Sunday, 23 May 2010

Birds and Butterflies


We went for another lovely walk today, along the Innocent Railway. This is an old railway line that has been turned into a pleasant and shady footpath and cyclepath near Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We were very glad of the shade too as its been another very hot day here!
There were lots of orange tip butterflies about and this very co-operative green hairstreak butterfly that was very happy to be photographed a few times.
At the end of the Innocent Railway path there is a little stream (which my map tells me is part of the Braid Burn). On a concrete wall here, outside someone's garden we saw a kingfisher! Now why would a kingfisher want to be on a concrete garden wall instead of along the wooded Colinton Dell where I look after the Water of Leith and haven't seen a kingfisher there for over a year? Still it was lovely to see!
We also had a lovely close view of a whitethroat sliding up and down in the undergrowth, singing its hurried little warble.

10 comments:

Bill said...

"Innocent Railway" is a wonderful name. Think of Thoreau: "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."

Megan Coyle said...

What a lovely butterfly :) It sounds like you have a wonderful time out and about outside. Nature can be such a great source for creative inspiration.

dianasfaria.com said...

sounds like a wonderful walk. i like how you deem the railway "innocent". Lovely!

Joanne Young Elliott said...

How wonderful to see all that beauty. Thank you for sharing it.

Naquillity said...

glad you enjoyed the walk. that butterfly was certainly cooperative. i wish i could say i had the same luck yesterday while trying to photograph a group of small blue butterflies. as soon as i tried to take their picture they all stopped fluttering around. you can barely see them in the pic... you have to look closely, grin. have a great night.

agreenearth said...

Thanks for sharing the beauty of a Scottish Summer.

MyMaracas said...

Beautiful little butterfly you found there. It sounds like a very pleasant place to wile away a few hours.

eileeninmd said...

Beautiful butterfly and a great sighting of the kingfisher. Congrats and good birding.

Rambling Woods said...

I saw a belted kingfisher here..I think it was a female as they have the red belts....They are very successful fisherman on the pond...Michelle

Caron said...

I just love it when birds and butterflies are cooperative! It makes my job so much easier. :)