receiving all in Levenhall

 

The second trip to Levenhall on 20th May was a cracker. The first was not, but that can happen. It was a week earlier on the 13th and there was no sign of the large skippers I was hoping for. I thought it might be a little early but everything this Spring has been, so I took a gamble. On the thirteenth it didn't pay off, however as I cycled back into town I thought I'd check a small corner near the lagoons and the bike track near the Esk estuary. I found one, then three red admirals. Mostly they stayed high in the trees, occasionally breaking form to speed tornado-like round the area and through the skyscape before returning to their arboreal perches.

It was spectacular but also frustrating as they kept mostly just out of reach of the even the long lens. Then I found one that kept returning to a lower perch on a nearby bush. It would regularly fly up when disturbed by its fellow RAs or passing insects and sometimes land back where I could get a decent shot. It was in decent condition but was possibly a migrant rather than a local. There had been reports of good numbers of RAs blowing in on a wind from the South along with a few painted ladies. This to my mind was a confirmation. Since RAs have been very thin on the ground this year it was the highlight of a day when the Large Skippers failed to materialise.

RA and some sort of ichneumon?

Because this one was taking off and landing nearly continuously I set the camera to pre-burst mode and took wider frame shots of it as it took off. Since it ascended so rapidly I'd only get 2 or three images before it was half-out the frame, sometimes fewer. Here are a couple, but the method wasn't that successful.

the downbeat of lift off

Levenhall stomping ground on the 20th

It was Bob D that originally drew my attention to this wee corner of East Lothian (although it hardly feels outwith Edinburgh city limits.) And the news there were Large Skippers there. A handsome orange dart easily mistaken for a moth that looks rather special when fresh. Saves a trip to Dunglass on the other side of East Lothian. Although Ken told me they have turned up in Holyrood, albeit not in any numbers other than one. I came here last year and found them, but only after quite a long search and a persistence I don't always employ. Couple of distractions on the way there. One was a longhorn moth which landed on me, and the other was bumping into my brother unarranged on the cyclepath. He was also cycling and looking fit.

longhorn hitcher

bro, also on bike

The first wildlife I bumped into at Levenhall was this red admiral. Perhaps a cousin of the ones I saw last time. It did not hang about and was the only one I photo-ed all day. The excellent growing conditions of late have made everything shoot up and there was a lot of vegetation criss-crossing the narrow paths. I padlocked my bike to the fence which gave me the freedom to wander although I didn't cover much ground. Last time here with Mary we photographed a fresh common blue, large skippers and I came across an immature male black-tailed skimmer dragonfly. I have failed to see any further examples of this species. But my respect for the area was growing. 

Silver-ground carpet

2 green sawfly?

dagger fly, Empis sp

cantharid (soldier) beetle

There were a load of shrubs between the trees and rough grasses. On this occasion they seemed to be really busy with insects. Since a brisk walk around the place suggested there were no skippers or blues about, I thought I'd have a closer look at the bugs and beasties that were. It was a warm sunny day and the place was heaving with insects. Might as well pass the time taking photos of the locals. I noticed the green insects that were flying from leaf to leaf. Google suggests green sawflies. They were a vibrant colour but not keen to be photographed and my attention drifted to some soldier beetles that were also double busy, travelling about presumably looking for a mate. When they had inspected the immediate area and found nothing, they would then find a good jumping off spot, open their elytra (wing-cases) unfold their wings and fly a short distance to the next part of the shrub. They are a very common and commonplace insect but I had had a memorable time with them at the end of last July in Warriston. (Blog here.) It was another day of mass take-offs and I realised I could capture those by using the Pre-Burst mode. I was pleased with those results then, but realised I have had more practise with the equipment and should be able to improve on what was already a pleasing result.

a few lacewings about but they are not terribly obliging

Everything above this point was shot with the long lens. However I realised I'd have more fun with the macro for the bugs and insects and swapped over to get in closer.

what I wanted was cantharid action!

millions of (tiny) aphids about
which maybe accounts for the growing ladybird population

this large bottle seemed happy to pose for pics

this is a further crop of the photo above

Andrena, Tawny mining bee

I was so busy with the flies and bugs I only remembered about the large skippers when a fast moving orange triangle zoomed past. I think I said out loud "large skipper" as if emerging from a dream. It took a little while to track it down. Maybe I was having trouble getting close enough with the macro lens but I seem to have changed back to the 100~400 for the photos of the skipper, although I did swap back to the 90mm later for the shieldbugs. And stuck with that for the remainder.

Most of the time I was looking there was only one skipper. However I did see it spiral with another one and while a few hundred yards away from the place this one was photographed, there was another. So maybe three in total. However given how early in the season it was this was understandable. Not sure I saw more than this there last year.

orange-tip season coming to an end
after a very successful year for them

My eye was caught by this dandelion which looked like there was something additional within its white fluffy parachutes. Right enough a couple of hairy shieldbugs Dolycoris baccarum had booked it as the honeymoon suite. I tried to video the process as there was some amusing side-to-side shoogling but the dandelion itself would not hold still in the breeze and still shots were the only decent record. (I changed to the macro lens as I love a detailed shieldbug shot.)

back to the soldier beetles taking off

The large skipper, seemingly annoyed by my paying attention to the orange beetles flew almost under my nose and then landed nearby. I had to ease myself in beside it very slowly in order not to chase it off but managed to get fairly close on a couple of occasions. I think it was getting bored waiting for females to emerge. It didn't seem to be interested in flowers and was flying round every 5 minutes presumably checking the territory for females, then landing on these leaves, or similar nearby. Great to see these  butterflies coming ever closer to Edinburgh; hopefully they will become regulars in Holyrood along with their cousins the small skippers who have been here for a while now.

Cantharis pellucida?

At this point I saw a tiny yellow ladybird. Initially I didn't realise it was a ladybird it was so small. When I turned the macro lens on it, it became apparent it was a Fourteen-spot ladybird and I realised why I hadn't seen one before. They are almost negligibly miniscule. Easy to overlook. I was very pleased to photograph this life-time first and it added to the joy of today considerably. Hopefully there will be more of them about this year which seems a very good year for ladybirds, well, 7-spots at least.

Pleased to get even more detailed photos of these soldier beetles taking off. The trouble with moving in closer is you lose the third and fourth frames of them flying to their next leaf. However I was very pleased with the amount in sharp focus of the shapes they adopt when flying - like a miniature wing-suit base jumper: arms and legs spread wide in anticipation. I ran all the active photos together in a short video below. It all made for a rewarding day at Levenhall - not everything on my shopping list turned up (no blues) but there were enough delights to leave a very positive impression from these few square yards of fairly inauspicious waste ground at the far side of the lagoons. (7.5 miles cycle each way.)

last skipper shot

Levenhall - on the way out of Musselburgh
heading towards Prestonpans.

wee video of the soldiers on manoeuvre
soundtrack Lava Lamp by Geller (volume up)