best part of the day: swim, no swim

02-06-24

The idea was to take the car for a run and since it was sunny, we thought a swim at Gullane would be good. We could stop off at Luffness Quarry on the way and check for common blues and other butterflies and maybe even do a walkabout near Gullane. Let's go!

small heath

Luffness was nearly a dead loss. When we arrived, there seemed to be very little there. This can sometimes be the way of it. Sometimes there is just nothing there, on other occasions stuff can show up if the sun then comes out. It was half and half today. No common blues. Shame. But also nearly no small coppers. This is a great spot for coppers and there should have been several cavorting around the rocks and flowers and chasing the walls as they swooped by. Not that many walls, and virtually none landing nearby. There were at least 2 small heaths but they were not in the first flush of life. Or maybe had had a downpour too many already and were suffering. I presume the torrential rains of April and May (carrying on from the heavy rains of February and March) were taking a toll, leaving the butterfly populations diminished. It was all quite depressing. However in ones and twos we came across a few modest gems. A plume moth - maybe 2 but more likely the same one twice - appeared. How they survive a whole breezy day without falling to bits is hard to know. Never mind biblical rains and strong winds. They appear to be designed only to be flown indoors.

raggedy peacock

delicate plume moth

yellow shell moth 1

soaring peacock

great tit going round harvesting remaining caterpillars

small copper - looking a bit rinsed

yellow shell moth 2

highlight of the day!

Large skipper! There was lots of flowering viper's bugloss on which I saw this large skipper. We've never seen one here before so it was the highlight of the day. Over the last 2 years they seem to be moving West from previous strongholds near Dunbar and have got as far Musselburgh. But this was a first. Just the one and it completely disappeared after a couple of photos. Made the visit feel worthwhile.

unlike the walls who mostly just took the piss
this was a rare example of one coming close enough for a photo

After 40 minutes, and feeling it probably wouldn't get any better, we drove along to Gullane and parked at the beach car park. It was more than half full which was expected on a sunny Sunday. It was almost warmish but the cold breeze was enough to discourage any further ideas of swimming and all that kit stayed in the car. Sort of weather you wish you'd brought a jumper. We walked along the coast and then inland, up to the concrete blocks at the golf course. No blues there either. And the wind probably spoiling any chance of much else. Actually most of the good stuff doesn't come out till the third week of June so there wasn't much to hope for except maybe a lucky owl or kestrel. (Nope, not happening.)

silver-ground carpet moth

Mary lies down to photo a northern marsh orchid

back of a bunny

the greylag goose family stayed well away from the path

skylark - always about and the continual joyous sound of summer

sand martins

So, a correction! Thanks to George (and John) pointing out the above birds are sand martins not swifts. I assumed anything swallow-like that didn't have a long tail was a swift. If they have a white front then they might be a sand martin. I had heard of them but assumed they were far rarer and you'd have to go looking for them near sandy riverbanks. These were over one of the temporary lagoons formed next to the golf course and not particularly near any sand banks I can think of, although the dunes are within half a mile. Here is a handy reminder if your bird ID is as bad as mine!

nicked from Katy Frost / Wildlife Trust

lots more standing water than usual

pair of goldfinches

We got to near the beach and it started getting wet underfoot so turned around and retraced our route. When we got back up towards the concrete blocks we saw the same rabbit lying near where we saw it last time. It was either sleepy or seemed to have some sort of disability, perhaps mixomatosis. As we approached it lay still but then got up and lolloped off. But not far. As we approached again it roused itself and did proper running to where it sat alertly next to the bushes where it could make a quick escape. Maybe it had just been sleepy before. It was a relief to see it moving properly.

that's better!

speckled wood

This speckled wood flew out of nowhere, did a couple of turns and landed very close by with wings open. Now if only all butterflies were as considerate, handsome and well mannered!

woolly bear

This is the caterpillar of the Garden Tiger Moth, colloquially known as a woolly bear. It rolled into a spiral when I (gently) poked it. I did that because we had already come across a dead one. Perhaps drowned or just sick of living in a country without adequate weather. Anyway, I wondered if this was going to be a death tour of dead caterpillars and poked this one to see if it too was deceased. It was not, but they take 10mins to unwind so it will have to be pictured in a curled format. Talking of death! Springwatch should maybe be renamed Deathwatch after all that doom and gloom. Don't know if you saw it, but it is as if a memo has gone round saying "don't sweeten it, tell them the truth." And nature can be brutal, as the peregrins ate their own chick, the blue tits' chicks died by the handful and the entire nest of beautiful fledgeling chiffchaffs were scoffed in one mouthful by a fox. And the songthrush chicks were consumed by the goshawks. Not easy or cheerful to watch. But good the BBC aren't sugar-coating it. I'm sure there are hundreds of tragedies like that going on all the time, unseen, in the hedges, sheds and barns of the country. Loved the urban foxy films.