may flies past

 

31st May

What looked like a promising forecast amounted to very little other than a pleasant walk around and over the top of Holyrood Park. I am going to post this now and come back and edit it later. I'll explain in due course.

The last few days have had similar forecasts though at times it has been enjoyably sunny. And when we left the house it was scorchio. But then thin clouds obscured the sun slightly and the wildlife went meh and there were no common blues, no NBAs, fewer damselflies and no goslings at Duddingston. I'm sort of glad we didn't have more ambitious plans. Both Mary and I were feeling a little tired and happy to just plod round the park looking for stuff to photo.

an early and solitary success - a mother shipton moth
not the first one seen this year but the first photo

duck on the fly - and vice versa

Andy was past so quickly only got his back

scorpion fly

We went up Crow Hill to see if there were any admirals or painted ladies
(having already been over the Crags) and found there were not. Only jackdaws and crows. 

our reflections in the pheasant's eye!

One of the tamer pheasants was near Dunsapie car park 

and enjoyed a handout in exchange for a photo session

distant whitethroat

When all else failed I reckoned there would be goslings and damselflies at Duddingston. I took the keys for Bawsinch but it seemed a long way for a soggy walk in the flooded areas. And as all the wildlife seemed to have got an email saying stay indoors please all day, it didn't feel worth it. There weren't even goslings at Duddingston. There were a few desultory damsels but they were not very obliging and tended to move off as I got within a macro lens distance. And the light wasn't brilliant. I tweaked the flash to give a moderate increase in soft light but I could feel the inertia creeping in as Mary sat some distance off doing her Spanish lessons. A swimmer in Duddingston was an interesting development. There are no signs saying don't swim, but there is a general understanding that it is a pond mainly for the ducks and geese to swim there, not humans. As long as it doesn't become a thing. Actually it looked a nice thing to do on a muggy day and the water would be warmer than Gullane. If a bit full of bird poop.

orange tip female

that's refreshing!

didn't make a decent job of this micro moth

blue-tailed damselfly eating a spider

video, click twice

alder fly

crane fly

for scale near a "normal housefly sized" fly

sepsid fly - I think similar to the paired couple I photo-ed
on forget-me-nots at Warriston

another blue tailed damselfly

On the way back along the road we admired the valerian which in bright sunshine will likely attract all sorts, from butterflies to humming-bird hawk-moths. Fingers crossed! Ken was along earlier and photo-ed a painted lady.

bumped into a lacewing on the way home

Okay so here is the story about posting this before I'd added the text. This month I've just posted the 21st blog for May. This is a record (by one!). (I managed 20 posts in Sept 2019). I realised it was getting close and hurried to post this before time ran out. Because the Blogger platform is an American product it goes by a US timezone which is ahead of our timezone and I realised it may post this on 1st June if I take too long. I think I made it! It could be some time before I post as many as this. What it requires is plenty time off (now I am retired) lots of sunny weather (well we've had a few decent days) followed by a few rainy days in between (to stay indoors and catch up on posts) before going out and taking more photos. I think the game changer here is being retired. I don't wish to gloat to those busy with work but retiral is fantastic. Something of a perma-weekend. Looks like decent weather tomorrow too!

flaked out