back to the WoL

18-03-25 We're romping through March! Tuesday 18th looked promising so I decided to catch a tram to Balgreen and walk to Saughton Park then down the Water of Leith, following it to the Botanics and maybe even a quick look in at Warriston. It wasn't quite warm enough for butterflies but there had been the one or two about and you never know. The sunshine certainly made things more cheerful.

Noticed our tram driver would wave to the drivers coming in the opposite direction.

Saughton Park seemed like it should have butterflies...
...but didn't!

glory-of-the-snow

love the colours on this red-stemmed dogwood

This squirrel was out on a limb over the river to get at the new buds. I took a wider shot and had noticed much of the squirrel was getting blown out because the camera was trying to expose for the dark shadows behind so I used the exposure compensation to knock it down a bit. This is one value - overexposure - you can't fix in post.

blue tit

There is sheltered housing or similar with a low wall boundary next to the WoL here. I like to put out food for the birds who are obviously looked after by the residents and respond promptly to any bread and seeds on this wall. Even the ducks come off the river to fly up to scoff handouts, which just looks wrong! Mallards seem out of place on top of walls. I put out several piles of food, so that the pigeons couldn't hoover it all before the smaller birds had a chance.

dunnock

wood pigeons and robin

did somebody say...
(just eat)

blue tit

watching a torpedo-like blackbird fly past

choosing the wall next to the WoL

chaffinch

great tit

blackbird

I went upstream as far as Ford's Road and the unnamed green space the river runs by. We chased orange tips and whites in this tree-lined park in last year and I knew there were some willow catkins that might attract early butterflies. Unfortunately just worker bees on this occasion but I had fun trying to shoot them in flight as they filled their pollen baskets.There was sufficient light to shoot at 1/5000th of a second with ISO 1000.

This from wikipedia:

The pollen basket or corbicula (plural corbiculae) is part of the tibia on the hind legs of the female of certain species of bees. They use the structure in harvesting pollen and carrying it to the nest or hive where it is used as food by the colony.

Bee species with no pollen baskets have scopae, which fulfil a similar role. In most species of bees, the scopa (plural scopae; Latin for "broom") is simply a dense mass of elongated, often branched, hairs (or setae) on the hind leg that form a pollen-carrying apparatus. 

this one hung by just one leg while it appeared to be collecting
all the pollen from itself and presumably stored it in its corbiculae

as shown in this video clip (click twice)

Downstream to Murrayfield where this crow was letting everyone know 

who was in charge of the suet birdfood someone had left out on the bridge. (Wasn't me.)

I was keeping an eye out for otters near the RR showroom
before Roseburn, but a pair of goosanders was all I could see

Great to bump into Andrew J just upstream of the Dean Village. He was looking very well although like myself he seemed to have been running and competing less since lockdown. He pointed out this grey wagtail which I took many shots of, none of which were spectacular.

happy days!

I was looking out for the male kingfisher on the section directly upstream of the Gallery Bridge. However no sign today. I wasn't going to hang about as I felt the best spot for butterflies was probably down at the Botanics. However at this time of the year there can be a comma on the gallery side of the bridge basking in the sunlight among the flowers on the steep ground between bridge and gallery. Five years ago nearly to the day my first butterfly of the year was a sleepy comma sat exactly here in the sunshine. (Blog here - it was one day later on 19th March 2020!) I climbed a few of the steps up towards the gallery and almost immediately saw this fantastic comma sat atop a daffodil. After hurriedly taking a few record shots I clambered over the sticks, branches and rough ground to get round the other side of this magnificence and couldn't believe the butterfly was still sat waiting to have its photo taken when I got there. It felt extremely fortunate and was a total delight. It took off and returned again, sitting on top of a second daffodil and also obligingly on a couple of logs. Could not have been more helpful!

I can't recall ever seeing a comma on a daffodil and it perfectly sums up the joys of Spring. This would almost certainly be a specimen from last year that has overwintered rather than one recently emerged from a chrysalis. It was looking fairly fresh even though this is about as old as the oldest of the UK species get. Most (I am told) do not last more than a few weeks. It would have been holed up in a dark dry cave or shed or a nook in a tree or wall for the last few months, with a greatly reduced metabolism. Technically not quite hibernation, but a dormant state similar to hibernation.

It is hugely satisfying to go to a place looking for a specific thing and actually fnd it. It does then beg the question How Come? Why is it that one comma is hanging out exactly the same way another did 5 years ago in exactly the same place? This is a question that arises regularly and I was first aware of when Iain C predicted I'd see in passing the "perennial" speckled wood who guards the beech hedge next to the village hall at Burnmouth. 'It' appears year after year and behaves in a very similar manner, seeing off the competition and being very territorial. Given the lifespan of a speckled wood is a few weeks it cannot possibly be the same individual, so I assume one of the offspring of the individual then adopts the role on subsequent years, and being rabidly territorial, chases off the sibling rivals. I imagine the instincts of the offspring are nearly an exact match of the parent and it adopts those without ever meeting the parent, drawn to behave in an identical fashion.

Commas can also be very territorial and rarely hang about in tribes or colonies as some species are more inclined to do. In my local haven, Warriston Cemetery, they are showing up more and more, and last year in a spot where one usually becomes aggressively dominant and determindly singular, two seemed to be sharing the favourite area. Perching within a metre of each other. I presumed they were siblings and made allowances for each other although they would joust and circle each other in the air like rivals.

I was very pleased with this comma interaction (and the photos I'd taken) and left it in peace sat on that log - often I'll photograph a subject until it disappears, which can be almost immediately.

It did seem to be a day for grey wagtails. Shortly after the comma and the Gormley sculpture I came across the second. And a bit after that the third. This one (putting the WAG in wagtail) seemed to be proudly displaying a ring.

Hygea has been hitting the Stella

third grey wagtail at Stockbridge

Campbell's Magnolia at the Botanics in full bloom

some of the lower flowers still in bud

hairy footed flower bees at the pulmonaria

n'admiral at the large flowering rhodi

In fact I couldn't find any butterflies in the Botanics. I checked loads of rhodies but was beginning to flag and felt a quick once round Warriston was only possible if I got a move on. I did stop when I saw a robin between the Chinese Pond and the Willow Pond. I had hand fed one here previously and know there are several that will come close for food. After a bit of coaxing it took a flying peck of bread but did not perch. The blackbird sat underneath, picking up any overspill.

video, click twice (don't blink!)

A crow, clearly cheating on me behind my back!

Some brambly undergrowth has been strimmed from the gravestones near the tunnel in Warrriston. Making it possible to use these monuments as bird feeders. There is lots of shelter around the area and it makes a good spot for feeding and photo-ing the birds there. Unfortunately the unofficial entrances remain blocked so it is a long way in via Warriston Gardens and then home via the cyclepath. 

9miles in 4.5hrs