more magpies

 

10-11-25 Back to Warriston and covering similar ground in slightly better weather. Actually it started with a constitutional round the Botanics with Mary, however there was so little to photograph there that we did a quick circuit then back out again. M went home for lunch and I headed to Warriston to see if there was anything worth taking a pic of. 

very few photos taken in the Botanics

maybe this one as well

but this was taken in Warriston

- there were still a few bumblebees about

lots of ladybirds busily galloping around

noon fly

There were still a few wasps about. This was a larger one - either a queen or maybe a German Wasp. I ran it through Obsidentify but it wasn’t sure. One of the ways of identifying them is the common wasp has an anchor like design on its face, the Germanic just a dot.

grey squirrel and harlequin ladybird

two invasive species in the same photo

Someone else, not myself, had put a load of peanuts on the top of a tall table-like gravestone. The magpies were gathering in the trees but reluctant to swoop down due to a pair of crows, also sitting nearby. If a magpie worked up the courage to fly to the stone, the crows would often respond and chase them off. The crows had already eaten their fill and would gather a beak-full to bury a short distance away. While they were doing this, the magpies would see the coast was clear and hurry down and grab some nuts. Sometimes the crows would return and chase them, sometimes they weren’t that bothered. The magpies kept an eye on the crows and would fly off, anticipating the crows rushing in.

While you might think you could time the shutter release to go off just as the magpies approach the food table, in reality this is almost impossible. Happily my camera has what they call pre-burst mode - if you keep your finger half down on the release (in that mode) it runs a continual buffer until you see the bird land on the gravestone at which point you press the button all the way down and it records the buffer from one second before, thus capturing the approach in a machine gun spray of consecutive photos. Using the joystick I positioned the auto-focus on the gravestone at the bottom of the frame, leaving the large blank area above for the appearance of the birds knowing they would be about the same focal distance as the platform. I stood some distance back and mostly shot towards 400mm with the zoom.

crow defending “his” peanuts

magpie dashes in

magpie strides in purposefully 

to reprimand young whipper-snapper

this photo is a composite of two consecutive photos;

the first had a better lhs bird, and in the second, the rhs magpie was better

a photoshop cut’n’shut

smash and grab

most of these shots were taken around 1/5000 to freeze action

corvid colours

three for a girl, four for a boy

the follow up to ‘one for sorrow, two for joy’    

buff tailed or similar bumblebee

Nancy

harlequins

I was intrigued to see this ladybird (likely a harlequin), emerging from its pupa case. I knew that newly emerged ladybirds are yellow, and without spots. I didn’t know they wander about with partly open wings, but that makes sense. If they are anything like butterflies or dragonflies they will need to dry wings and let them fully expand before folding them away.

here is one that has been out for a bit longer

but is yet to get spots or turn its eventual colour

quite a few flies basking on warm stones

orange ladybirds

in the huddle

they tend to face each other

crane fly Tipula rufina

wasp on tree bark

18 spot ladybird

sawfly caterpillar

Gilpinia frutetorum (?)

18 spot and aphid

size comparison between 18 spot and 2 harlequins

smallish fly

cream streaked ladybird

despite lack of cream or streaks

ladybird larva

harlequin on treebark

I thought this might be a pine ladybird

but white makings suggest harlequin again

squirrel watching and wondering if I was packing any peanuts -

 more timid than Botanics squirrels but becoming less so

bark close up

watchful crow

another tree with handsome overcoat

Quite a few flies which Obsidentify tends to ID as blow flies or non-specific house flies. They are unremarkable until you get in close with a macro lens and then they appear both sinister and fascinating. Some (hoverflies) are like sports cars, others, more like Stig of the Dump. None boring! I suspect the colder temps were making them easier to get up close to, without them flying off.

Leiobunum blackwalli - harvestman

a harlequin takes off from my finger

Unfortunately I had forgotten to set the shutter-speed to a high enough speed to freeze the take off and the subsequent 2 shots were blurry as anything. The harlequins were flying about in the sun and when this one landed on my hand and then made its way up to the end of my finger I realised it was about to fly off and I turned the camera to burst mode. At least I got the elytra opening before it took off.

another harvestman beside yet another harlequin

I really enjoyed the sunshine which made the photos a bit more cheerful. Bringing out the colours on the magpies’ feathers and warming up the day slightly. The forecast is not very upbeat for the next week or more and it becomes increasingly more difficult to find adventures worth the bus fare. I hope I can put my energies into running and gym classes, with the prospect of getting in shape (a better shape) for the upcoming holiday; the best prospect on the immediate horizon. 

5.4miles in 3hrs30