fantastic friday

 

7th April
A decent forecast but what to do with the day? I had made sure not to book any work in and had a notion to visit Aberlady. The optimist in me said Holly Blue and other such exotics but really you are often chasing your tail going in search of first sightings. However it calls to my competitive nature to post the first photo of a species online. In order to do this you have to be prepared to be disappointed as well as elated. There was possibly equal measure of both today.

I got off the bus in Aberlday. In the past I would have caught the train to Longniddry or Drem and run the four miles to Postman's Walk. Now I have a bus pass and am in my 60s it seems appropriate to travel in a slower more sedate fashion, and arrive with fewer miles to travel to ground zero. And yet if it was much further than East Lothian I might have to reconsider. An hour dawdling along slow roads to get to Aberlady seems a bit too senile, when the train takes about 20 minutes, even if you have to run 4 miles cross country. I was dressed more for walking than running today although I did some jogging between venues. But only until I got a little too warm, then slowed in order to not turn into a damp, panting mess. Like I was going through the manopause.

There was a peacock sunbathing on the wall of the house at the corner. This was a good sign. Unfortunately it was the last butterfly I was to see for quite some time. Although sunny, there was a chill in the slight wind and I doubted there would be any sign of Holly Blues. They respond directly to higher temps and continuous sunshine. They have emigrated here from down South and at the start of the season refuse to appear unless they get better weather than the Scottish Springtime usually threatens.

chiff-chaffinch

Also there was a group of farm vehicles all working the corner of the field just near the prime HB spot where the ivy clad walls meet. Also, the sun hadn't even moved round the sky to warm the main wall the butterflies use in Spring. (The second brood prefer the East~West corridor, first brood tend to show on the North~South ivy.) I had a quick look at the corner then decided to head up the road and come back later, at which point the sun would be blasting on the ivy and the farmers would have moved across the field. Or that was the rough plan.

There have been a few tractors plough past small butterflying groups in this corner of the field and always given a cheery wave or nodded hello. (It is a waymarked path but that doesn't always mean farmers are delighted to welcome all and sundry traipsing along the perimeter of their fields.) So I feel it is our duty to behave as responsibly as possible and to respect the farmers and their work and generally not be a dick when on their ground.

larva with attendant ants crossing the pavement

I walked and jogged up the road to a suntrap where there is often some wildlife action. However nothing today. I was now most of the way to Gullane and remembered there was a really early HB in St Adrian's last year (26th March!) and it might just be worth a look. It was very pleasant standing in the thoughtfully planted churchyard looking up at the tall holly trees but there was nothing stirring that I could see. As I left and had another look at the famous ivy wall across the road a white butterfly, almost certainly a small white, flew across the road and over the ivy into the garden. It settled on a bush at the back of the garden about 65 yards away. I did not have the neck to walk in and take a photo. I could just about get a grainy crop of it from the street. If I had not already photographed a small white this year I might have trespassed over for a season's first, but it wasn't worth upsetting the owners of this large house. 

flyby white

a long way away

pied wagtail on Goose Green

other famous ivy wall near public toilets

I had a quick look at the other famous ivy wall near the public toilets where blues have been known to lurk but it was only a cursory glance. I do not have the patience to stand and watch while nothing happens for a sustained length of time. Instead I went over to the main street to confirm the time of the next bus back to Edinburgh. I made a note before I left home of the times but worth double checking. I was then going to kill 20 minutes on the JMW looking for peacocks and small torts, however the express bus came barreling down the main road 20mins ahead of the one on my timetable. Nice one! I jumped on and wondered if I should even have bothered coming all the way here when I could have been in Warriston graveyard chatting to the robins. Well, yes and no. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." It doesn't hurt to break the mould and try something other than the usual. Albeit searching Postman's Walk and Gullane for Holly Blues is not breaking new ground. And if you want to score first sightings you have to be prepared to go home empty handed.

Karen

The day was not over by any means. I jumped off the bus at Abbeyhill and jogged the mile home. Pretty much straight back out the door with Mary and headed to Warriston. The sun was still out and it was looking like a decent afternoon. We bumped into Karen, a running pal, who keeps catching me lurking in the bushes around Warriston with my camera, suggesting there might be something sinister about it. 

leaning over the wall at Powderhall we could see this tortoiseshell

a couple of gulls seem to have taken up residence in the WoL

lost a slipper

We have taken to going the long way round to Warriston. In order to get a look at the kingfisher which seemed to be nesting there but has now moved on. There is also a gang of noisy sparrows that infest a hedge and gather on a row of feeders. 

Once in the Tesco entrance, we put out food on a couple of gravestones and the garden birds all flock over to feed. This has become less frenetic as we have moved from Winter to Spring. The birds presumably have more to feed on, other than handouts, and seem to be busy building nests and getting up to Springtime business. However a few diehards still cheep and peep excitedly when we appear and take a few seeds and bread in exchange for posing for photos. They seem to be pairing up and appear in twos.

pair of great tits

pair of chaffinches

Just the other (North) side of the tunnel there is a slope with daffodils between gravestones that catches the sun. This is popular with the early butterflies and we found the first speckled woods of the year here. I was very pleased - they were the most numerous cemetery butterfly last year but I hadn't remembered them appearing quite so early. Like most butterflies they look their best when recently emerged and these were particularly dark and glossy. I was excited to see one land on a daffodil petal, thinking it would make the photo of the day. Mary, actually standing to one side, got a more atmospheric shot.

Mary's photo - much better!

Speckleds are often quite choosy about where they land and will seek out a brightly coloured or special looking perch or leaf on which to alight. The toppled tombstones give them plenty to choose from. They also enjoy dappled sunlight falling between trees so Warriston provides the ideal environment. These butterflies have become so commonplace it is hard to remember they have only recently become a part of the local wildlife; arriving in the last decade or 2. They were not seen in East Scotland when I was a boy. It is a story the doom and gloom brigade often neglect. There are a few species marching North from England as Scotland warms up and although the D&G merchants will site decreasing ranges for Mountain Ringlets, I'd happily trade them for a few warmer weather butterflies, like the holly blues, brimstones and skippers who are slowly making inroads into Scotland.

I do like a bee-fly. They are cute little fluff-balls and that big spike coming out their mouths is not for biting or stinging (they don't) but getting pollen out flower stems. They appear just before orange tips and often just as things are warming up. They are flies not bees, but look more like small bees.

sparrowhawk

The sparrowhawk has been seen lots recently. She likes to perch way high up in a tree and scowls down at you. Or flies into a bushy coniferous tree and disappears. Likes to put as many branches between herself and the camera as possible just out of badness.

Almost seen as regularly as the sparrowhawk are young people instagramming themselves. On this occasion it seemed to be a drama being filmed rather than just the usual overdressed pouty stills. I'd guess the theme was a gothic lesbian wedding but we stayed well clear as we didn't want to get childish giggling on their soundtrack.

coal tit

Meanwhile in the secret garden, the sun was picking out the bird feeding bricks but not the subdued fading daffs in the background. Nearly perfect and some of our favourite friends there came over for a snack and to say hello. The coal tits are so tiny it makes you wonder how they survive the Winter outdoors 24/7. They are smaller than a thumb if a thumb was covered in feathers. Even in a glove, a whole winter and all that rain has to be borderline deadly. And there they are chipper as anything and looking none the worse. 

great tit

blue tit

coal tit

dunnock

coal tit at 1/2000th of a second

More complaints about shutter speeds. Not enough light to go to 1/4000ths of a second which might freeze the action. 

the far end of a blue tit

The robins get a bit twitchy around now. Hitler Robin has been disappearing for several visits in a row then appearing with another robin and we're not sure if it's him or his wife (who is a bit less bold but will sheepishly take food from your hand.) I suppose he is busy with family stuff. It does seem to make him less aggressive to the other birds although he won't tolerate other non-related robins nearby and dunnocks make him sit up and pay attention. Occasionaly, as today, he will sit on your hand for a chat and to carefully choose which seed or bit of bread he would like most and you can enjoy the tiny squeeze of his claws on your fingertips, which is a thing most magical and heart-melting.

Hitler on Mary's hand.

bee-fly

There is a bit of warm ground just South of the tunnel where a floor of ivy often contains a sunbathing comma. Sometimes the orange against the green allows you to see it. Other times it is only when you step through the ivy does it stir up a comma from the depths and then you hope it lands nearby. When they can't be found here or on the daffs on the other side of the tunnel I do not have a scoobie where they go. Possibly hiding on the other side of the butterfly portal. 

comma chases a speckled

On the way home, near the sparrow hedge, Mary said she felt her butterfly radar twitch. There were a couple of pointers - shrubs in flower and the sun was out - but no actual butterfly had been spotted at that point. We looked about and there on the edge of a bright white street sign was the finest comma of the day. It had its wings shut and refused to open them which was a shame as it was clearly a cracking specimen. It flew off before we got a decent look but not before I got an underwing shot. It had pretty decent green markings which some, but not all commas have. 

on the birdfeeders across the road
a starling was mixing it up with the sparrows

you looking at me?

a rare glimpse of an arboreal cat

small riverside tort still there on way home

A great day out and the best bits just a mile along the road from home.