Rainy Day Haiku

watching the raindrops -
kitten raises her paw
to the windowpane

 **

originally published in Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society.  

**

Today is World Bee Day, to read my latest Crafty Green Poet Substack post about bees, click here.  

Arthur's Seat

 We had a lovely walk round Arthur's Seat yesterday, the weather was lovely, sunny and mild. 

We were particularly keen to check on the tadpoles in Dunsapie Loch. Regular readers may remember the scenes from a few weeks ago when we found a lot of toads in the loch. Well yesterday, we found a lot of tadpoles! 

Hopefully a good number of these will grow up to be toads (or in a few cases frogs). 

There were lots of Chaffinches singing around the hill 

and several pheasants who seemed to want to pose for the camera

We were delighted to watch this Roe Deer as she walked across the field - we wondered whether she had a fawn hidden away somewhere...

 

The Birds Foot Trefoil was beautifully in flower  

much to the delight of this Red Tailed Bumblebee (one of the few bees we saw yesterday)

 The Hawthorn trees were also in almost full bloom 

and were surrounded by St Marks Flies (though we didn't get any photos of those - they're big black flies with dangly legs which come out in late April, early May.)

 

 

First Swift of the Year!

Do you see the swifts are here again?
They swoop so low and soar so high
I think there may be more than ten -
do you see the swifts are here again?
We know it's summer round here when
our favourite bird comes gliding by
You see the swifts are here! Again
they sweep so low and soar so high!

**

We're lucky enough to live in an area of Edinburgh where there are several active swift nests sites. Sadly, numbers of these amazing birds have been severely declining across the UK over the past several years (a decline of 65% since 1995), due largely to a lack of nest sites and reducing populations of insects (their main food source). (See this 2020 article on the Bird Guides website for some thoughts on the factors behind the decline of the swift).

I saw the first Swift of the year today at 10am, flying over the roofs opposite our flat. 

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a few years ago (we persuaded the roofing contractor to fit them when our last roofing work was carried out). I haven't seen the swifts going into the nest boxes, though they have flown close over the past couple of years. Hopefully this year may be the year that they decide to use the nest-boxes....

I enjoyed this video from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) about how we can help swifts. I played it at quite a high volume with the windows open, hoping that the calls of the swifts on the soundtrack would attract the local swifts to our nest boxes. Another great video from the RSPB is this one, which shows the route of one swift as it flies from its breeding grounds in the UK across Europe and around Africa and back here for the next breeding season, a journey during which it will not land at all! I particularly like this video as it looks as though this swift passed directly over the village where I lived in Malawi for two years! 

Bank Holiday in the Dells

Monday was a bank holiday so for my regular walk along the Water of Leith in the Dells, I left the litter picker at home and Crafty Green Boyfriend came along and took most of the photos below. The weather was lovely and there were plenty of birds around including this very round Robin

There were also plenty of insects to see. We saw a surprising number of Hairy Shieldbugs (below) in a small area 

and in the same relatively small area we saw a good number of different hoverflies, including this Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)

this Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma sp)

 this Banded Hoverfly (Syrphus sp) (with 7-Spot Ladybird) 

 and this Common Dainty (Baccha elongata) which we don't see particularly often, though it is apparently quite common

Other insects included several butterflies, including Comma  

and Small Tortoiseshell 

Also a Scorpion Fly  

and a Dark-edged Bee Fly 

A lovely way to spend a bank holiday! 

**

My latest Crafty Green Poet Substack post, focussing on the hares we saw at the weekend at Dalkeith Country Park is now up, you can read it here.   

Late Spring

After a mild winter, everyone predicted
an early, warming spring

but instead, chill mists kept back
the flowers and buds

so now in May, celandines,
those flowers of March,

still gaze at us, star-like
from the undergrowth.

Their timing all wrong.

Like you.

Far too late now
to look at me
the way you do. 

 

originally published in Mslexia (a few years ago now, don't know why I've never posted it on this blog before!)  

Dalkeith Country Park

We try to visit Dalkeith Country Park at about this time every year, primarily to see the Bluebells, which make a spectacular display, alongside the Ramsons, which are generally in full bloom at the same time too. We had timed it perfectly! 

 

Some of our favourite paths around the park are currently shut off, so we needed to find a different route

The path opened out at one point and we passed some barns where a group of Swallows were nesting, it was lovely to see them all flying around. Even more wonderful, was to see two hares chasing each other around the fields! We've never had such good views of hares before! Here are a couple of photos of just one of the hares