Nature Walks around Lockerbie

Back in 2017, we discovered two nature walks near Lockerbie, and this year we repeated the experience. Lockerbie is only a few miles from Dumfries where we were staying, so this made a great day trip. In the morning we visited Castle Loch at Lochmaben. 

It's a lovely loch which you can walk round very easily, mostly through woodland. 

The weather was quite changeable, with dark clouds adding drama to the scene at times

There's lots of wildlife to enjoy on this walk.We saw good numbers of dragonflies, including this male Common Hawker - click on  the image for a closer look at this gorgeous insect! 

There were a lot of Whirligig beetles on the surface of the loch - it's fascinating to watch them as they spin around

We were intrigued by this plant below, which seemed to be a magnet for hoverflies of various species (mostly Banded Hoverflies (Syrphus sp) and Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) - see if you can find any! 

At the end of the walk we came across a large area of ivy, which was also host to a lot of hoverflies, including this Batman Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

This Red Admiral butterfly was also enjoying the ivy (which is such a good source of food for all sorts if insects at this time of year)

The woodland walk has several wood carvings, like this heron 

and a children's play area which includes dens and these very useful magnification posts, which are a great way for children to get a closer look at insects 

After lunch in Lockerbie we went to Eskrigg Nature Reserve. 

 

This reserve has a lovely wildflower area that was full of insects when we visited. We were particularly delighted to see this Small Copper Butterfly  sharing a flower with a hoverfly that I can't recognise from this angle...

This Painted Lady

and this Small Tortoiseshell 

There were dragonflies here too including this male Common Darter

and a female Common Darter close by (she's much less red in colour) 

Elsewhere on the reserve we found this dragonfly, which looks like a Southern Hawker to me, but please correct me if I'm wrong

It was good to find a Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) 

and this Bog Hoverfly (Sericomyia silentis)

We also saw this handsome Common Sexton Beetle

So it was a wonderful day of walks, and particularly nice to see so many dragonflies, butterflies and hoverflies. 

A Few Days Away in and Around Dumfries

 We're just back from a wee trip away to Dumfries in the south west of Scotland. I'll share some of our photos over the next few days. 

We stayed in our favourite country house hotel alongside the River Nith. Almost as soon as we got there we went for a riverside walk

 

The other side of the path is lined with fields

We were delighted to see three or four Red Kites flying above the field. The photo below isn't great, but it is a Red Kite! 

Red Kites used to be incredibly common across the UK, but by the 1970s there were hardly any of them and mostly they were only found in mountainous areas of Wales. Since then they've been reintroduced in various parts of the UK, including in the Dumfries area, where now they're quite a common sight. 

As well as the Red Kites, we were delighted on that walk to see a flock of about 50 House Martins hunting for insects above the river. One evening we sat by the riverside and watched Pipistrelle Bats flying around, also hunting for insects. 

Moorhen family at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens

 We had a lovely walk yesterday at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens, always a great place to visit. The wildlife highlight yesterday was watching the Moorhens. Three generations were present. Adults, including the individual in the photo below 

 Juveniles (probably chicks from earlier this year, though possibly last year's chicks), who have duller colours, like the individual below (though some have entirely brown beaks)

and very young chicks like the one below  

Even at this age, the chicks can swim around quite happily, but they can't yet find food for themselves, so the adults and juveniles are busy with feeding duties. We really enjoyed watching this juvenile feeding the chicks

 

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

 I'd read so many reviews of this book, I'm astonished I'd never picked it up before now! As both a botanist and a poet, I was really drawn to this book and I enjoyed reading it. It braids together various themes of indigenous culture, science (specifically botany and ecology) and the author's own life experiences as a scientist, teacher and mother from an indigenous background. 

I really enjoyed the insights into north American ecologies, particularly Sweetgrass and Black Ash and how indigenous peoples carefully harvested these plants, using every bit of what they harvested, producing baskets and the left overs being used as tinder in fires. 

"The marvel of a basket is in its transformation, its journey from wholeness as a living plant to fragmented strands and back to wholeness as a basket" 

I was very struck by the inspiring case study of ecological restoration that was presented in the book. Onondagaga Lake is a site sacred to the indigenous people who live near it, but became very polluted and is now (at the time of writing) being restored. This case study showed both how Western disregard of nature can almost destroy an ecosystem but how on the other hand the land can be restored using science and indigenous knowledge. 

The book is important in its presentation of a world view that values the land and nature and for showing indigenous peoples living in harmony with the wider environment. We can all learn a lot from the wisdom in this book. 

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, published (2013) by Milkwood Editions.  

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This month is Catch the Bus month, you can read more about that in this week's post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack.  

Super Nature - a film review

Super Nature offers a patchwork of personal meditations on the natural world. Director Ed Sayer collaborated with forty people, all of whom who used antique Super 8 film cameras to record stories of the nature they see around them, with as little travel involved as possible. 

The collaborators include professional filmmakers, conservation rangers and local enthusiasts, which brings an interesting and varied level of skills, expertise and motivations into the end product. Some contributors share how being close to nature is beneficial for their health, others are involved in looking after nature including one of the rangers responsible for the 24/7 care of the last remaining Northern White Rhinos in the world. The film takes us to coral reefs, the Alps, the Pacific Garbage Patch and beaches in Cornwall. 

 

It's a beautifully made film, with a meditative flow to it as it moves from one scene to another (though there are several scenes which you want to last for longer). Shooting it all on Super 8 gives the film a nostalgic feel, that fits with the sense of loss that emerges from several of the scenes. Some contributions, particularly the director's own contributions, do veer towards preaching in parts, but overall it is a love letter to both nature and to Super 8 film. 

 

Super Nature is screening in selected cinemas., including at Edinburgh's Filmhouse (which is where I saw it today). 

Grey Squirrel

 I met this Grey Squirrel today, who was shouting loudly as they tend to do at this time of year. 

 

Figgate Park and Portobello Beach

Yesterday we had a lovely walk, as we almost always do on a Saturday. We started off in Figgate Park, where the pond was covered in waterweed and there were few ducks in sight.  

The crab apple trees were a delight though, full of red fruit that look good enough to eat, but crab apples are generally too sour to eat fresh and need to be made into jelly or wine.   

 

We were amazed by the number of Speckled Wood butterflies in the park, they seemed to be everywhere, 

The wildflower meadows (which have been planted rather than being native meadows) are still vivid  

and supporting a reasonable number of insects, including this Common Carder bee

and this Red Admiral butterfly 

 

Our favourite sighting though was this incredibly well camouflaged Treecreeper

We were also happy to sight a Sparrowhawk soaring above us 

Just as we left the park, a bus turned up that was heading to Portobello so we jumped on for the short ride, had lunch in Portobello and then walked along the promenade to enjoy a sunny afternoon at the seaside. (Portobello was actually much busier than it looks in the photo below!)

 Shared with Nature Notes.