Beautiful Butterflies and Other Creatures at Musselburgh

Today was a beautiful day for a walk round the Lagoons at Musselburgh. A beautiful day for butterflies too. This peacock, looking in peak condition was basking in the sun

while in the wooded area near the bird hides there were at least 5 speckled woods

 I recorded thes and the whilte butterflies I saw in the Big Butterfly Count, which is open until 12 August. 

This seven spot ladybird had found a cosy little place to rest

and these tiny little pollen beetles were burrowing their way into the flower as far as they could

Lots of hoverflies around too, though the wind was high which made taking the photos difficult.The larger one in trhis photo is a pied hoverfly and I need to identify the other (it may be a long hoverfly, but I'm not sure). There were other species I need to identify too (The Nature Spot guide to UK Hoverflies is my favourite resource to help with this task).

There were also plenty of birds including these eider ducks

And away in the distance in the photo below, you can see Arthur's Seat, which is where we had an evening walk the other day, which you can read about here.