big wood 5

 

04-09-23 I had completely forgotten to blog this final trip to Saltoun Big Wood. I thought I had written them all up and then tidied the photos away onto the external hard drive when I remembered never having posted the video of wandering up butterfly alley on one of the best butterfly days of the year. Actually it had probably gone past its prime but it was a splendid day out and there were loads of butterflies so bear with me while I archive this last visit to a favourite place for late Summer insect hunting. Also there was the big decoy experiment!

It was a Monday and I particularly enjoy Mondays since pretty much winding up my work. I do the occasional day's work but largely I consider myself retired. Instead of that dread at the end of the weekend there is now a 5pm Friday feeling every Monday. Some people hit retirement and find themselves lost, fading with the lack of meaningful purpose. Myself not so much. If the forecast is at all cheerful then so am I and will inevitably have a place I want to go take photos or at the very least, run.

Ideally I combine the two. For instance getting a (free) bus out to Pencaitland and then running up the cyclepath towards West Saltoun and on to Saltoun Big Wood. This was my fifth trip there in about 3 weeks. Although similar ground was covered each trip was different and special. 

the butterfly buddleia was pretty much finished

followed a squirrel up the path

ladybird writing Lol

Rather than follow the road round to the usual entrance I took the shortcut at the river that goes past 2 houses and then up the trail and into the woods. I passed this woman walking her dogs, perhaps the resident of one of the houses. The dogs and I have met on several previous occasions. They tend to be a bit barky and half interested in running over for a chat but also timid and end up standing off barking. On previous occasions I crouched low and held out a hand to let them sniff. On this occasion they rushed up and the owner braced herself to call them in, however they recognised me and to everyone's surprise didn't bark. Progress!

The first pond was busy as usual with common and black darters, and hawkers flying about the place. Now Alistair and I had been talking about lures and decoys. We both have an enthusiasm for making stuff, although I haven't done much sculpture since art school. He does lots of very expert construction kits, which I used to do but don't have time for, although I can go down that rabbit hole on youTube with very little encouragement.

The night before, I saw the forecast was good, and decided at 9pm to make a dragonfly lure. Basically something to plant pondside that looked the colour and shape of a female hawker, that might make a male hawker stop in its stride and have another look. Maybe land nearby for a photo. I used a cut down old paintbrush sawing off the bristles, then painting it in female hawker colours. It was much larger than a dragonfly and had no wings but I reckoned it wasn't size or wings that mattered just a general feel and colouring. I screwed it to a long triangle of wood to insert into pondside mud. I painted a couple of these look-a-likes in as close to the female hawker colours as I could mix. I enjoyed the process although the dots and dashes of their colouring are so complex I was a bit disappointed about the accuracy and went to bed around 1am, slightly frustrated.

decoy dragonfly!

In the morning they looked slightly better and I showed them to Mary who was working and unable to come along on the trip till later on. She thought they were excellent lures which made me feel slightly better. On reflection I'm glad I didn't stay up all night making them perfect in every aspect! 

When I arrived Malcolm was already there or arrived just after, can't remember. I planted my 2 decoys in the long grasses and waited to be mobbed by horny hawkers. Nothing immediately. Wait, here comes one now... and it flies past. Another... again no reaction. It became very clear, very quickly that my artwork was being given the cold shoulder. Hawkers would fly past, within a few inches of where my painted sticks perched, and not even change their course. Nobody did a double take. On a scale of 1~10 where one is a twitch and 10 is full on rampant humping of decoy and pulling it out the ground, well I'd say zero. It was so utterly a complete faiLURE that I didn't even think back to the drawing board.

I had assumed dragonflies operated primarily by sight. You don't get pheromone lures as you do for emperor and clearwing moths, probably because they find females using their eyes, I imagine. So I assumed something about the right colour and shape would work in a similar manner. While I did not throw the 2 lures into the pond (they would float and my shame would be on show) I did hide them in my bag and they have never seen the light of day since. But you have to try those things out. Maybe the whole scale thing was what made it fail comprehensively? Maybe I should have whittled down a clothespeg? Although maybe dragonflies sense the lifeforce in a female dragonfly and respond to that and a painted stick would never catch their eye no matter how exact? Whatever, I hand the baton over to Alastair for round 2 if he cares to employ his modelling skills. I did also wonder if Airfix or any of the more specialist model making companies would consider a dragonfly and butterfly kit range. (With birds to follow on?)  I'd buy them if they did! Can you imagine a common blue on dandelion, or DGF perching on a thistle construction kit? I know Alistair would buy the whole range on the first day they came out! Not quite sure how the dragonfly wings would be made but it can't be impossible.

maybe they exist already?

(not a model but printed flat transparent dragonfly might work?)

common darters

common darter

common hawkers

black darter

black darter singing into mic

common hawker patrolling

emerald damselfly

After a while Mary turned up. She had finished her work and driven out, parking at the road end. She wasn't a long time behind myself as the day had started a bit overcast and I didn't race out the door. By the time she arrived the weather was much improved: ideal for dragonflies which only really appear on sunny days. After a bit by the pond we headed up towards Butterfly Alley.

We stopped off at pond number 5 (last on the right). I was so annoyed as I missed the shot of the day. Ever since Mary has been luring red admirals to land on her, she will stand offering a hand (as above) as a platform for anyone that wants to be friends! Now, daft as this may seem, especially to passers-by, occasionally it works. As we are standing there, a huge blue hawker buzzes by and lands on her arm. We are both silently WTF-ing and she is trying not freak out, as this helicopter looks like it could take a chunk out her arm. She didn't freak out but I had been taking close ups and couldn't zoom out quick enough to get the photo before it flew off. I was so sorry I blew it and apologised for missing this one in a million episode. Oh it still irks now - far more even than the decoys fiasco! 😂

damselflies

diving beetle

 

wall

speckled

silver Y moth

scabious

the peacocks were first out and first to fade,
it was harder to find near perfect specimens to photograph

I spent a while lying on the ground and creeping about on all fours 
trying to get low angle shots

We could hear a mewling going on a distance away. Mary said it was a cat but I was sure it was a baby. Eventually this couple appeared with a baby who was making quite a noise crying. Makes you very grateful not to be lumbered with one of these!

hawker strafing our walk

We went back to pool number one and had a few moments longer there. Not much happening except a couple of coal tits came down for a drink. They sat in the trees right beside me and I realised we hadn't seen any birds all day except for a buzzard or 2 maybe soaring half a mile away high in the sky. We both felt our cups were full and it was time to retreat. Short walk back to where Mary had parked the Berlingo and home. Doesn't get any better!

harvest time

Now this was the video I shot on my iPhone last discussed in Big Wood 4! I had tried to shoot the same using my camera which generally gives better quality video but I'd not done it sufficiently zoomed out and it seemed shaky. I wondered if the iPhone would give a smoother result and in many ways it did. However I then had to get it into my PC at the same quality. I'd posted it directly from my phone to facebook but the compression or something made it look a bit shit. To get it into editing software on my PC at the original quality (which looked great on my iPad) I had to download the iCloud app for Windows which then gives you access to everything on your iPad and iPhone and if you're not careful will download the lot onto your computer hard drive. Anyway it sort of works and this video should now be looked at every time I feel miserable between January till March. Which is usually about every second day. If I'm not out the country having a holiday. Which is also a good remedy.