best part of the day: r'ad

12 + 17-07-26. A couple of trips to Warriston, devoid of interest. 😁

comma

GVW

I was surprised Mary was in the photos on both days. She has been struggling with her sore knees which are still swollen and defy easy analysis and fixing. I suspect she didn't stay as long as myself on at least one of the occasions and possibly both. I have more stamina for a good few hours of wandering around, even on days when nothing much is happening. Or I'll get caught up trying to photo and film hoverflies which takes time and patience and watching someone do this is, I admit, exceptionally boring.

cemetery good and overgrown
until you get stung by nettles when it is horribly overgrown

This is in the In Loving section otherwise renamed as Comma Corner. There is usually a fresh comma here, although there has also been a tremendous growth of nettles, wild grasses and mini-shrubs like hogweed, brambles, and berry canes. I recently went back with secateurs and snipped a path through them all as it was becoming impenetrable and I'd emerge with torn, stung legs. (I don't like to wear long trousers in the Summer.) I made the paths so attractive that the local sparrowhawk used the far end as a private space to dismantle an unfortunate bird. I think that defines it as a success. Certainly easier to access the new commas as they appear.

I also saw a holly blue (m) on the back wall ivy although I didn't get any closer before it disappeared possibly into the innaccessable ivy.

A couple of juv crows have appeared. The parents suffer from constant attention seeking and petulant cawing for food or love. I get bored with their racket after about 2 minutes. The dad crow seems to spend a lot of time off smoking a pipe in the lounge bar while the mother just sits by with the patience of a saint. (See video at bottom of page featuring cawing and pecking-for-attention juv.) You'd think the younger crows would be more amenable to learning tricks and/or handfeeding. Get them while they're too young to know any better. However the parents seem to have taught them well and if anything they are more cautious than the parents who have known me years and will sit very close by. (But never handfeed.)

There was the usual admiral above the crypts which I tried to encourage to land on a hand as it did circuits inspecting us, then landing on stones beside us. It seemed to be very aware of us and not unfriendly, but just lacking the final courage (or boldness) to land on an outstretched hand. Only once has it done this in the last few weeks.

chasing off other male red admirals

There seem to be three stock doves in St Marks. One of them had a limp. Each time I saw them I tried to work out if one was limping but haven't seen it for a while. It could be a clever ruse it puts on to get more food thrown in its direction.

it was so hot (and Mr. C all dressed in black) that this crow was
walking about with its mouth open, gasping, but otherwise behaving normally

Richard said a cheery hello as he ran past looking fit!

then, 5 days later...

this time we cycled to put less stress on Mary's knees

the weather this Summer, on occasions, has been pretty good

comma at comma corner

I love this image

not for long, but it did sit on my hand briefly,
and Mary took this photo

This comma was sitting so patiently that I swapped the zoom for the macro 90mm and tried to get some close-ups. I always enjoy how lightweight the macro lens is and how amazingly detailed the results are, and it makes a change from the usual 100~400 which stays on the camera 95% of the time. The 90mm does require getting up close and right in the face of the poor subject which I suspect they don't enjoy that much, but I did enjoy seeing if I could get eyeball to eyeball (or at least lens) with this comma, which as I said was very accepting of me slowly moving in until I was nearly touching his wingtips with the lens.

I'm unsure of the evolutionary benefit for having hairy eyes,
perhaps it stops pollen etc going right up against the unprotected optical equipment

holly blue - the downside of the macro lens is lack of zoom in ability

Mary in the jungle

raspberry

you can see the individual mini-fruits which are called drupelets

I liked the atmosphere of this photo but thought it a shame that the chip out the wingtip detracts from this otherwise handsome specimen. I decided to practise my repair tool skills in photoshop. I don't do this much as it is really quite time consuming to do to this standard, but it uses very similar principles to painting, which used to be my first love but now I don't do at all. I have left the before and after for your appraisal! Normally you can use the clone tool to fix a missing section but this was less easy as there were no angles matching the missing bit of wing where it arcs over at the top and so I had to build it using paintbrush tools rather than just the clone tool. And keep it in a similar out-of-focus to the surrounding wing.

repaired holly blue
half an hour well spent?

photo Mary - beside the variegated holly tree shooting
holly blues, speckleds and volucella pellucens

video clips of Volucella pellucens (again)

another comma, near the sparrowhawks I think

So I kept the macro lens on because it is a lot of fun to use. Unfortunately it means fewer photos as you have to get within armsreach of a subject for the best results. Not everyone will sit still for that treatment. Determined to carry on I went up to above the crypts again to see if the eternal admiral there wanted to have his close ups done. I call him male based on behaviour as I don't know if I would really notice what gender it was based on visuals alone. Anyway he was there sat on a warm gravestone and happily for me, reluctant to leave even if I was jamming a camera right in his face. I approached with maximum stealth. I like to think he enjoyed the process and company, but I suspect if he was thinking anything it was "not that twat again, here we go, flippin 'eck"

admiral on warm stone - all the following photos were taken
as it sat here facing downwards although I have spun some of them through 90'

I really like this as a minimalist version of a red admiral

the next few pics are turned anticlockwise ninety degrees
to give a horizontal base

how close in to the eyes can I get?

Normally I use a diffused flash to light such close-up pics. Even on a bright day a flash can help light nooks and crannies the sun can't reach. However I wasn't going to subject my pal here to even a diffuse light right in the chops. I doubt he'd enjoy that very much and he was being super-tolerant already - I probably had the lens a finger-length away from him, or closer, as it was.

I thanked him profusely for his help and we shook hands
before he flew off for a circuit and landed on the next stone over

taken on a horizontal stone afterwards

This gave me one last chance for a closed wing shot as he was perpendicular to the sunshine and lit up very nicely. I had to slightly step up on the gravestone in a way not everyone might approve of and get level with him again, and I bet he wasn't delighted to see me approach once more, however he didn't fly away and I got the shot and left him to it.