Bunnies and Gorse!

It was a lovely day for a lunchtime walk round Corstorphine Hill! The gorse is beautiful at the moment

and when we looked carefully we saw the first gorse shield-bug of the year.

This species is very closely associated with gorse and has two colour variants of the adult form as well as a number of younger forms, some of which you can see here, on the British Bugs website.

We were also very happy to see these rabbits outside the hotel near the zoo.

This is always a good place to see rabbits, it's right next to a bus stop and the rabbits really don't care how many people are waiting for a bus, they just carry on eating, sometimes coming right up to the edge of the grass. I have been known to miss a bus because I was too busy watching bunnies!

 Rabbits across the UK, I've heard, are currently suffering from an outbreak of rabbit haemorrhagic disease and their numbers are dropping, which is bad news not only for the rabbits themselves but for all the animals and birds that prey on them.

Unrelated to this outbreak, as far as I'm aware, is the Mammal Society's Big Easter Bunny Hunt, in which they're asking people in the UK to send in their records of sightings of rabbits and hares over the Easter weekend. So, I've just logged in and added these two to the record database!