best part of the day: the birds and bees

23rd / 24th March

A weekend of local photos, Botanics and Warriston. The weather was nearly warm enough for butterflies; the first time I have actually taken my gloves and hat off for most of the day, but I suspect they are wary of leaving their hidey-holes for what could quickly turn cold and rainy. First up, a trip to Warriston on Saturday.

Parkrun has been put on hold as I have hardly run at all for a month now. No real reason for it other than couldn't be bothered. Busy with other things. I should get back into it. Meanwhile I have been choosing to go out with the camera which I am enjoying greatly, even if there is little more than the usual suspects worth recording. The activity itself is therapeutic.

first chiff-chaff of the year
a good sign, a terrible photo!

You can tell when there is a shortage of worthy subjects as I resort to taking pics of the crows and ladybirds. Two species that are always present in the cemetery. If I don't feed the crows they swoop past me only inches away or closer, then land on a nearby gravestone and look away as if it is nothing to do with the bag of peanuts in my backpack. Who wouldn't find that behaviour winning? I have been feeding them lots recently so they are even keener on getting my attention and when there is nothing else going on I end up chatting away to them. There is one I have been feeding since it was a youngster and we have closed the mandatory crow gap of about 5 feet distance to about one. They are not happy to be so close to a human, seems to go against their instincts, but they are also very fond of peanuts and they struggle to obey the crow code and not give into greed. After a handout they will continue to hop from stone to stone as I go round looking for ladybirds. They are happy to stand in a regal pose for photos. Despite the fact they have some fairly barbaric habits I am beginning to consider them as friends. And love the play of light on their blue-black plumage.

Scarface
(old injury above left eye)

the ladybirds have been on the move

goldfinches
tend to stay up high in tall trees cheeping to each other

another shower of rain or hail

grey wagtail down near the tunnel

a pair of robins in the riverside area

Well the new birdfeeder has not been destroyed by the squirrels. I have been filling it with a low quality birdseed which the squirrels aren't so keen on. They can access it but it is not their favourite foodstuff and takes too much upside down acrobatics to justify the reward. They might pay more attention if it was filled with sunflower seeds or peanuts. It is being emptied quite quickly. There are a few garden birds in the vacinity - the pair of robins, a pair of chaffinches, some great tits and blue tits and blackbirds although they wouldn't be able to perch on the feeder.

I had heard there was a goldcrest or 2 in the area but hadn't seen one till today. It was working away on fast-forward which made it incredibly difficult to photo and about 90% of the shots were (at best) of its tail end disappearing behind foliage.

goldcrest!

bee waves hello

Next day and I felt I would be more surprised if I didn't see a butterfly than if I did. And yet it looked uneventful for the first half an hour I was in the Botanics. I had been waiting for the cloud to clear before leaving the house and lost most of the morning to that. Sure enough it was warm enough to remove gloves and hat until about 5pm. This is often the signal for the first butterflies of the year to appear. I texted Ken, reckoning he'd be somewhere in the gardens watching a handful of butterflies swoop and glide. He wasn't, having opted for Newington Cemetery as a likely venue, but it was also failing to produce the goods. I tried a couple of different spots in the Botanics, while avoiding the weekend crowds at the more obvious places like the Chinese Pond. It felt like there should be butterflies on the wing but I had to settle for bingo bees. I was there by the pulmonaria when Mary arrived. She had been for a swim and joined me for a walk round the gardens and Warriston.

number 14 - hairy-footed flower bee

This leaf skeleton was a problem to photo. I wanted it off the ground with a blurry background but without changing lens I couldn't hold it at arms length and get it in the frame. So I propped it between other leaves but it kept swaying backwards in the breeze or falling off. I returned to the bingo bees and the challenge of capturing them as they were all buzzing frantically about the pulmonaria. Lots of hairy-footers, some numbered, some not.

un-numbered hairy footed flower bee

chaffinch

Mary thought this looked like a preacher giving a lesson,
I though a conductor in front of his orchestra

Mary managed to find a hand friendly robin

this medium-large and quite black bee landed near us
I believe it is a female Andrena clarkella, a mining bee.

Western skunk cabbage apparently (says google)
at the duck pond

The sun was still shining from time to time so we called it a day at the Botanics and headed to Warriston. Mary had disturbed one butterfly near the beech hedge but it flew up into the trees, declining a photo. Almost certainly a peacock, although maybe an admiral. Along the road to Powderhall Mary spotted this Small Tortoiseshell on the ivy sunning itself. We got cursory pics before it up-and-overed the hedge, disappearing onto the shaded side. Of course it will return to the sunny side says I. It did not. Onwards and upwards. I am not sure if that was a victory (torts being rare this year so far) or a defeat: the single photo was nothing to write home about.

Actually there were 3 more of it sitting with closed wings but they are so non-event I won't bore you with them. Anyway top marks to Mary for spotting both butterflies of the day. So much so I won't shame her (much) for dropping her hat (again!) which we found an hour or more later. Can't think why they put zippers on jacket pockets, can you? Once bitten, twice bitten, but no lasting harm done.

house sparrow

bird feeder nearly empty again!

crows still posing for peanuts

snakeshead fritillary in secret garden

and these are mine...

Mary had had her fill (and to be fair she 'd been swimming earlier) and went home. I stayed and hung around the riverside area to feed the squirrels and robins. I failed to temp out the rat and although the place was alive with cheeping and squawking, didn't photo much else. Although the light was pretty good in places and there were some nice moments.

This female blackbird seemed very young or gauche and kept making a mess of landing on branches that weren't supportive enough. She was nervous of eating off the gravestone and eventually flew off after several failed attempts. Note beak colour.

chaffinch (f)

chaffinch (m)

wren

I saw this pair maybe 80 yards up the path and thought they might be stock doves. I could see they weren't the more commonplace woodpigeons. Through the long lens I saw they were indeed stock doves and had to settle for that photo as they immediately flew high into the trees.