Never Give Up...

Sometimes I'm too much the pessimist.  Although we did not get the summer-like temperatures experienced in the South of England, we did get a warmer than usual murk with occasional bursts of sunshine into the high teens.  The upshot was that I called time too early on the buddleia, the largest bush suddenly producing a decent sprig of flower in its very centre over the last few days.  This managed to briefly attract a fine red admiral on the 8th October, thereby achieving a personal mini-ambition and establishing a record that may not last long in the face of climate change.

Red Admiral

Meanwhile i have a new toy, a Nikon Coolpix camera, bought especially with the idea in mind of boosting my birdwatching efforts.  The wee Panasonic Lumix I have been using is brilliant in many respects but the zoom can be slow and the focus imprecise.

Perhaps understandably the additional camera has brought some technical issues.  There was a good opportunity to try it out yesterday on a Naturewatch visit to Hauxley Nature Reserve.  As on recent visits to Hauxley nothing spectacular was sighted, which didn't trouble me as I was mainly using it to practice my camera skills.

It was therefore disturbing to note that I had difficulty in seeing much through the viewfinder and when focussing on distant birds.  I started to wonder if I was going to get any usable shots at all.  Anyway I persevered and  managed to solve the focussing issue after a bit.

Here is a gallery of the results:

Coal Tit

Bullfinches with Goldfinch

Chaffinch

Shoveler

Goldeneye

Grey Heron

Mallard

Mallow

Obviously the coal tit was taken in the garden and added as my first ever attempt. 

It wasn't until I got home before I solved how to resolve the dim viewfinder.  Easy enough when you know how but with 308 pages of user manual as well as a very intricate looking piece of photo processing software, it could be a long learning curve!

Surprise and Disappointment

 As expected the buddleia hasn't lasted into October well enough to have much chance of attracting further butterflies, as just two or three reasonable sprigs remain.  The last red admiral to visit was sighted on 24th September.  Perhaps surprisingly though, the penultimate visitor on the 21st was a one-off comma.

Comma

Holly blue sightings did manage to rise by one, making a presumed final total of 14.

On Friday I finally got round to manage a planned visit to Hammerlands at Moffat (now apparently The Green Frog) to see if I could catch a trout on my father's old fly fishing gear.  Unfortunately most of the lake was heavily weeded and I didn't catch anything - and neither did the other two visitors on the day.  I did however manage to see some hefty looking trout but most were moving around at considerable speed and seemed disinterested in any offerings.

Staying over with my son in Crawford, we then got out for a birdwatching trip to Lochwinnoch RSPB  that proved my theory that you will often see nothing interesting until you are on the point of giving up.

Although it was a pleasant walk, there wasn't that much birdlife around, the main items noted being shoveler, heron and long-tailed tit plus some distant views of goldeneye.

Goldeneye

One interesting section was the boardwalk to the Peel Tower, where there was an abundance of himalayan balsam.  We noted several bees and wasps nectaring on it, all of which seemed to have white markings on the thorax.  I wondered if the first one we saw was a rare bee or if some kind of disease was prevalent.  We eventually concluded that it was in fact pollen from the balsam as it affected all of them, including honey bee, carder bee and buff-tailed bumblebee.  Attempts to photograph it were  in vain as the marking simply doesn't show up well.  This was my best attempt:

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

On a nearby lake, we did manage to add great-crested grebe and tufted duck to the list for the day.

Tufted Duck

Great Crested Grebe

Giving up on further sightings, we headed for Lanark where we bought fish and chips, which we decided to eat at Lanark Loch, mainly because it is a known carp venue.

Leaving binoculars and cameras in the car, we found a bench near the water and opened up the chips.  It was no surprise when a couple of swans came over but they were then followed by up to 20 gulls we couldn't immediately identify.  It turned out they were bonaparte's gulls, an occasional migrant from North America.  Fortunately, Vicki managed to record this first ever sighting for me on her mobile phone.

Bonaparte's Gull