destination dragonfly

 

23rd September. Possibly the final trip to Saltoun this year. It was a pretty good day weather wise and the lack of wind meant I had every opportunity to cycle a decent time both there and back. I knew I couldn't match the wind assisted times I'd done last couple of trips but I posted a respectable 76mins and certainly felt it was a decent workout to cover the 16 hilly miles there. 

yellow ball on the first pond

I reminded myself I intended to focus on dragonflies today. They can be more tricky than butterflies to get photos of, and the last couple of visits I have ended up sneaking off to butterfly alley instead of persisting. The weather was pretty good for hunting dragonflies so I wandered up to the first pond to see what was there. Apart from a yellow ball left by a hydrophobic dog perhaps, there wasn't a lot. A few common darters, no sign of black darters and some hawkers over the water. I put a carrier bag down on the small brick step round the right hand side of the pond and took a seat. I shot mainly videos of a few male common darters who were patrolling and hovering nicely over the water. There was an occasional fly through from a common hawker but none hovered nearby for long enough to make in onto the SD card. The results are in a video at the bottom of the page. It was over 100mb so had to be uploaded to youTube and then embedded here. 

common darter male
the females tend to be khaki / olive colour

collie - might have a bit of retriever in him/her

So while I was sat on my stoop, pondside, I heard a woman walking her collie come past. She spotted the yellow ball which was floating a few metres out from the edge. She kept a hold of her own ball but urged the collie into the water to collect the yellow ball. I was happy to see the plastic pollution being removed. However I was aware from the confiding way the dog owner was chatting to the dog that she hadn't realised I was sat across the pond. When she eventually did notice myself, the chat subsided somewhat. I called across "lovely day" trying not to ruin her fun or come across as a killjoy. And shot a wee video of the collie swimming out to the ball. I forgot was still in slo-mo. 

The common darters are smaller than hawkers (but slightly more obliging) and I felt I had done okay, recording several who flew close and stayed hovering while I shot them in slo-mo. 

reluctant Southern Hawker

I thought I spent about an hour at the first pond however the GPS output says it was only half that before I decided to head up to the second pond, on the right, beyond the crossroads. I hadn't seen any Southern Hawkers at the first pond and I knew they were more likely at the second. Indeed they were, however they did not come over and hover in front of me as I had planned. There was only one doing intermittent circuits round the pond and not playing ball. So I focussed more on the nearby darters-in-tandem, much in the manner of 'when fate gives you lemons...' etc.  They seemed to feel the best spot for egglaying was just near a log with shallow watery vegetation next door. They would sometimes seem elegant in flight, and other times just bash into each other. I pity the females who fly below the males as it doesn't seem that they get to choose where to fly, but are towed by the males. Whether they communicate through movement (or in tiny telepathic voices) we'll probably never know. It does seem to be a man's world in dragonfly world.

male common darter

egglaying in tandem times two

still photos taken from video clips

while I was there a red admiral called by briefly
to mud-puddle - possibly picking up moisture and minerals

Southern Hawker

Eventually the Southern Hawker came past a couple of times. I got some second rate video of himself in the distance which I thought I might have to settle for. But then (it must have heard about my cunning plan) it came over and hovered quite close by, and for several seconds. Which times 4.8 would be sufficient for a reasonable video. (Above.) I might not even use the B roll now. I felt that meant I could now go check out the butterflies although I'd have another look at the dragonflies on the way back to where I parked my bike.

First I checked out the woodpile. A couple of female darters taking time out from the pond and sunbathing on a log. Worryingly, no butterflies. The scabious there was looking past its best. Did this mean there would be no butterflies in butterfly alley?

The first butterfly I came across was this ghostly speckled wood. It had certainly seen better days. Further up the back trail things improved but there were only a handful of commas, red admirals and speckleds where a couple of weeks ago there were dozens. I spent an hour walking up to the top of the trail and back down again, eating my sandwich and chatting to a dogwalker. Around 30 butterflies in total. Sad to see such a drop-off in numbers and realise the spectacle is over for 2025. Although great that it happened at all given the forestry work undertaken from last Summer through the Winter. The place had a lot of machinery churning up mud and spoiling the back trail and I did wonder if that would have a disastrous impact on the place and in particular the back trail between August and Sept and the finest show of butterflies in the Lothians. However it seems to have survived!

same ghostly speckled

gvw

one of the handful of commas I saw

an unexpectedly fresh female wall

a cheerful few admirals still

this feather was still in the same place;
last trip Obsidentify ID-ed as a tawny owl feather

peacock (1 of only 2 today)
on the wood stack at the top of the trail

Ben and Smokey

Ben was out walking Smokey who I nearly remembered as Shadow, same thing really? Another Saluki. Ben was interested in what I was pointing the camera at and when I said butterflies, he said you should have seen it here 3 weeks ago. We had quite a lot to chat about and Smokey was really well behaved. However he had to stay on a lead because if he saw a deer or hare would be off running at lightening speed after it. (And we all know how that can go.) I didn't snitch on Diesel. We chatted for quite a while about the wildlife we'd come across in various local places.

Tachina sp

I also bumped into kennel person from last time
who did better than I did by remembering my name
(one of her dogs is Frank - does that count?)

another great comma

not many green-veined white left

small white also more scarce

nicely posed seven spot

wave bye for another year

a few hovers about

Metellina sp.

an aging small copper on the way back to second pond

lots of fungi appearing

The sun was spending more time behind clouds and it was time to head home. I checked both ponds on the way and although there were 3 Southern Hawkers at the top pond none of them were prepared to pose or fly close enough to better the earlier video.

Down at the first pond there was the almost inevitable common hawker on pondside birch. Often it is a mating pair. I slowly moved in for photos. While I was doing this a common darter landed on my head. I put my hand near it and it had the good sense to relocate to further up the same tree where I took photos of its cheeky self. 

friendly!

The cycle home was not bad at all.
I managed 72mins which is decent going without wind assistance. 

common darters at both ponds