Along the Union Canal

Yesterday was the Edinburgh Canal Festival, which takes place every year at sites along the Union Canal. So we walked along the canal for a while and visited the festival itself. 

Parts of the towpath are lined with a variety of flowering plants, including Dog Roses, which are in full bloom just now 

all these flowers attract insects, though nowhere near as many as in previous years (the decline of insect populations has been chillingly evident over the past couple of years). We were pleased to find this Double Orange Spot moth 

and these hoverflies - a Melangyna sp on the left and a Eupeoides sp on the right.  

Plus this beetle, which I think is a species of Donacia (possibly Donacia simplex?) if you know for certain that I'm wrong, please feel free to tell me so in the comments!

We also popped into the community garden in Harrison Park

where a good number of bees were busy amongst all the flowers.

Lunchtime Walk round Saughton Park

We're having a sort of staycation week at the moment. I'm working part of the week, Crafty Green Boyfriend is off work all week and when we're together we're decorating and taking local walks. Today at lunchtime, we walked round Saughton Park, where many of the flowers are at their best. 

These poppies (below) are particularly pretty at the moment.

There were quite a lot of Honey Bees around, more than any other species in fact. All the common species of bumblebee (Buff Tailed Bumblebee, White Tailed Bumblebee, Tree Bumblebee, Common Carder and Early Bumblebee) were present in the park, though in very small numbers compared to the Honey Bees. Honey Bees are known to compete with other species of bees and other pollinating insects, and so can sometimes be a problem for biodiversity, regardless of the pollination services they provide. 

I talk a wee bit about insects in my second post over on my new Substack blog. You can read the post here. Some people have been asking about my Substack. Yes, it's another blog, but it isn't just repeating what I post here! I'm using Substack to post longer article style blog posts, once a week, that expand on the types of topics and issues that I write about here. You can read the posts, either by following the links that I share here or on social media, or by subscribing. Currently, subscription is entirely free and most (if not all) the content will always be free, but I will eventually introduce the option of paid subscriptions. However, rather than putting some content behind a paywall, I will probably be using paid subscriptions as an option purely for people who choose to support my work. This is a model that works for a fair number of the substacks that I read, and also works well for various other publications.

Searching for Butterflies on Corstorphine Hill

 I'm involved with butterfly surveying again this year. As well as my second year surveying the rewilding fields at Lauriston Farm, this year I'm also surveying a transect on Corstorphine Hill. Today was my first survey walk on Corstorphine Hill. The weather wasn't actually good enough, so my survey won't be actually valid (but according to the weather forecast, today had the best chance of good enough weather). 

I saw only two butterflies, both Speckled Woods, in the lovely Walled Garden on the hill. (The butterflies aren't in the photo!).

I did see a good variety of hoverflies though, including this lovely Lucazona lucorum

and this Pellucid Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens) 

There's a lovely selection of flowers in the Walled Garden, which on a sunnier day would (hopefully!) attract a good number of butterflies. It was interesting to see this Cuckoo Spit in amongst the flowers of the Viper's Bugloss

Cuckoo Spit is a frothy substance produced by the young of froghopper bugs. 

In a corner of the Walled Garden is this Bug Hotel, which offers hones to all sorts of insects. 

The rest of the survey transect passes through woodland glades and open areas where wildflower meadows are being established

It was very nice to see several orchids in the grass. Mostly Common Spotted Orchids, but some may have been Marsh Orchids. 

I'm also talking about insects and climate in this week's post on my Substack. You can read it here: https://craftygreenpoet.substack.com/p/insects-and-climate

Drama at Figgate Park

 We had a lovely walk round Edinburgh's Figgate Park yesterday. The main feature of the park is the Figgate Pond, which is home to a number of water birds including Mute Swans, Mallards and Canada geese, all of which have bred there this year. As all the parent birds are keen to protect their offspring from attacks from predators, they can sometimes become quite aggressive.

We were watching the Canada Goose family, with their five appealing goslings

when suddenly one of the parents rushed away, followed by all the goslings

It didn't take long to find out what had caused this, as a Mute Swan had decided to chase the other adult Canada Goose

This chase went on for quite a long time, though oddly, at one time the swan chased the goose towards the swan's own nest on the island in the middle of the pond! 

The Mute Swans only had one cygnet. 

It seems likely that there would have been more cygnets to start with, so this family may feel a particular pressure to guard their remaining offspring. 

There were a number of mallards on the pond, including this family with small ducklings.

 

We were delighted to see several damselflies, though mostly further away from the water than we would have expected to find them! There were at least two species, the Blue Tailed Damselfly 

and Common Blue Damselfly (I think! If anyone disagrees and thinks its actually an Azure Damselfly, please let me know in the comments!)

There were a good number of Speckled Wood butterflies flying around.

We saw a few hoverflies, though not as many as we might have hoped. It was particularly nice to get such a good view of this Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

World Swift Day

Edinburgh today is full of young people dressed in sparkly outfits and cowboy hats, piling onto the buses and trams to get to Murrayfield to see some pop star in concert, so it may be tempting to think that World Swift Day is something to do with said pop star. 

But no, World Swift Day is a chance to celebrate Swifts and to help conserve these amazing aerobatic birds that visit the UK every year. 

As I posted here a few days ago, Swifts have arrived back in our local skies, but apart from a flurry of about five or six a few days ago, I've barely seen any. I remember the days when we would regularly see 20 swifts flying above our street. Swifts have shown a huge decline in the past decade or so across the UK. 

One way of helping is to put up a nest box (as we did a few years ago, when we last had roofing work done). Another thing that everyone can do, is to raise awareness of the perilous situation of these lovely birds. A certain pop star who shares the same name as these birds might be able to raise awareness at tonight's show in Edinburgh, so I was cheeky enough to tweet her today, which will probably have no effect whatsoever, but it's worth a try.

Crafty Green Poet on Substack

I've started up on Substack! I'll still be blogging on this site, but on my Substack, I plan to share longer posts, most Wednesdays, all about nature and environmental issues through a creative lens. 

You can find out more and subscribe here. I'll be publishing my first post on Wednesday. 

To start with, all my content on Substack will be free, and most content will always be free, but I will eventually introduce paid subscriptions, particularly as I've already a generous blog reader pledge a paid subscription! Paying subscribers will get access to extra content. 

My first post was published today. You can read it here.  Let me know what you think! If you like what you see, please consider taking out a free subscription.

fewer swifts haiku

fewer swifts 

in the sky this summer -

my fading eyes 

previously published in Trash Panda

Buttercup Meadows

 Buttercup meadows are at their best at this time of year, particularly when the sun shines and the flowers glow in the light. Here are photos from two buttercup meadows in the Dells alongside Edinburgh's Water of Leith.

The Big Meadow Search runs 1st June to 31st August across Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands. Any type of unimproved grassland can be included and everyone is welcome to join in. You can find out more on their website here. 

I may well do a survey of the meadow in the top photos for the Big Meadow Search. The meadow in the second photo is too marshy for me to feel comfortable wandering around in! 

For 30 Days Wild.