getting there

 

23-08-26 The day was looking bright and before I'd decided what to do with it Mary suggested we take the car out. Since she knows I'm obsessed with SBW she was happy to drive us there and have a 3 mile walk. Her as yet undiagnosed knee swellings don't enjoy much more than 3 miles walkabout, but she has felt so stifled by months with pretty much no regular running, that she was happy to wander about Saltoun Big Wood. A post the day before by Bob on East Scottish Butterflies flagged up the scabious now being in full bloom and attended by reasonable (if down on the usual) amounts of butterflies.

We drove in (via East Saltoun) past the road end parking, but there were 3 cars using all the available space so we continued down to West Saltoun and at my suggestion went right through the hamlet and out the other side. There are a couple of parking spaces just before the bridge which I had in mind, but they were busy as well so we continued up the hill to opposite the end of the Pencaitland cyclepath where there is parking for several more cars.

 

I had suggested we go in to the woods via Barley Mill which would give us a look at the garden with the buddleias beside the road, which can be heaving with butterflies. On this occasion there were only a handful of peacock and fewer admirals. No commas, walls and only passing whites, so after 5mins we headed along the Barley Mill path and went up the trail to the first pond.

common darter

marmalade hoverflies
sure enough most of the devil's bit scabious was in full bloom

(possibly immature) male common darter

common darter male

common darter female

You can see from the lack of hard shadows on these dragonfly shots that there wasn't bright sunshine all day. However there were sunny intervals which I suspect brought out more butterflies than Bob saw the day before. 

plenty peacocks on the go

and some very vibrant commas

right at the start of butterfly alley

Everywhere we looked there were peacocks. Because Mary wanted to go round the square of the top circuit we did so. Meaning we only went along butterfly alley once. When I am there on my own I always come back that way as that is where the majority of the butterflies are and occasionally I'll spot something on the return I didn't see on the first occasion. However Mary likes to see the less butterfly-busy back of the top square. I felt indebted to Mary for saving me the bike ride there so I was happy to see if there was anything worthwhile round the bit I don't normally bother with. There was not. All the good stuff is on butterfly alley and the woodpile and 2 ponds where I normally go. But you never know, sometimes a change is as good as a rest. But not today.

Counting butterflies at a busy venue is almost impossible. There was only one small tort and very few walls. Initially I thought about 4 walls then I examined the two I photographed at different parts and they were the same individual. It could be that all four were the same individual - just out of pupa jail and flying around like a mad thing looking for love and not stopping to eat. I put down 2 for the area recorder. Because the chance of there being 2 was high. But I suspected it was just one very keen very mobile wall. 

The number of peacocks we guestimated at 68. I was counting them in clumps of five at times and several were moving up and down the trail as we were. It was impossible to know for certain we had not counted the same one twice. And inevitably, since there were so many that half a dozen would have been missed because we weren't running through the bracken chasing them all out. However as we went we tried to keep a tally. I'd ask Mary how many painted ladies we'd already got up to and we'd both struggle to remember. (Over 20.) Or was that red admirals. (under 20.) It was the busiest I've seen Saltoun this year and it was no sunnier than the last couple of visits, so I think we can blame the blooming scabious, particularly with the comma-count climbing from 2 and 1 the last couple of trips to a solid 9 this trip. And if the sun came properly out I'd expect double that and then some.

wall refusing to pose photogenically

just a solitary small tortoiseshell
which flew off as we approached, into the treetops

small white in fine condition

another marmalade hover

17 admirals in total

the commas were all in spectacular condition

drone fly photobombing this peacock

I was irritated about this piece of foliage getting in the way of a berry photo
however in truth the painted lady was feeding on scabious, not berries

long haired variety!

after careful comparison this is the same wall as the first one

and still reluctant to pose nicely

a dozen speckled woods counted but many a bit tatty

so they got ignored with so many other good quality subjects about

Mary took her good camera out today (not the bridge camera)
and reported that it was fast becoming easy to use and instinctive

We saw several large whites out today but only recorded two as the rest did not stop for a photograph and definite ID. You can sometimes tell large whites from their behaviour - the males will search higher up trees for females (than other white species do) - as well as many looking distinctly larger than GVWs or Small Whites. However when this one was sat still I wasn't absolutely sure as it was no bigger than a large Small White. You can routinely come across large Small Whites appearing to overlap in size with small Large Whites. 😵

I didn't want to aggravate Mary's knees more than necessary so rather than dick about round the ponds waiting for dragonflies that weren't really flying as the sun wasn't sufficiently out, we called it a day and headed back to the car. I had really enjoyed a couple of unexpected hours at my favourite haunt without having to cycle 32miles and was happy to head home to process photos.

common darters out come sun or no sun

hen in the field beside Barley Mill

rose hips ripening

3.7miles in 2hrs13