goodbye Saltoun

 

20-09-26 - Perhaps the final visit to Saltoun this year. It has not been as amazing as previous years. And this trip might have been the least busy with butterflies. I had been watching the weather and thought today looked about as good as we've been getting of late - a bit patchy but some moments of blue skies and full on sunshine. I opted to get the bus again since that went well last time. It worked okay this trip although there were some issues. I have been trying to get back into running and tried to run the 3 miles from Pencaitland to Saltoun Wood, without getting too distracted by stuff along the way.

some buddleia in a Pencaitland garden was being attended by
admirals, painted ladies and passing whites

some autumnal colours along the cyclepath

running with the new backpack is only just possible,
the larger size tempts me to fill it with extra gear and waterproofs

Between the end of the cyclepath and the Wood is a garden with buddleia that attracts dozens of butterflies, however the plumes had long turned brown and there was only a solitary speckled keeping guard. Below on the hedge a painted lady was checking out the flowering ivy.

Not a huge amount of dragonflies about. Mostly common darters, of which there were lots.
female above, male below

common darter at the woodpile

As reported in the previous blog from here, the backtrail was unnecessarily strimmed along the edges which hasn't helped the wildlife I enjoy photographing. There were still a few butterflies about but no species were near double figures, although if I hunted around long enough I could have found 10 speckled woods. I walked up to the top corner and then back again seeing only a small handful of the main species here; peacocks, admirals, commas and painted ladies. Plus a few small whites blowing through.

small white

lots of fungi about too

nice to see a comma or 2 but they weren't posing very well

couple of mushroom hunters

cheerful red admiral

As I was returning back down "butterfly alley" Alastair and Audrey appeared. I think they were out for a walk and Alastair possibly didn't even have his camera with him. He reported later they'd seen black darters, which was more than I did this trip.

At the top pond I checked again for dragonflies, and while there wasn't much on the go, this female Southern Hawker landed on the soggy wood tree trunk just out from where I regularly stand pondside. It took a long while to check out the damp wood and possibly check holes to lay eggs. No males came past to interrupt while this was going on, so her timing was perfect. As you can imagine I took far too many photos and miles of footage most of which I binned as it was all very similar.

video of Southern Hawker egglaying

more common darters

male

female

I wondered if it was worth the few hundred yards hike towards the river to see if the buddleia stems trailside were still flowering and attracting butterflies. I flipped a coin mentally and decided to check it out although my spirits were pretty low by now and I was planning the run back to Pencaitland. It was worth a look as the buddleia was not entirely over and there was a few remaining stems of scabious which had attracted a peacock and another comma.

rare in focus shot of Southern Hawker

There was also this large Southern Hawker male patrolling up and down a section of trail. I tried to follow it to see where it was landing if anywhere, but never saw it perch once. Only one of about a dozen photos taken as it flew past was in focus.

partly munched fly agaric

two ladybirds (7-spots I think) snuggled in together

that might be Saltoun waving bye bye for this year

some Gorse shieldbugs

and 2 more
first time I've noticed gorse shieldbugs - ID from Obsidentify and google lens

as usual there was a common hawker or 2 on the silver birch pondside

coal tit having a drink at the pond

I happened to see this brand new Common Hawker land in the grasses near to where I was standing, so gingerly tip-toed across to get a few close ups.

another speckled wood

handy wildlife tips on the Pencaitland cyclepath,
the return wasn't too bad but then the bus I was on had problems 
and we had to get moved on to a replacement bus etc.

8miles in 3hrs46