Autumnal Walk

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk round Blackford Pond, past Blackford Hill and into the Hermitage of Braid. It was beautiful autumnal weather.

This Speckled Wood Butterfly was basking in the sunshine 

while on the pond, we saw a female teal (the small brown duck in the photo below, with a female mallard partly in the photo in the background for size comparison)

The teal has a lovely teal green flash of feathers in her wing, but wasn't showing it while we were taking her photo. We did see it later from the other side of the pond, when we were too far away to catch her on film! We were also interested to see a family of dabchicks! One of the parents and one of the chicks are in the photo below.

This whole area is a delight at this time of year.