best part of the day: October 2024

25th Sept. Another very fine day. We must have nearly reached 10 good days this Summer/Autumn. Well if we include the Springtime too. Surprisingly Mary and I have resisted booking any holidays abroad yet. Mainly because we are having work done in our flat and we don't want to head off at a crucial moment. It is not grand designs; the windows have arrived and been fitted. The roof has been made watertight. There is shower-room work being done and years of historical leaks and rot took their toll. Meanwhile we are bathing in a large bucket by the kitchen sink. I have become so cavalier about this that I forgot to pull down the blind the other day and the people across the street must have have wondered about time travelling, seeing a bloke across the way washing like it was 1850.

The forecast was quite bright and I felt I should be reacquainting myself with the birds at Warriston. They tend to be quite scarce and standoffish until the first proper cold weather of the Winter and then they come out the trees to say hello and eat the bread, nuts and seed I put out on selected gravestones. This visit was quite early and although there was a bit of peeping round the place there were no takers. I left some food out and moved through the tunnel to see if there were any butterflies in some of the usual spots. Speckled woods were the only species and a few of them were jousting in the dappled sunlight coming through the trees.

I turned a corner and saw this kestrel high in a tree above the crypts. I was pretty sure it saw me as I took a couple of shots and then retreated behind a tree to change the 90mm macro to the long lens for birding. I'd be able to get a pretty decent shot with that (going from 90mm to 400mm) but while I was changing it over the bird flew off. I didn't see it again. 😢

speckled above the crypts

The light was fantastic and bouncing off spiderwebs as well as this tiny wren who was doing a gravetop shout and dance in the sunlight.

jousting speckleds

My pals the crows were following me about, more out of habit than because they were starving. I put some nuts out and a (young?) very cheeky magpie just about parted my hair as it arrived from behind and landed directly ahead. I gave it some room and it was onto the peanuts before the crows had moved in. Normally the crows call the shots and the magpies hang back hoping for leftovers. Which is why I thought this one might be a foolhardy youngster. If things continue down this road it might well be a contender for handfeeding. Talking of which I saw no robins as yet but will be making efforts in that direction soon. I should also work out how to take super-slow-motion video of them as they approach feeders / hands. I haven't yet looked into this aspect of my (new) camera.

crow showing how to properly load beak with peanuts

rosebay willowherb

speckled wood

I thought there might be a short window of decent weather so hurried along to the botanics. As the leaves begin to turn it is full of great beauty. And is immaculately maintained. However this year there has been a lack of late season butterflies. Normally there'd be butterflies; perhaps a comma on the scabiousa japonica. And half a dozen admirals on the cimicifuga plumes next to the herbaceous border. However both sites again scored zero and I was reduced to taking pics of hoverflies on the Phacelia, which is such a tricky game that it really makes me pay attention and concentrate.

scabiousa japonica, sans commas

at the Chinese Hillside duckpond

red-eyed moorhen

While I was taking photos in the Botanics, Mary messaged to say she was coming to join me. It was good I had had a headstart as she has less of an interest in macro pics of hovers than I have. And the camera she uses (my old bridge camera) doesn't capture them in the same detail as my macro lens. So naturally her enthusiasm drops off much sooner than mine. It gave me a while to enjoy the sport of hovering hoverflies before Mary appeared.

I saw a distant (likely large) white butterfly, but by the time I moved over to where it had been there was no sign of it. I took a couple of pics of these attractive dark-leaved nasturtiums and returned to the hovers. It is almost impossible to get an ideal photo of them in flight which makes the task so compelling and never-ending.

I recognised this specimen was different from the usual yellow and black species. It was medium to large (not huge, but big for a hoverfly) and very distinctive colours. A Pied Hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri. Mairi pointed that out on facebook, I had not yet got around to google lens to ID it. It didn't seem too concerned about my proximity, and when it moved it didn't go far. I took many, many photos - these ones here are just the tip of the hovering iceberg.

love the background colours of this shot

various squash and veg being grown nearby

Mary turned up about now and could see I was obsessing about the hovers so went for a walkabout. In the brilliant light eveything was looking fantastic. I continued with the hovers for a while and then we went for a wander. It really was sunny we felt there should be some butterflies somewhere. I suggested the area of the bingo bees. We hadn't been there since the Spring and didn't know whether the students were still putting tiny numbers on the backs of the bees.

BTW the book on hoverflies arrived. (Stuart Ball and Roger Morris, third edition.) It seems to be excellent although I have not had a chance to properly examine it yet. The best 4 pages (pp66~69) are 36 of the most frequently photographed hoverflies (in ranking!) shown both real size and large enough to identify outdoors. This probably includes all the ones I have ever seen. At number one is the ever popular Marmalade hoverfly while Helophilus pendulus, sometimes called the footballer (for the longitudinal stripes on the upper thorax) has to settle for second place. Old friend (the beautifully named) Volucella pellucens is in 8th place. Scaeva pyrastri (Pied hoverfly featured above) comes in at number 11.

a reminder just in case those apples looked tooooo tempting!

raspberries

drone fly Eristalis tenax

Taking more photos of that Pearly Everlasting
that I was fascinated by last visit

still nothing more than hoverflies on the cimicifuga simplex

Mary between the beech hedge and herbaceous border

So when we got to the bingo bee area the pink flowers were attracting a variety of insects. Google lens says the pink flowering plant is Himalaya Bistort Polygonum affine. No numbered bees and only one speckled wood. No commas or RAs. However the speckled was regularly coming over to the pink flowers and nectaring which made for colourful photo-opportunities.

After we had been there some time we saw an admiral do a swift fly-past. Too quick for photos and no sign of where it disappeared. However less than 10 minutes later it returned to the pink flowers and briefly landed. Maybe the birdstrike on its hind wing had made it a bit nervous.

another speckled (and in great condition)
along the way from the last one

St Mary's through the trees.

We decided to check out the Chinese pond for squirrels and robins. Along the way we bumped into this squirrel. As the weather gets colder they become bolder. This one was still keeping a little distance between ourselves though was more than close enough to get decent photos.

moorhen was straight over at the first rustle of the peanut bag

Checking out the scabiousa japonica we came across a little quiet corner up the back where a few birds and squrrels were hopping about, unbothered by passing traffic. Some bullfinches and coal tits. They were kinda keeping up in the trees but give it a few weeks and they will be coming closer for food.