warriston wanders

 

Two visits to Warriston cemetery on the 7th and 10th October.

This might have been the last red admiral of the year. I think it was at the crypts and in decent nick. It has been a poor year for admirals with fewer about this Sept/Oct than I would usually find. Happily the speckled woods soldier on and ignore the cooler temps, often finding a favourite brightly coloured spot in the leaf litter on which to sunbathe.

or warm grave stone

These curious little flies are Medetera. They stand in a quite upright fashion and have vibrant eyes. This one was letting me get quite close so I shot some video while resting the lens on the gravestone.

video, click twice

springtail

harlequin ladybird

spanish (sweet) chestnut

This young magpie is making a name for itself by racing past the crows to get the food I put out for them. Most magpies have a healthy respect for the pecking order which is crows first and magpies afterwards. I like how cheeky this youngster is, but worry it will pay the price if it keeps this up!

Autumn in the cemetery

harvestman

speckled wood

green fly (Orthotylus) on Mary's arm
this is the only photo I took of Mary today! 🙁

orange ladybird and aphid

red spider mite (very tiny)

it wouldn't stay still for a proper photo

Phaonia

an extra "button" on the camera

Then another visit on the 10th October.

more chestnut close up

crow gets tired of posing

This scene was fairly typical of the gravestones in sunshine. A few ladybirds and aphids going about their ways. It struck me the aphids occasionally walk right over the ladybirds, and rarely treat them as predators and deadly foes to be avoided. I began to wonder if the two species live in harmony. I'd always heard ladybirds were good for the garden because they feed on aphids. So are aphids just really dense? Or is it only an occasional aphid gets dispatched. Are ladybirds just not very hungry most of the time? I had been wondering about this a few days before I saw an aphid being consumed by a ladybird. So it does happen. But not enough to make aphids avoid ladybirds' company. Maybe word hasn't spread very quickly round the greenfly campfire to avoid these beetles?

These aphids might be common sycamore aphids. Or not. 

Muscina?

hundreds of geese flying by
likely either graylag or pinkfooted

Syrphus

Just near the crypts at the West side there was this bloom (of hogweed?) It had a few hoverfly visitors and I spent a while trying to take their photos.

drone fly

At some point I spied a kestrel in the tree at the west side of the crypts. I was only able to get this distant shot not helped because I had the 90mm macro lens on. I switched to the 400mm and walked round to the top of the crypts where I got a couple of shots. You can tell this a female kestrel from the brown head and black bars on brown feathers on back. The male has a blue-grey head with black spots (rather than bars) on his body feathers.

female kestrel

speckled wood

male kestrel

It is a rare treat to see a kestrel in Warriston. They aren't superkeen on being photographed and you have to be quick to get a shot before they fly off. I thought this was the same one I had seen earlier but the blue head and spots on body feathers means it is a male. It would be great to have a breeding pair here, but as far as I know they were both just passing through.

the squirrrels are much less tame than along the road at the Botanics

Occasionally when they see me feeding the crows and magpies they will come over for a peanut but as yet (there is still lots to eat about the place) they are cautious.

another speckled wood in great condition

female kestrel again high above the crypts

marmalade hoverfly

speckled wood in conversation with harlequin ladybird

dead leaf glove

eyed ladybird

This was an unusual ladybird. Google lens is saying Poplar ladybrid (Oenopia Conglobata) which is vanishingly rare in the UK but more likely is a cream-streaked ladybird Harmonia quadripunctata which it doesn't look much like.

Hydrophoria linogrisea

eyed ladybird - one that actually looks like the image on my laminate!

two-spot ladybird

this tiny thing got on my hand

showing relative size of eyed ladybird and two-spot

initially I thought this was a pine ladybird which is almost exactly this

but I bet that the white bits at the head end make it a harlequin variation

that one again
likely a cream-streaked despite not being cream or streaked

yellow cereal fly or grass fly

garden spider

Great to see some sunshine and some insects and wildlife out and about as a result. We are now heading towards Winter and much less of both. 😞 However there are plans afoot to go in search of all that elsewhere. 😉