17-07-25 A bright enough day and there should have been more along at the Botanics on this constitutional than there was. But you never know beforehand. And the walk does one good, burns a few calories, adds a few steps and keeps you away from the home-snacks for an hour or 2. And there are always a few remarkable plants to photograph at the Botanics. Not enough insects on top of them for my liking but always worth the price of admission. (Free entry! 😎)
that time already - purple torch almost there
admirals love this when it flowers
admirals love this when it flowers
lacy phacelia - will soon to be covered in hoverflies
some areas set aside for wildflower meadows
Campbell's magnolia
looking like an inflamation you might take to the doctors
looking like an inflamation you might take to the doctors
some cracking water lilies in the pond by the cafe
nearest this sundial has ever been to correct,
within minutes!
within minutes!
Mary picked up some hitchers on her shoes.
Korean fir
African lily or similar
So why record a trip with no butterflies? Well, sometimes that is as notable a result as when the place is teeming with them. That even in the great Summer of 2025 there were days when there was f'all about. Which is why I don't really bother doing the Big Butterfly Count. I feel that it is a thing invented to get youngsters and non-nature lovers to pay attention to butterflies and has little to do with public science. Because nobody is going to go out for 15minutes and record zero butterflies. Actually I should. Just to buck the trend. Because there are many 15minute intervals this Summer in Scotland when not a single butterfly has crossed my path.
You'd have to be blindfolded to get that result yesterday in the cabbage field near Aberlady where every minute of the time we were there, a white butterfly of some description was seen flying. Possibly a couple of hundred in a field, drawn by the lovely looking cabbages. But it was a rare example of there being too many to count accurately, either by number or species. And from mid-August in a specific area of Saltoun Wood (fingers crossed) a similar scene, but the air and flowers filled with peacocks, admirals and commas rather than large, small and green-veined whites. I am a bit conflicted about it though - surely only a psycho would post a zero butterflies result on the BigButterflyCount?
In my defence there are lepidopterists who go walk transects regularly, reporting in a far more reliable and accurate manner, the citizen science required to assess the condition of our environment via the counting of butterflies. They know what species they are looking at, and generally choose the best places to find them. And if there are none there, then that is the number they will record. So while it is fun to encourage youngsters to engage with butterflies, it is not something I get excited about.
You'd have to be blindfolded to get that result yesterday in the cabbage field near Aberlady where every minute of the time we were there, a white butterfly of some description was seen flying. Possibly a couple of hundred in a field, drawn by the lovely looking cabbages. But it was a rare example of there being too many to count accurately, either by number or species. And from mid-August in a specific area of Saltoun Wood (fingers crossed) a similar scene, but the air and flowers filled with peacocks, admirals and commas rather than large, small and green-veined whites. I am a bit conflicted about it though - surely only a psycho would post a zero butterflies result on the BigButterflyCount?
In my defence there are lepidopterists who go walk transects regularly, reporting in a far more reliable and accurate manner, the citizen science required to assess the condition of our environment via the counting of butterflies. They know what species they are looking at, and generally choose the best places to find them. And if there are none there, then that is the number they will record. So while it is fun to encourage youngsters to engage with butterflies, it is not something I get excited about.
On the way home we saw this moorhen mother with 2 tiny chicks. They all raced back to their nest where the parent sat down first then ushered her offspring in, under her. I took some blurry pics with my camera at the wrong settings before changing it and taking these. (Schoolboy error!) And then shot a few seconds video. Almost missed all the action.
moorhens!
The goosander offspring count has been reduced to just one.
last of this year's goosander chicks
one of the many likely predators
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