sbw 002

 

Third trip to Saltoun Big Wood on the 28th August. Some ups and some downs but things improving each visit. The highlight of this trip was black darters which seem to have sneaked in without me knowing. They appear later in August and when they first arrive they are not pure black, but a mix of sepia and black. These being black meant they had been around for a bit although there was no sign of them last trip 10 days previous.

So I did this trip solo, catching a bus to Pencaitland. I ran up to Abbeyhill to catch the bus as it sped by from Waterloo Place out the Meadowbank Road. I think the timetable was 10.03 at Waterloo Place. So I gave myself enough time to run the most-of-a-mile up Easter Road. Only, you know, there is always one last thing to do after making sandwiches, packing the camera, sunblocking the balding sunroof, putting on gaiters, wiping the legs with tick repellent and taking the hay fever tablet. So it was a bit of a last minute dash out the door. I got to the stop about 09.54 and the bus arrived 10 seconds after I had caught my breath and got my bus pass out my wallet. The driver must have been in quite the hurry, as we headed out the road to Tranent and Ormiston at break neck speed.

I listened to book group's next choice (not mine) of Bret Easton Ellis (of American Pyscho fame) reading his own fictionalised autobiography The Shards. Since retiring I have been listening to much less, and I had to take on 3 days days work recently just to get more than halfway through this rather slow and long-winded (23 hour!) audiobook of privileged but neglected teens in LA. He is the same generation as myself so I get his cultural references, but I am much less interested in gay sex and torture than himself, so I wouldn't give it 5 stars. Maybe 3 if you caught me in a good mood but even then I doubt it. I think I would take another star off just for it going on for 23hrs and having nothing more to say than could have been covered in about 90minutes.

However, I saw him (BBE) in a video discussing cancel culture and he came across as moderate, entertaining and charming which he doesn't in this book. (Although he reads it very well.) And he went up in my opinion. Probably a generational thing. Anyway I can't always be turning up to book group having not read the book, so I fit it in to these otherwise dead minutes watching the countryside fly by at what felt like faster than you would expect a double decker to manage without leaving the road. On the upside, it added some much needed pace to the rather lugubrious writing.

The sun was flirting with clouds but it was warm and there was a feeling stuff was about. Before I'd even got to the first pond to check for dragonflies, a holly blue had caught my eye and dragged me 75 yards down a trail in the wrong direction before it settled and I got a photo. Each of the last few visits a singular HB has shown itself; but just one. And not the same one as the most recent was a female. This one, below, was a male.

male holly blue

common darter female

The first pond was quite busy with dragonflies. The sun wasn't 100% out, but popping through the clouds enough to stir up that cellophane whir of common hawkers pushing through the reeds looking for females. I got an early photo of a common darter in flight which I was very pleased about despite the relatively low tariff they carry, being one of the most commonplace odonata. They might even be harder to photo in flight than the hawkers as they are smaller, although they do tend to return to a favourite spot and hover before they land. 

However the new camera is the main reason my hit rate has climbed. The last camera, a bridge camera with sluggish auto-focus and no animal detection struggled to get dragonflies in flight unless they hovered right in front of me with a plain coloured background and gave me 5 seconds to get them in focus. The G9 has a very good ability to pick an animal out from the background foliage and if it not, then I can use 2 function buttons near my middle and ring fingers I have designated to pull the focus forwards (or back) to capture the hovering subject. It is not easy (feels a little like playing the accordian) but it is possible and with a little bit of luck and a following wind, you end up with a photo. Crank the shutter speed up into the thousands of a second and keep the hawker in the centre of the frame and your fingers dancing between the three focussing buttons and bingo! (Sometimes.)

Also, the bridge camera images were much smaller than the G9 images. They give more space to crop down a photo and still retain a sharp image. The 90mm macro lens is about the right zoom distance unless the dragonflies are right up in your face which happens from time to time, or at the other side of the pond.

common hawker

common hawker

I was v pleased when one hovered right in front of me!

f/5.6, and 1/3200 of a second with ISO 3200

I noticed this bloke who seemed to be leaving in a hurry,
he didn't see me squatting in the filth, pondside

I thought woah, you are leaving just as things are hotting up, the butterflies are in the opposite direction. I was chatting to a few folk (online) later and realised this had been Bob D who was rushing to a meeting elsewhere and had probably left it as late as possible, enjoying the butterflies (which were out in force about a half mile away). I was late in getting there as I got distracted by my new-found abilities of in-flight photography and was waiting for dragonflies to fly nearby again, so I could take more photos.

black darter obliges

Just on the right of the pond was a pleasant little sunlit spot. The high waterlevel this year has meant a good chance of wetting your trousers if you sit down anywhere pondside. I think I maybe knelt - wearing shorts means you can kneel without soaking trousers. I do carry a rolled up kneel mat in my backpack but it would have submerged immediately in the squish. There were a couple of black darters (both male - I don't think I saw any females) around here and I even managed to get photos of one flying between perches. It would land nearby and if I moved position slightly it would take off, then hover, then land again, often near the same spot.

very pleased to get sharpish shots of this small insect in flight

It then landed on my leg. It had been hovering nearby and maybe realised that there was a large warm thing on which to land. I was charmed. So I held my hand out and it landed on that next. With the 90mm lens I have to hold anything in my hand at nearly full stretch to get it far enough away to get the whole thing in the shot. I was trying to get it to land on my fingertips but it kept landing on the heel of my hand. I coaxed it onto my fingertips (so I could turn it more easily to face the camera) but it wasn't so keen and kept returning to the flat of my hand. It was very thrilling but I also wanted to use both hands to take photos and when I banished it from my hands, it landed on my head. I could feel it coming and going, particularly when it was near my ear. It eventually left me alone when I left its territory. I had witnessed this happening before when Alistair parked himself in his favourite corner of the pond in a seat. Several black darters used him as a sunlounger. Pics on this blog here from almost exactly a year ago. The water was conveniently much lower last year.

sleight of hand with a black darter

crane fly fountain pen hybrid

It is aways worth (slowly) approaching the fallen silver birches near the pond as the darters like to sit on them and sunbathe. This common darter male was a little bit flighty but that allowed me to get this shot as he was returning to the log. The log is also favoured by wolf spiders; again a cautious approach is required otherwise they run for cover.

The further I ventured into the woods the more peacocks appeared. Definitely the most numerous butterfly of late August. There were just one or two about, on the trail up to the oak tree at the junction. 

the oaktree with exposed roots

At the junction there is an oaktree with exposed roots that attracts all manner of insect and flies to lay their eggs in the nooks, crannies and small holes in the gnarly wood. Which in turn attracts a number of parasitic wasps who look for eggs on which to lay their eggs/larvae. Though I've found the ruby-tailed wasps there to be mostly too flighty and disappear before you have even switched your camera on. On this occasion there were a couple of wolf spiders, this female with an egg sac, which they carry until the spiderlings hatch and then cling to her back.

Anthomyia

toadlet

This tiny toadlet was one of 2 on the roots. Not sure what was motivating him (or her) to climb a tree but he was doing a decent job of it. Not terribly keen on me recording the process though. Whenever I started a video it was as if he knew and he sat still waiting for me to stop the recording before heading off again. 

I had seen this longhorn beetle when I first arrived but it headed into a large dark hole (possibly in search of somewhere to lay eggs) and didn't come out for a while. When it did, I spent a few minutes following it trying to get decent photos.

a few walls still about at the end of their season

an aging emerald damselfly

Although it flitted about if I got too close, the damselfly didn't go far, and allowed me to get a few close-ups. The light blue powder coating is a sign of aging and known as pruinescence. I tried to line up the shot to keep the pretty heather colours in the background.

I checked out the woodpile where this nervous wall was hanging about.
And also another peacock.

garden spider Araneus diadematus

wall

Unfortunately just as I got to Butterfly Alley the weather deteriorated. There were still a few butterflies about - mostly peacocks with a few admirals and 3 or 4 commas. However as I approached them the admirals and commas would fly up into the trees lining the trail. I got the feeling they were packing up for the day. Bob (whom I had seen departing earlier) had got lots of quality shots of 3s, 4s, and 5s of the three species nectaring together on the scabious. I was just too late although the peacocks bravely sat out the light drizzle with wings folded looking a bit like miniature black-sailed dinghies.

last active comma of the day

many glorious quality peacocks

like miniature black-sailed dinghies in the rain

I came across a couple of stubborn commas, wings shut tight against the drizzle. I didn't want to expose them to the moisture so tried to not get too close and have them flutter off into the crappy weather. I managed to approach slowly enough that they sat still and didn't fly off. However the light was dying quickly and the rain beginning to fall in earnest. Time to seek shelter myself, and get some lunch.

comma with raindrop

The tree trunk we ate our sandwiches on (at the top of of the woods) last visit, is under a couple of large trees and one of the few seats in the place. I stayed fairly dry eating my lunch, but the rain looked very settled in now and I'd need to test out my latest waterproof kit: a cammo poncho. I got this in the Leith Army Stores Outdoor shop. (£29.99) It is a large rectangle of cammo waterproof treated nylon with stud buttons that clip together to form a tent-like shape with hooded headcover in the centre and nearly armholes at the sides. It is not aimed at the fashion conscious! I got it to use as a kind of mobile hide for bird photography, as it magically transforms the wearer into a bush shaped, bush coloured er... bush. Albeit smooth nylon bush. I found to my delight it was large enough and free flowing enough to lift slightly until I could hunker down entirely underneath, remove my backpack, get out my padded camera case, and stow away the camera without any exposure to the rain. Then stand up back into the tent which quickly became an item of clothing again. (It covers the backpack too.) I admired the possibilities as much as I might laugh at anyone wearing one; they are not cool looking. Due to the steady rain I didn't manage to get a picture of me wearing it: just imagine a person trying to fold a large cammo-coloured tarpaulin sheet and you'll get the idea.

end of play

I then jogged back to Pencaitland the way I'd come. I probably looked quite special as I wore the poncho over my backpack until the rain stopped on the outskirts of Pencaitland. I went past one group on the cyclepath: a little old lady who was holding onto the collar of a large dog and speaking quiet passive words to it. It was openly growling at the camouflage tent floating down the cyclepath with a tighly hooded head popping out the top. I expressed my thanks and we smiled thinly.

There was a wait for the bus and a long, partly asleep, ride back into town. But at least I had Bret Easton Ellis whispering in my ear for company. 

about 8miles in about 5 hrs

(you can see where I forgot to turn right for the cyclepath at the start of the day!)