woodhall dean

 

30-04-26 I can't remember exactly what sparked the idea to visit Woodhall Dean but Mary had been talking about taking the car out for some exercise, and Woodhall Dean is not easy to get to any other way. Too early in the year for purple hairstreaks and too late in the day for snakes, it was both a great idea and bound to fail. Actually it was a really fine short walk, although not without moments.

My memories of this place are that you won't see snakes. And often very little other wildlife. But it is also very sceneic. I see people posting snake pics from round Whiteadder Reservoir but hardly anywhere else in the Lothians. They are becoming very thin on the ground. Pun intended. If there were dozens wriggling all over the paths and chasing you, I might feel differently but they are super rare in Scotland (in my experience) and so I go places where there are warning signs. But they rarely show up. None today. Understandably; it was really warm and we only arrived late on, long after they'd have warmed up and slithered back into the undergrowth.

One thing I was delighted to see (again) were house martins. I'm not sure where they were coming from (a nearby barn or eaves) but they were arriving at this muddy puddle right beside the car park and collecting clay and straw for nest building. We must have been here at a similar time in years gone by as I can remember them doing the same, and largely failing to get decent photos on that occasion too! They were just about putting up with me crouched along the road, but when Mary appeared they flew off and didn't return. I hoped I'd get them at the other end of the walk. They are very charming and have rather daft looking legs not really made for walking about on. The air is far more their natural habitat.

house martins collecting mud for nest building

obsidentify says willow warbler

My plan was to carry the DJI pocket. I am still using the Pocket 1 but have plans to buy the Pocket 4 which came out just recently. Reviews are good and it is a slight improvement on the Pocket 3 which I was thinking I'd buy but was hoping the Pocket 1 would break first. I hate to replace tech which hasn't done its maximum lifespan. Actually I plan to give the Pocket 1 to Mary (she already sold it to me!) when I get the 4 so it won't lie in a drawer unused. (It will be in Mary's backpack unused.) 

Meanwhile I planned to use it for wide shots and video on the very narrow contouring paths round Woodhall Dean where you can't really get a feel for the brilliant scenery with a long lens. However it had done that thing again. It was over-exposing the landscape (see first few clips of video) despite being on the sunny weather setting. Why? I didn't know and it was very frustrating. I decided to go through every possible setting and see if I could fix it. However there was bright sunshine on a screen that is about the size of a tooth and I wasn't wearing reading glasses. Mary was walking on regardless; didn't realise I was desperately scrolling through pictograms and arrows the size of writing on a coin and failing to resolve the issue. It was like a bad dream and steam was beginning to come out my ears.

The tiny screen size - 20 x 14mm - was addressed in later models and the Pocket 3 (with much larger screen) went on to sell nearly 10million units: the most popular camera in the world. So they are keeping the Pocket 4 largely the same.

By the time we got to the top of the hill I had toggled PRO mode and suddenly the auto aperture and settings were recording just fine. I don't know whether I turned PRO mode on or off. Such is the irony of a lot of tech I find. However I had nearly managed to ruin the day with my insistence that Mary not run off ahead and scare off all the wildlife while I reprogrammed the camera. After another suitable interval we were back on speaking terms and the serenity of the surroundings slowly revived us. It really is a magical place. 

One red admiral very disinclined to be photographed.

some aesthetically pleasing black cattle at the far end of the loop.

In the past I have run across the cattle field and climbed a fence to get onto the path to Pressmennan Lake. Today there was no call for that and we just waved hello and took some photos.

I was pleased this yellowhammer sat still watching us while I filmed him with the good camera. One species you don't get in town and it's only when out in rural areas I see them. On this occasion it was not doing its famous "a little bit of bread and no cheese" call.

yellowhammer

wild garlic - ramsons - Allium ursinum
and about 10 other common names

nice to see it hasn't been overwhelmed by invasive few-flowered leak

a few speckleds about

we stopped at this bench for lunch

I thought it woud be too windy at this bench to sit and have our sandwiches but it was perfect. There was a stiff breeze in the treetops but much less at ground level. And no dogwalkers or hikers for as far as we could see. I ran back along the trail when I saw another yellowhammer fly to the ground and walk through the grass field collecting invertibrates. 

Just as we were getting ready to move on we heard a strange birdcall. Not disimilar to a grasshopper warbler. I've heard it described as being like a laser, but I was thinking musical striations or like a buzzing noise. We spent a long while looking straight up and I thought I saw the culprit. I got a couple of photos and Obsidentify ID-ed it as a redpoll. When I googled redpoll song I found a video which confirmed the 'laser zapping noise' is one of the best ways to know a redpoll from other finches. Every day a school day. Of course from underneath I couldn't see the telling red cap of the redpoll.

redpoll

one of the few butterflies stopping for a photo
green-veined white

lower down the trail there were a couple of peacocks
perched on the dead bracken

Mary's legs at the time were not in great shape. She didn't enjoy the gradients, partly because she'd been at the gym the day before, getting beasted by a personal trainer, who is trying to get Mary and her legs back into running condition. So she wasn't walking that normally which you can see in the video. So on the return trail I suggested we follow the stream back along the valley floor to the car park. I think at first she thought I was leading her over walls and through swamps but we both really enjoyed the stream-side lower path and all the butterflies going back and forth around the flowers. It was really pretty and we had fun taking photos of the butterflies, mostly orange tips, peacocks and GVWs.

Back at the car park no house martins but there were quite a few small birds in the trees nearby - whitethroats and blackcaps but they mostly avoided the camera. A buzzard lazily flew circles above. After a while we got in the car and drove home. I shot some video out the window because the countryside was looking FAB!

odd looking buzzard

whitethroat, in hiding

3.5miles South of Dunbar

video clips mostly out the DJI Pocket 1