Butterfly Survey on Corstorphine Hill

 For a couple of years now I've been carrying out butterfly surveys at two sites in Edinburgh - Lauriston Farm (the site of Edinburgh's Agro-ecology project) and Corstorphine Hill. There are several people involved so I don't survey every week. Yesterday the weather was just about perfect for a Spring butterfly survey when I visted Corstorphine Hill. It's very early in the butterfly season here in Scotland, so there weren't many butterflies, but I was very happy to get this photo of this Peacock butterfly, which was enjoying the sunshine as much as I was. 

I posted a new article on my Substack blog today, all about helping insects, you can read it here. 

The area of Corstorphine Hill where the butterfly survey transect lies offers beautiful views.

 

the survey transect also includes the lovely walled garden on the hill

 There are a lot of trees on the hill, even outside the wooded areas. The Norway Maples are looking beautiful, one of my favourite trees at this time of year

 

The Sycamores also look beautiful with their fresh young leaves 

I'm hoping to finding lots of butterflies this year. Last year was a very disappointing year for butterflies and I saw very few on my surveys. Butterflies are known to be able to bounce back from a bad year, but many species are sadly in long term decline (though some species are increasing).