quicker and I inevitably get caught up in a race against myself. Usually I lock my bike to that thin tree centre of the above photo. However Linsey asked was that my bike in the old car park and I realised it was far too visible. Today I moved it back to behind that wooden fence. If you can't see it, then that is why. 

Fourth trip in 2 weeks and yet I was still so excited about arriving at the pond that I hurried past a quick photo of this small white. I only saw it was 2 small whites many hours later on the computer screen. My eyes are probably getting to the stage where I require glasses most of the time, however I am reluctant to get bogged down with another item to stow in pockets or lose or break or drop off my head while scrambling through undergrowth. Luckily I can tune the camera to suit my focus and I don't need specs looking through the evf. 

great to be back!

first peacock of the day - on the path round the pond

This pair of black darters was playing hard to get. They flew from one ugly background to another. I didn't want to disturb or discourage them from their activity but I was sorry they didn't want to land on a better perch with more photogenic background rather than just the path. When they almost parted company you could see the appendages on the female (left) which looked surprisingly penetrating for a female. I left them to it.

The sun was out and the pond was buzzing with odonata. Mostly common darters and emerald damselflies. I took loads of photos of 2 pairs of common darters which were doing that egglaying thing where they both stay attached and lightly whip the surface of the water with the tail end of the female. 

male black darter

last of the 4 spotters

I had seen this four spotted chaser last visit and was surprised. Most have departed earlier in the year. This one (the only one I saw) must have appeared late in their season. It even seemed in pretty good nick and Richard got a fabulous photo of it on this same perch last time he was here. I got a distant pic (above) but hoped if I moved round the pond to nearer, I'd get the water sparkles out of focus as background. Bokeh Balls! as Malcolm later called them.

damselfly standing in for 4-spotter

Trouble is when I got near that perch the 4-spotter flew off. I'm sure I saw it return a couple of times, check me out and think better of it. Curses. On the upside I could see that there was a good photo to be had - I just needed the wee bastard to return. I stood unmoving in the undergrowth as grasses and bugs tickled my bare legs. The place is heaving with ticks and I removed several later and then more, a bit later still. It is the price you pay. Meanwhile there was a black and common darter sitting quite nicely on the warm rock round the pond side. And every couple of minutes a hawker on the prowl would clatter through the vegetation and I'd try to get a photo. Mostly I have given up trying to photo the hawkers in flight. Every 50th photo, one comes out okay and it suggests I persevere although mostly it is a waste of space in the delete bin.

backswimmer

emerald damsel

that one in fifty - male common hawker

In the absence of the 4-spotter this black darter turned up and did a fantastic job of posing right at the end of another pond-side stick. It wasn't spooked by me standing just a metre or 2 away and moving to the exact spot for maximum bokeh balls. It flew off and returned several times. I shot some stills and then about 30s of video. Perfect! 

typical (rubbish) hawker in flight shot

This tree is a little further up the trail just before the second pond. It has a distinctive gnarly root-ball at ground level. Jimmy told me last visit that he had seen ruby-tailed wasps here. I stopped to scrutinise but without any serious expectation of finding them. At first the only thing I saw a grasshopper, hoping it was suitably camouflaged against the similarly coloured wood. I was taking photos of the grasshopper when something very small caught my eye and I saw my first ever ruby-tailed wasp. They are very small - 10mm or smaller - and constantly running and flying about. I don't think they (there were 2) held still for as long as a second during the 12 or 13 minutes I photographed them. It is just a kind of hit and hope. Even without burst mode on I managed to take 217 photos over 13 minutes and only 4 pics made social media. And they aren't great. More just record shots and the least bad. However I was very stoked to see them for the first time. It is hard to believe such exotic creatures lurk in our backyards - and it has taken nearly 60 years for me to see one. Big thanks to Jimmy for flagging them up. No sign of the green tiger beetles that can be seen just close by. Another real beauty of an insect.

ruby-tailed wasp!

Although very pretty with their metallic colouring they are not the most well behaved of insects. The female scampers about walls or tree trunks looking for other wasps and bees - for instance mason bees - to parasitise. She will lay her eggs next to other eggs and the larva will emerge and eat the host larvae. They are solitary wasps (rather than living in communal hives) and although they have a sting, it does not have venom and probably won't sting you.

this one seemed to be missing most of one antennae

another small wasp-type bug on same stump

whose poop is this?

There are lots of these in Saltoun. Right out on the path. Too large for say, squirrels, or any but the largest of birds, which leaves a limited amount of suspects: fox, pine martin, badger or bear. Maybe not bear. I have googled a bit, but not near lunchtime. There are loads of sites along the lines of this one which suggest a badger might be the culprit. Although contradicting that is the info they usually go in shallow latrines near their sets. Perhaps they didn't get the email telling them that? The website goes on to describe the smell, saying of badger... "smell foul - a strong musky oily smell." If anyone thinks I am getting down on hands and knees to inhale next to these, well let's just say I'm not THAT intrigued by this mystery. 

Just up the main path a bit and there is a heap of large tree trunks on the left. They have been there for years and I always feel there should be more insects sunbathing there than I ever find. Today - being on my own and in no hurry - I had a closer look just behind the logs. There was quite a bit of dragonfly action. Some hawkers who flew over the trees; 2 males and a female in tandem with one of them. And some common darters on planks of wood - not the tree trunks. The sun was blazing down by now and both of the darters went into obelisk pose - aiming their tails up towards the sun to minimise surface area exposed to the heat.

strangely I think this one is male

and this one - the deeper colour - is female

another female, or same one

3 hawkers going bye bye

green veined white

red admiral

coastguard!

there were peacocks flopped on the path all the way for half a mile

comma

just the one small tortoiseshell
in the entire woods!

quite a few aging walls (m)

The day was a good mix of roasting sunshine with an occasional large cloud floating past, obscuring the sun and plunging the day into shade. This stopped the butterflies going into complete hooligan mode. Most nectared on the trailside scabious and remained fairly user-friendly. When one cloud covered most of the sky and looked like it would be there for 30mins I got out my sandwiches. Nothing makes the wildlife appear as fast as when you have sandwich contents all over your hands and don't want to touch the camera. You can almost hear the bunnies whispering to the deer, okay lads, make a break for it, NOW!

cheese salad, grated carrot and homemade dressing on homemade bread

war-torn admiral!

I had to lay my sandwiches down several times for nicely posing commas. Though given they weren't in short supply I could have waited until I was finished. When the sun wasn't blasting down they tended to perch on top of the bracken or on the leaves of small trees. The purple flowering heather made an excellent colour of background blur. 

zoom

close up

painted lady

not quite as many as last visit

some of the small whites looked 
very like large whites

I liked this peacock and the decision to get a love-heart tattoo on its right forewing. It was obviously pleased with the result and posed obligingly on the scabious. My generation is notoriously cautious about getting tattoos, because we have the foresight to realise they might not suit everything we have on next week and the following week etc. And also the only people who had tattoos when we were growing up were the three Ss: sailors, psychos and sex-workers. Myself, I have trouble choosing a typeface for my business cards. Never mind for a slogan on my neck that traditionally reads "No Ragrets." Anyway since butterflies have such tragically short lives there is little time for reflection and ragret. Plus it adds an individual touch. BTW do butterflies actually have a heart? A question I have never thought to ask until now. Turns out yes they do! A long chambered heart that runs the length of their upper back and pumps gloop from there to here. Isn't google helpful?

"butterfly alley"

more small /large white impersonators

After butterfly alley I went down towards the river on the west side. A few butterflies here, as last time, but not much sunshine. I did see one mystery beast though. It was sizable and either something hornet like or a medium sized dragonfly. It caught the sunlight as it flew by and shone a very bright yellow colour. Perhaps a female black darter, an immature black darter or maybe something else? It didn't land anywhere nearby and reminded me more of a (female) broad-bodied chaser. Only they have come and gone and I haven't seen any reports of any in Saltoun. (On that score Malcolm reported BBCs in Dunbar in the JMCP. The only sighting outside of Coulston Wood.) It will remain a mystery and is probably not quite as dramatic as it felt when it zipped past.

pond skater

water boatmen having interaction with backswimmer

Now, as the afternoon was getting on and I still had a 68minute 31second return bike ride to do, I felt I best draw things to a conclusion. I headed back to the first pond to see how things were going there. The sun would disappear and I would feel it was time to get going, then it would reappear and I'd say to myself I'll do another circuit round the pond and see what's there. I was a bit tired and following the path of least resistance. As I got back to the pond I noticed there was a bloke there, with high end camera equipment. We got chatting and it transpired it was his first visit. (Quite late in the day (after 3pm) to be arriving too.) I chatted about what I'd seen and we blethered about cameras, dragonflies and ruby-tailed wasps. I decided it would be best to head off and get home to start processing the many hundred photos I had taken. Just as I was leaving I asked his name. When he said Malcolm I realised it was Malcolm Q (as opposed to Malcolm X) who posts loads of great photos on Dunbar fb groups. Great to bump into him in person. 

Malcolm Q

3miles walked, 32 cycled
every trip there, something fabulous