comma, comma, full stop

 

18th and 19th October were both sunfilled Autumnal days. I spent them at the Botanics and Warriston looking for the last of the year's butterflies with mixed success.

ginkgo biloba

biloba = two lobed leaves

Ken, who practically lives in the Botanics at this time of the year posted photos (on East Scottish Butterflies fb group page) of a comma on the scabiosa japonica. Okay, next vaguely sunny day I'll pop along there. That was the 18th. When I arrived there were some carder bees and maybe hoverflies, but no comma. I looked around for the yellow leaved tree which featured in one of the pics (to confirm I was in the right place.) The nearest I could see were a couple of smallish ginkgo biloba trees nearby which were doing a fabulous transformation from green to bright yellow. Incidentally it wasn't them but another maple/acer nearby which I thought was too orange coloured to match Ken's pics.

big hairy wasp!

two-lobed leaves of the ginkgo biloba

There were some squirrels nearby so I got the peanuts out and spent some happy moments taking their photos. They are completely shameless about marching up to anyone with food and demanding nuts. But also so cute they get away with it. I nearly got bitten too which would have been a first. One was poking its head into a handful of nuts when another jealously barged it from behind. The one feeding got such a shock it nearly nipped me! Completely forgivable as it was unintentional.

The lack of dogs in the Botanics makes it a safe space for them. The ones along the road in Warriston are far more cautious but are beginning to recognise me as a useful food source and come over when I put food out for the crows and magpies. I enjoyed getting so close that I could see my reflection in this one's eyes.

I next checked out the Chinese pond and hillside for kingfishers, robins and pandas. I had noticed a small toy panda wired to one of the trees before, but hadn't realised it was part of a find-the-pandas game. With this in mind I inspected all the likely trees.

there are excellent acers at the top of the hillside

The sundial was nearly accurate if you allowed for British Summertime ie it was only 1 hour out and will now be correct since clocks went back. Actually no. It was about half past twelve and this was showing 13.30-ish. So when the clocks went back this would then be 2 hrs out. Perhaps global warming is affecting it? 😉

marmalade hoverfly

Since there were no butterflies I went to the Botanics Cottage behind the tall beech hedge. The phacelia had only a couple of hoverflies compared to the previous visit when there were loads of various species. Also they call the phacelia Fiddleneck which sounds like an Americanization (with a zee) to me. I can see why they do, but I wish they didn't. 

1/3200 not enough to freeze those fast moving wings

While I was lost in the zone with the hovers, my phone pinged and it was a text from Ken saying the comma was at the scabious. Now that is an app worth having! I walked quickly across the gardens only stopping briefly to photograph a tree fully decorated with yellow berries and red leaves.

The comma was a beauty - fairly good condition with just a small notch out the top of the rear right wing. It was posing well on the scabious and hung around for a while before flying up into the trees.

Ken noticed this woodpecker at the top of a distant tree
only a record shot as I couldn't be bothered to change lenses

crane fly

on the way out I bumped into Karen!

next, the 19th Oct. (the following day)

First up we did Parkrun. I had done 3 parkruns a few weeks ago and despite doing some training between each only took seconds off each one the following week. This was slightly depressing as I was clocking over 22minutes which was 2 minutes slower than what I had been doing in January. A few months of sciatica and lassitude had added 2 minutes to my time and now it felt like it was here to stay. The new normal. That inspired at least one hard session per week and one longer distance run, plus a couple of smaller local runs. Mary is now running well and encouraging me out the door which really helps. If left to my own devices I am likely to take more days off finding habits and hobbies at home to avoid going out running. And yet mostly I enjoy it when I do. 

At last there was something of a breakthrough and on the 19th I ran 21.35, some 45 seconds faster than the last parkrun. I still have another minute twenty to improve before I am happy and then I'll want to go sub 20, but there were signs at least that I wasn't stuck in the twenty second minute for ever. But how much do I want it? (I happen to know there will be a lot of training in December so fingers crossed by January I'll be back in the 20s.)

Meanwhile there were a handful of speckleds in Warriston. They would fly down from sycamore trees and land to sunbathe on fallen leaves. I'd see 2 jousting in circles in the sunlight and follow one to where it would land among the leaf-litter. Otherwise they were almost impossible to spot. This was one of the last days there was more about than just the occasional outlier.

Chlorops pumilionis
known as the chloropid gout fly or barley gout fly
(seems a bit insensitive)

There were also loads of ladybirds. They gather on the warm surfaces of gravestones and all seemed very busy rushing about as if they had stuff to do, places to be. Quite a few were flying from one stone to another although it was tricky to know why as they tended to just walk past and around each other without interacting. The majority were harlequin ladybirds an invasive species that is slowly dominating and interbreeding with the local species. It would be a shame if they wiped out the different varieties. 

harlequins

10-spot ladybird?

harlequin and 10-spot

harlequins
they come in many designs and patterns

eyed ladybird

I noticed many of the ladybirds were abruptly stopping, opening their wings and flying off. Thing is, how to capture this? I had enjoyed catching soldier beetles doing just this but their movements were slightly more predictable and with the ladybirds there didn't seem to be any indication of when they were about to take off, to give me enough warning to zoom in and focus on them at the right moment.

There were quite a few landing on my head and clothes as I stood near gravestones watching the action. In order not to inadvertently take them home I'd gently fish them off myself and noticed they seemed to realise they were not where they wanted to be and would fly off. This I could use! I'd gently pluck one off my head and watch as it climbed to the "top" of whatever finger it was on then fly off. The third time this happened I had it in focus (and had put the camera in burst mode to shoot as many pics necessary) to catch it taking off. Bingo! I didn't even need the pre-burst mode as it worked nearly every time and was, up to a point, predictable. 

I reset the shutterspeed to take faster images. If I put the ISO up to 3200 the shutterspeed was at least 1/1600th, the minimum for sharp images of this sort. It was ages ago I set the amount of pics per second and really I should have set that higher as I'd only get one or 2 of the insect opening its elytra, unfolding wings and then flying off. But I didn't want to get lost in camera menus. I also had to shoot one handed as the other had a scurrying ladybird on it. 

seven legged spider on a letter S

orange ladybird

monument busy with ladybirds

ready...

steady...

go!

this was my favourite sequence
(pleasant blurred-out background and subject sharply in focus)

f/13, 1/2000th of a second, ISO 3200 

drone fly

even at 1/2500th there is still wing movement

this drone fly was being a real sport about 
returning to the same gravestone for photos

Just as I was feeling I had enough ladybird shots in the bag there was a ping. Sure enough it was Ken messaging me to say there were now 2 commas at the scabious. I swithered, I really did. My legs felt very weary from parkrun. It was after 3pm and the sun might disappear at any moment. Had it just been one comma I don't think I'd have made the effort. I have just measured the distance using my gps output. Because sometimes the Botanics seems like just a few yards the other side of Inverleith Row from Warriston, but when you have run your heart out earlier in the day, chasing your youth, it seems like a very long haul. It was 0.8 of a mile from the ladybirds to the scabious! 1400 yards. Is that a long way? Well it all depends doesn't it? (Also I hadn't gone the shortest way along Eildon Street.) Anyway I decided I'd best do it as quickly as possible although I had to get out the cemetery over the Tesco's exit wall and then once at the Botanics remember to stop running! They frown on that sort of behaviour. I arrived at the scabious 11 minutes later.

Meanwhile Ken was concerned as both commas had disappeared shortly after he texted! Just after I arrived we found one (no notch, therefore the newby). It was even fresher than yesterday's. Which made up for the hobble along from the cemetery. However after a very few photos it flew up into the tree just behind the scabious. I chimped and confirmed I had got at least a couple of usable photos. It felt like that might be that. It was about 3.20pm and the sun was dancing between clouds in the sky and behind trees in the gardens, leaving the scabious in shade.

This was the view through the 90mm lens. We spotted the little devil way up the tree and it looked very settled there. We saw it in silhouette initially but on the occasions the sun popped back out, it opened its wings to flash bright orange. This was notchy, the original comma from yesterday - the new one had possibly disappeared up the same tree but was defying human eyesight. I reluctantly changed to the 400mm lens to get a better picture because there was nothing else to do. Except kick back and chat to Ken which passed the time easily. I also took some pics of my new favourite trees the ginkgo bilobas. Every ten minutes I'd make to leave and the sun would come out a little and I'd still be there.

notchy through 400mm

ginkgo

Kenko!

Just when I was making to leave for the nth time Ken spotted movement and we were back in the game. The sun had gone all the way beyond the large tree behind us and was lighting up the scabious again which had somehow been noticed by the commas, one or both of which had flown down to nectar again. It had been exactly 50minutes between photos, although it felt more like 15. I took far too many photos. Unusually for commas the two of them would sit quite near each other rather than joust or chase each other. Which confirmed what I'd already suspected from body shape: that they were both females. The females (of several butterfly species) often emerge later and last longer than their male counterparts. 

It was glorious to be approaching golden hour taking photos of amazing butterflies in the second half of October, in Scotland. I did what I could to manoeuvre Autumn coloured leaves behind the subjects and then shoot at low f/stop numbers to blur the background. I should have changed back to the 90mm but the 400 was good for reach, when they were on a distant flower. Both were fairly obliging and although there was a wee bit of a breeze, it wasn't hard to get decent photos. What a great finale to the butterfly season.

video of newer comma

a reluctant venture into portrait format;

the only shot of both commas briefly in the same frame

The newer comma eventually flew off in the direction of the rock garden. Notchy settled on a silver birch a few yards away and I wondered if this was her roost for the night.

I disposed of the last of the pocket peanuts to this hungry youngster who was prepared to take them directly from my hand. (Clearly the squirrels having a bad influence.) Whose wide eyed stare was mesmerising. After such a fine day out, the walk home did not seem too bad at all. Pretty sure I didn't run though.

nearly 8miles in nearly 5hrs