pumpkinhead

 
best place for it

18th Oct. Just enough sunshine to bring out a couple of admirals. The final butterflies of the season unless we get a surprise warm day soon. (The forecast says not-a-chance.) I was really out looking for birds but no sign of anything much at all. A heron in the dappled light while I leaned over the wall at Powderhall. I was shooting video while an older bloke (a little older than myself but not much) came past and noticing where I was pointing the camera, said out loud and nearly in my ear "a grey heron". I am pretty sure he was not trying to educate me but was doing that involuntary thing, when you get to a certain age, of speaking your thoughts out loud. At the time I was a bit irritated, but when I hear it on the end of the video I am amused.

grey heron video with commentary 😁

I went round Warriston cemetery. There was very little of note - the birds seem to be conspiring to stay hidden while there are still leaves on the trees to conceal them - and a solitary red admiral high on the ivy was scant consolation. When I was giving up cigarettes two dozen years ago, I did so by cutting down to the point I was only allowing myself one or two a day. Which was insufficient and only a reminder of my addiction and not enough to satisfy it. Better just throw the last pack away and move on, than try to survive on just one a day. Same with the dog-ends of the butterfly season. Make a clean break and see you again in March or April. Apart from, of course, 2 weeks in Tenerife, which breaks up the winter nicely.

Only one photo in Warriston! Then along the road to the Botanics to see if there were kingfishers aplenty at the ponds. There were not. But there was sunshine and it was all fairly pretty. I headed into the rock garden area to check out the ceratostigma minus, a late-flowering shrub which often hosts the last admirals of the year. And so it was today. As I approached one flew off to perch a couple of bushes away until the area cleared of passing traffic when it returned to the bright blue flowers. It had lost a bit of rear nearside wing but was otherwise in good condition.

back to the ceratostigma minus

lots of autumnal beauty going on

and finally...

Walking through the rock garden I saw this speckled wood land briefly. I got just one decent photo and it was off again. I was pleased as it was (most likely) the final speckled of the year and not hanging about for any further photos. You always know the first butterfly of the year as soon as you see it, but you never really can be sure of the last until about mid-November and you can say with more certainty that there won't be any further Scottish lasts.

Ken who I saw at the Botanics...?

Ken (above) was actually listening to his mp3 player and had not just been sent to the naughty step. He was deep in thought or distraction. I didn't ask what he was listening to. In fact I had to walk right over to where he was standing, lost in thought, and try to catch his eye without giving him a turn. There is a view through the trees over to where the kingfisher often sits, but there was no kf there today. We chatted for a bit before I returned to the rock garden and he went over to the scabious from where he texted there was an RA. Had the comma been there as well I might have gone a little longer before returning home for a late lunch.

Moorhens (juv) and mallards on the duck pond. There was also a solitary goosander (f) fishing for luckies. Ken said she had been resident for a week or so. And a distant heron. But photos of both failed to make the minimum standard required.

RA back briefly on the blue flowers as the light was fading.

the end?