Sunshine along the Water of Leith

 We're both off work for a few days so today Crafty Green Boyfriend came with me to do my regular voluntary patrol along the Water of Leith (check out the Water of Leith Conservation trust's bright new website here!) 

As it was so sunny, and later in the day than I usually do my patrol, we hoped to see lots of insects. But first we stopped to notice the hadiwork of an insect - spangle galls! These galls are created by a tiny wasp (Neuropterus quercusbaccarum). 

You can find out more about spangle gall wasps on the Woodland Trust website here. 

We didn't see huge numbers of insects until we got to Spylaw Park where the pictorial meadow was full of honey bees, common carder bees, white and buff tailed bumble bees and a selection of hoverflies including:

Batman hoverfly (Myathropa florea) 

and banded hoverflies (Syrphus sp) 

Oddly most of the Helophilus pendulus hoverflies, which are commonly known as sun flies, were staying low down in the shady depths of the flower meadow! 

While we were taking photos of the insects, we heard buzzards and sparrowhawks up above and looked up to watch. A buzzard was patrolling the area and two sparrowhawks were flying around too. Sparrowhawks have nested near this park for many years and the buzzards must be nesting in the area too, I can't imagine that makes for an easy neighbourhood!