Even the smallest insects dance!

I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend for his lunchtime stroll round Corstorphine HIll today as I often do on a Friday. We spent a few minutes staring at this rotting giant polypore fungus

It may seem like nothing much to look at, and it was a bit smelly too, but we were fascinated by the fungus gnats (you'll be able to see them if you click on the photo to enlarge it). They were dancing! Some of them (probably the males) were fluttering their wings and jumping around. It was very much like a miniature grouse lek! It's amazing what's going on all around us!

This marmalade hoverfly on the other hand wasn't dancing, but makes for a nice photo with it's pretty markings (again click on the photo for a larger, better view)

It was also nice to see the new acorns forming on the oak trees

Sometimes you can find malformed acorns or other strange growths on oak trees, these are oak galls, formed by various species of wasps. In the olden days, oak galls were harvested to make ink. The Tree Charter is looking for people to harvest oak galls (once the wasps have burrowed their way out of them!) to make ink to write the final Tree Charter. Find out more about the oak gall harvest and how to take part here.