call yourself July?

 

A couple of less than inspiring July wanders around Holyrood Pk.
Weds 17th: I went up to the park ahead of Mary. I rooted around the stone trap and had trouble finding much of value. Perhaps the first (and for a while it looked like the only) NBA in Holyrood Park. They have been incredibly thin on the ground this year after the rangers wiped out their other site in the layby round the top road where nothing has been seen this year. Last year or the year before the rangers cleared a load of loose rock from the crags above bringing it down on the "layby" where butterflies used to feed on rockrose and cranes bill. Common blues, graylings, NBAs, small coppers and passing whites. This year: nothing or next to nothing. Shows the fragility of an environment. Lob tons of rock, stone and debris on it and everything dies.

small skipper

rosebay willowherb

common blue

northern brown argus
had a terrible year as they emerged in the middle of the monsoon

NBA

green bottle

fruit fly

bumped into Simon having a lunch 'hour'

cinnabars

I snuck over the fences at a low point to have a wee look at Hutton's Section and around the bottom of the crags. Just in case all the butterflies had gathered where the humans are no longer allowed. Almost a relief to find there were just as few as there are on the allowed side of the fence. Several things were notable: there were well worn paths through the long grass on the forbidden side which could be the rangers but I suspect the climbers who will be using the 3rd bay for bouldering. There was another section of high green fence blocking the way to bay 3 so I didn't bother. But a fence wouldn't deter the climbers. In previous years I have seen dozens of ringlets, meadow browns and graylings in bay 3. And, of course, climbers.

tired blue

small heath

in the forbidden place
a few graylings but nothing much more

Mary took this photo of me approaching a grayling
on the reverse of the crags. Not quite as steep as as it looks.

grayling

egglaying?

We then went and stood near Samson's Ribs where there is a lot of valerian which in previous years at this time would attract large whites, painted ladies, humming-bird hawk-moths, admirals, graylings and all comers. Today: fuck all! Thirty minutes waiting for godot. The sun was out and although windy, pretty much perfect conditions. I was unhappy and not putting a good face on it. Eventually a brand new comma popped out but kept its distance. Too little too late. It flew off. We followed suit. Enough of this waste of time.

amazing,

 but come over here please!

should be better than it is for butterflies

teasels in front of valerian - ideal habitat

So we went home via Hunter's Bog. Passed a red admiral which sat on the ground then disappeared over the jungle of gorse and grasses. Then another newly un-boxed comma which allowed a distant record shot but nothing closer. It flew off and despite us circling the wagons and sending out search parties it was never seen again. Nice to see a burnet moth looking for partners and sitting in the long grasses for a picture.

first and last of this beauty

small skippa

5-spot burnet

it's behind you!

photo Mary

robberfly with lunch

bumped into JB and Lola on the way home

Three days later, Sat 20th and more of the same. Very much the same ground covered although slightly different subjects on this occasion. Not so much sun this time and even some drizzle later on. Call yourself July? Worst ever Spring and Summer for butterflies and insects. Everyone agrees, although some areas are managing with dwindling stock, while others are just post-apocalyptic.

damselfly

hairy willowherb

ringlet posing nicely (almost unheard of!)

common carpet moth looking prettier than many butterflies!

ichneumon of some sort

rare (these days) small tortoiseshell

my first brand new one this season I think

fruit fly

I was taking pics at (old) NBA corner when I noticed Andrew an Unda approaching. I disuaded them from the total lack of NBAs and we had a wander towards Samson's Ribs. I would probably have gone home had they not appeared as it looked like a light rain was going to fall. Can't remember when it started but it didn't improve anything. Nice to see and chat with U&A.

Unda and Andrew

Araniella cucurbitina

Potato capsid, Closterotomus norwegicus

It was not only fortuitous to bump into U&A but educational as well - they drew my attention to the teasels and plants across the road from the valerian slopes. This is where they had an interview with a ruby-tailed wasp and various other specimens. It proved a decent source of bugs before the rain began to fall.

potter or mason wasp, Ancistrocerus

long hoverfly, Closterotomus norwegicus

Onion fly, Delia antiqua

Yarrow plume moth
(this is a stacked image although not any better than a single image!)

I always stop to photo plume moths when I see them, they have an elegant defiance of their flimsy forms. In that they do not look like they'd survive outdoors in bad weather and yet they do. Some seem to be made of feathers, this one partially so. I saw someone post a photo of a near identical specimen which (with a bit of discussion) was IDed as a Yarrow Plume. (Not Tansy which has different dark patches around knees.) Always annoying when several specimens look virtually identical. 

It was holding so still (even though I was nearly touching it with the macro lens) that I took some handheld stacked images. All that work and not any huge improvement on the single image with f22 aperture. Sometimes it works, other times it is not worth the effort and I rarely find out till I have done the work. I suspect low light stacked images can look a bit flat, and I didn't have the flash on for this.

Andrew calls these fruit flies cosmonauts because they were on board one of the USSR space missions. And have excellent spacy eyes, although very small. A quick google suggests Sputnik 5 was the craft Andrew was talking about. In a couple of weeks it will be 64 years exactly since it was launched (August 1960) and the first to return animals (2 dogs, a rabbit, rats, mice and flies) from orbit, alive. Prior to that there is a rather grim list of animals sent into space who did not return alive.

ants - not intentionally in space

Ants' space careers were finally on the runway in 2003 although it was on the ill-fated Columbia mission of 2003. Bad luck guys! Talk about the short straw. Interestingly the only survivors of that tragic mission were some nematodes (C. elegans) who were found alive in the debris. Makes you wonder if they are right now trying to teach nematode worms to pilot a spacecraft?

Meanwhile a contingent from Dundee turned up. Ian and Laine had driven down but can't have checked the forecast as it wasn't great and proved to be just that. Stuart also cycled by and at one point there were 9 butterfly enthusiasts standing about in the crappy weather! It was nice to see everyone and have a chat, but it would have been better if the sun and the butterflies had been out! I walked home in the steady drizzle.

Araniella cucurbitina

ladybird larva