recent nice

 

27th July~3rd August. During the last 10 days I've been out and about taking photos. No day has been so spectacular it was worth a whole page to itself but there have been some reasonable images along the way that I was reluctant to bin without blogging. So I collected the best of them in a folder which I called recent nice. This be them.

comma

The first few photos are from a constitutional through New Calton Cemetery. The place is awash with valerian, ragwort and other butterfly-attracting plants. When the buddleias flowered - and there is a lot over the West side of the place - eventually the butterflies appeared. Not in huge numbers but enough, and some great quality specimens, that we often walk via this cemetery on the way to Holyrood. It is about a mile from home. 

large white

RA

on the way home along Regent Terrace
this (young?) magpie was strutting its stuff

green-veined white

Next up a trip to Warriston. Again, huge amounts of wildlife potential which doesn't always live up to the hype, but sometimes produces the goods. You just have to keep going regularly and something will materialise. I have had to take secateurs to cut a narrow path into the In Loving section, trying to keep the brambles and nettles from totally reclaiming the area. Even then, shorts are not recommended.

comma

There are regularly brand new commas in that area although last trip they may have migrated up into the trees. I saw a couple flying about but they failed to descend to pose on the highest vegetation which was their usual preference. However I have seen an occasional holly blue there lately which is really very welcome news as they had almost entirely deserted the cemetery after a couple of years of regular sightings. Two other spots to keep an eye out for them: at the East end of the crypts where is a lot of ivy as well as rosebay willowherb. And over by Felix Yaniewicz there is a tall tree and a small enclave of stones where they occasionally fly.

male holly blue on willowherb

took a big wade (in shorts!) into the In Loving undergrowth to get this shot

very nearly worth it!

Through the tunnel and some privet that was climbing a tree has fallen over onto the path. The birds are indifferent to it and as always, adapt to their surroundings. It is a time of plenty with everything thriving in a warm but well-watered Summer. There are plenty juvenile birds out for their first year which can be confusing as their plumage is different from the norm. Often adults will be feeding youngsters, so they appreciate a small pile of seeds and peanuts beside the stream. Mostly garden birds and bullfinches. And if they don't finish the seeds, the crows will sweep up as I leave.

blue tit

blackbird (f)

crow

Japanese anemone

the crows approve of the new posters

This poster says the council employees have put up a trail-cam. Presumably to record badgers and  foxes at night. I haven't found it yet, nor have I looked particularly. I've always meant to come here late and see what happens after dark but never had the momentum to get it done. I think a deck chair and warm jacket might be required. I bumped into Hugh here recently, who said he was having trouble getting up early to see the raptors and then staying up late to see the badgers. Burning the candle at both ends. I tend to burn it at neither end, especially not the early end.

The squirrels are fun. I've fed them here a few times and they look at me, trying to work out whether to run up the nearest tree or whether I'm the guy with the peanuts. If I throw a handful at them they come over but are not like the tame ones in the Botanics, who run up your legs and and critique the quality of food you're serving.

small whites in flight

at Aberlady

Next adventure was to Postman's Walk. Richard had seen a holly blue there, just about as I was giving up hope we'd ever see another in East Lothian. I'd been past earlier in July and had seen heehaw so this was a real boost. Mary drove us there, which was handy! I don't think I even had to bully her too much as she was wanting to take the car out and give it a bit of a run. It tends to sit slowly rusting undriven in our street, and benefits from turning over now and again. We took our swimming kit and much to my surprise went swimming at Gullane afterwards. Now that is worth a whole blog of its own.

It was a mixed result at Postman's. We skirted the perimeter of a field which was planted with several types of cabbage. Not sure which ones the butterflies preferred but they were so good looking I was tempted to pop one in my backpack to accompany dinner. They looked so much better than the long dead ones in supermarkets. Anyway the field was alive with white butterflies as a result. At any point you could see a dozen in the air and twice that landing on the thistles next to the path, chasing each other and perching on the flowers. However we were really looking for blues not whites. 

South to the Hopetoun Monument

cabbages!

I remembered that second brood holly blues tended to occupy the ivy and trees along the North side of the field from around the telegraph pole to (just before) the far end. (But not really going round the corner onto the East wall as the first brood do.) This turned out to be the case and I saw a male chasing a female about 7/8ths of the way along the field. They were both scooting about at great speed and difficult to photo. The female rejected the male and went off to egglay. It was looking for a sheltered place under layers of ivy and again it was not easy to get photos.

wrong shutter speed!
far too slow

female

female egglaying

There were a few other species about but not in the numbers they had been last visit. We walked past the abbey ruins but the next field was so overgrown with nettles, thistles and other jaggy stuff we took the path on the North side of the wall. I had a notion to check out a spot 2/3rds of a mile away on the other side of the road, on the trails to Drem, where I'd seen early Migrant Hawkers a year or 2 ago. Mary does not have a lot of love for dragonflies (although I keep telling her about their great beauty!) so we parted company and I ran at top speed (as quickly as I could carrying the camera and with heavy back pack on) all the way to the clearing by the warehouse barn. Sadly no hawkers yet, but good to check these things. After a quick scout about I turned around and ran back to catch Mary not far from where I left her. I was now soaking wet but mostly dried off in the warm sunshine.

On the way back across the field we saw some more Holly Blues. They might have been the same ones but were 150m away from last ones, so probably weren't. They were behaving in much the same manner though. Not sitting for photos, the female rejecting the male and hiding away to egglay. I was a bit frustrated by chasing them for ages without getting any kind of photo beyond a record shot. However it was greatly reassuring to see them here at all. They seem to have nearly disappeared from the Lothians, and are seen far more frequently across the Forth in Fife these days. The theory is they are on the run from their nemeses the parasitic wasps that lay eggs on the caterpillars.

Next up: a trip to the Botanics! Not a great deal of butterflies about despite the weather being okay. This juv robin just growing his first orange bib gave us a warm welcome at the gate, and I fished out a handful of peanuts to say thanks!

We sat at a bench where we have interacted with a robin on a previous visit. However the gull(s) that appeared were far more coarse and greedy. This one threatened to take lumps out of the youngsters hoping to get some of the overspill. The feathers in its bill (below) are from the throat of one juvenile gull who dared to come too close to the handout area!

delightful waterlily at the cafe pond

small hoverfly

large drone fly
Eristalis pertinax or similar

poppy head

There was a total lack of butterflies. Lots of bumbles though and other flies. So I put on the macro lens. Mary was feeling it cold and I suppose it was a bit overcast. I wasn't feeling the cold and was determined to get some decent photos. Mary went home, I stayed, and although I got a couple of images I was happy with, it wasn't the best day for wildlife. I eventually got thrown out by the bell-ringers at 5pm, although I was ready to go by then. I think I missed lunch entirely that day!

I think this might be the same species of fly I photo-ed the other day at Saltoun. It is obviously quite common and yet despite that google lens can't make up its mind whether it is a tiger fly, a root fly or any one of a dozen different latin names. 

marmalade hoverfly

yeah that one again
this time on a dried out poppy flowerhead

it sat for ages while I 'changed backgrounds' and exposures
and got the focus well messed up, then even resorted to manual focus!

has it come to photographing wasps?

stop popping that flash in my eyes!
(it was just doing a wash and clean not really covering its eyes)

Yeah that's not great focussing on the hoverfly (above) (syrphus) but I do like the little flowers, like cups, below it - what would you call them? Aren't they nice? The Botanics always has interesting plants, even on the days the butterflies stay indoors.

our pal again - the fly of a million names

another vote for Helina reversio from this pic via google,
but also Siphona, Coenosia and Tachinid

well pollinated Andrena

botanics apples

back to Warriston for this holly blue at the East end of the crypts

an aging comma West of the crypts

Now I surprised by this blackcap, either a female or more likely a juvenile. Both have brown caps, mature males have the titular blackcap. I thought it might be a youngster as it was hopping around the bushes a couple of metres away and showing less caution than an adult. It kept returning to the (In Loving) area. As did I! On this occasion there were fewer commas about.  

chaffinch

juv crow - far too noisy
no idea how mum puts up with its constant nonsense

large white

bramble berry-tastic

I got the macro lens out because there weren't many butterflies about. However there weren't many flies and bugs about either. And of course a lovely wall landed too far away to capture with the macro. They have been recorded here more regularly this year than previously. Good to see!

wall

speckled wood and friend

Back to Calton New Burial Ground on the 3rd Aug. This very tangy comma was not keen on company. Love the orange headlights with yellow tips. It flew onto the shoulder of one of the characters on the grave of Andrew Skene, the Solicitor General of Scotland. I have no idea what the group of people sculpted on his grave are up to - likely some Greek tale or other. He wasn't married and it makes you wonder if maybe he was gay, although that isn't obligatory for having naked young men either side of your grave. Although...

typical - you hold out a hand
and it lands on someone else's shoulder

Andrew Skene marble monument carved by Patric Park

Although not as butterfly-busy as the previous visit, we did see a tremendous painted lady, a first for our visits here. It was super flighty but I caught a couple of quick shots of it on buddleia with warm flowery backgrounds that I was pleased with, before it flew off.

We then wandered into Holyrood and up to the McIntosh ridge above Hutton's Section where there were a few graylings about. There was also a wall and a meadow brown just to confuse matters. I was looking to get more take-off sequences which I had some luck with, but not enough to make any further composite shots from. This female (I think she was egglaying) was in tip-top nick and made for a couple of great images of her uppers in flight.

3 video clips randomly thrown together