wheatears

 

10th May

I headed up to Holyrood where it was mentioned small coppers could be seen at the top layby on the Queens Drive. I passed Sir Lancelot on the way in. He was looking very authentic and were it not for those in attendance wearing contemporary clothes I might have thought I'd disappeared down some time tunnel. Fiona let me know they, Les Amis D'Onno, were based near Jedburgh and do film stunt and theatrical work of this nature.

small tort

I bumped into Judyta who was doing hill reps below the roundabout. She ran past a couple of times before stopping for a chat. We talked about Scott's upcoming Edinburgh marathon - good luck Scott, hope it all goes well, and she also gave me some tips and exercise ideas about resolving my sciatica issue which has plagued me since March, and stopped me running. It seems to have helped, so thanks Judyta, I owe you one! Must get back into proper running instead of sitting at home on the internet getting involved in pointess debates. And good luck Judyta for the Celtman. 

Holly blue

spider to fly - lovely to see you! Come back to mine 
...I've got the dinner table all set!

Those lovely park rangers have changed the barriers again. I prefer these new ones on the top road. I hadn't been up there for a while now I'm not doing parkruns. You could easily step over the barriers to access the plants and insects on the other side. And yet they seem to be catching any rock fall and stopping it from interacting with the public. So the best of both worlds. I'd heard Ken had been noticed on the wrong side and been chatted to by the rangers but they seemed to be happy to take him at his word that he was okay with the risk of rockfall. (The reason for the barriers.) I thought the risk was very slim to none and yet there was a large lump of dirt and rock looking like it had arrived at the road recently, the size of something you wouldn't enjoy falling directly on you.

recent rockfall

I noticed this jackdaw disappear into one of those drainage holes in the retaining wall. So I stood and waited till it came back out (after dropping off a beakful of insects). 

cydia maybe?

wall, climbing

female orange tip looking around for places to lay eggs

here's one she laid earlier
I watched it being planted there - it will go orange soon

the hairy shieldbug acrobatic team

they are more hirsuit underneath than above

GVWs

At some point Mary turned up. We stayed around the "layby" for a while but no small coppers were showing so we went up Crow Hill thinking there might be RAs or Painted Ladies up there. Just at the bottom we met Ken descending, who rather spoiled our plans by letting us know there were no RAs or PLs. But he had seen walls and a couple of female wheatears. Ahh! They are really attractive birds who often sit up high on decent perches to be photo-ed. We chatted briefly then went on our ways.

Ken, who we saw at Crow Hill

love the character on the trig point taking a selfie!

We kept well away from the summit mound and a million tourists taking selfies. A brief stroll around the top of Crow Hill suggested Ken was correct, except we couldn't find walls either. Then I spotted a wheatear further down and set off at nearly a gallop to try get close to it. Not always the best approach, and sure enough I chased it off. Mary descended slowly and told me a wheatear had flown up to her and she got a few photos. I made her show me the pics and fumed. Dammit! Right I am going back up!

I saw a look of resignation pass over Mary's face as she realised we were in for the long haul no matter how long that was. Sensibly she sat herself down to do a Spanish lesson on her phone while I ran around Crow Hill trying not to flap. Having learned something of a lesson myself I approached the wheatears next time I saw them with far more caution and stealth. In fact I failed to properly come out from the gorse bush I was wearing and some of the yellow colour got in the closest approach of the day. 

gorse yellow on the left hand side

Looking at the photo later I seem to have captured a male wheatear (dark band across face) although there were 2 other females so Ken had not been wrong in his sighting. I continued to stalk the birds and I think I wore them down to the point they just sat there watching me slither about on the ground like a large harmless fat snake. After some success and some failure I came back down the hill to find Mary doing her Spanish with a wheatear helping, immediately in front of her.

bird directly ahead

Mary then took this action photo of myself
wriggling on the ground in fat snake mode.

I quite enjoy a bit of fat snake behaviour as long as I am getting results. The wheatears were fairly kind, allowing quite a close approach before eventually flying off. And when they flew off generally it wasn't too far. 

photobombing bee

I could see if I slithered a couple of yards downhill I would get a blue (sea) background. It was almost overkill so I moved to get some of the Leith shore buildings in the background as well. The bird did a great job of holding still, thank you very much Mrs.W!

perfect!

then flew off to a new background which also works well,
thanks for the input!

one female wheatear either side of the photo

experimenting with Dunsapie Loch as blurred out background

Not wanting to disturb the birds so much they leave the hill, we left ourselves and headed back for a late lunch. As often happens I hadn't got the small coppers I went out in search of, but was more than pleased to have enjoyed the company of 3 wheatears for a while and been granted a couple of reasonable shots. Result!

On the way past St Margaret's Loch I asked Mary if she fancied a dirty pigeon on her hand. Maybe it was the way I phrased it, but she expressed more of an interest in her already late lunch.