Corstorphine Hill

 We had another day of beautiful sunshine yesterday, but we really do need some rain and it seems as though we're not forecast any for another week! 

We took advantage of the sunshine though and enjoyed a walk round Corstorphine Hill. One of the lovely things about this hill is the variety of habitats, from open areas with numerous Hawthorn bushes

 to shady woodland areas

As is often the case these days, there were few insects about, which is as worrying for the wildlife as is the lack of recent rain. One insect that is present in good numbers is the greenfly or common aphid, which is gathering on the undersides of some leaves, just take a close look at the leaves of the Sycamore tree in the photo below 

We were also pleased to see this lovely lacewing 

and surprised to see this Large Red Damselfly, which you would expect to find closer to a pond or river

and delighted to find this very beautiful Ruby Tailed Wasp, which was moving too quickly for us to get a good photo, but you get an idea of its beautiful colouration below, click on the photo for a closer look. 

It's a cuckoo wasp and lays its eggs in the nests of other wasps and bees, we guessed this one was searching for nests of mason bees to lay eggs in. 

Despite enjoying the sunshine, we are hoping for rain....

haiku for the bees

dandelion clocks —
already too late
for the bees

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer.  

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I published a post today on my Substack blog. It's all about birds' nests, from the beautiful magpie nest I shared photos of here a few days ago to the swifts we hope will use the nest boxes we put up a few years ago! You can read it here. 

Hawthorn in Bloom

 I did a butterfly survey today at Edinburgh Agro-ecology's project at Lauriston Farm. The weather was perfect for butterflies, warm and sunny with not too much wind. The farm is looking particularly lovely at the moment with all the Hawthorn trees and hedges being in full bloom 

It was lovely to see so many small insects on this Dandelion flower

This used to be the standard situation for dandelion flowers, they used to be always covered in small insects, but these days this is a rare sighting, many dandelion flowers these days have no obvious insects on them, which is a sad indication of the decline in insect numbers. As insects decline so do the birds and other animals that feed on them. Some insects are more well liked than others, most people like butterflies for example! On today's survey, I saw a good number of butterflies, but the only one that wasn't a species of white butterfly was this rather faded looking Speckled Wood 

I saw and heard a lot of birds, including: Reed Bunting, Skylark, Meadow Pipit; House Martin; Swallow and several Whitethroats (in fact I don't think I've ever seen or heard so many Whitethroats in one place). I also was interested (and saddened) to find this dead newt - probably a Palmate Newt. I had no idea there were newts at the farm! 

Although this sunny weather that has lasted for most of the year so far is lovely and great for butterflies, we desperately need more rain. There have been wildfires across the country (and Scotland is not a country where wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem!) and fire warnings are in place. Rain isn't forecast for Edinburgh for at least another week.  

The beautiful East Lothian Coastline

 Yesterday we decided on an impulse to go to Dunbar in East Lothian to walk along the beautiful coastal path there. The weather was perfect and the views were as stunning as ever. 

 

If you look across the water, you can see Bass Rock in the distance, famous for its large colony of Gannets (which are responsible for the white colour you can see in this zoomed in photo)

We only saw one Gannet during our walk, but we were very impressed by many of the other birds we saw. A decent sized colony of Kittiwakes nests on cliffs just outside Dunbar. These are lovely members of the gull family, who helpfully call their name: Kittiwake! In the photo below you get some idea of the colony 

and here is a close up of  three of the birds which gives you some idea of the messiness of the nesting area

Kittiwakes aren't the only birds nesting in good numbers on this stretch of coastline, we were delighted to find ourselves surrounded by more Sand Martins than we've ever seen before! These birds, related to swallows, nest in holes in the cliffs, you can see several nest holes in  the photo below - the birds themselves are much trickier to capture on film as they move so quickly! 

There is also a good variety of beautiful flowers in the area too, including Thrift (sometimes known as Sea Pink) 

Birds-foot Trefoil 

and Ribwort Plantain 

So if you're looking for beautiful coastal scenery or wonderful wildlife, Dunbar is definitely a great place for a day trip. 

Swifts Are Here!

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 are 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).

The swifts arrived back in our local area at about 3pm today, when four of them appeared over the rooftops and then floated away again! 

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a couple of 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 watching 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! 

If you're in the UK, please consider signing this petition from 38 Degrees asking to make it a legal rule that all new houses built in the UK must include Swift bricks.

Magpie Nest

 This beautiful creation is the work of a pair of Magpies. They had carefully made this nest in a conifer tree at the edge of  Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. I even watched them carrying some of the larger twigs into the tree. But then a couple of days ago the nest fell out of the conifer, landing on top of the eating apple tree in the garden. Crafty Green Boyfriend then removed it from the apple tree and placed it on the garden bench. The local fox has been playing with some of the twigs in the nest, but still, you can see it is a wonderful creation. 

a closer look shows the different layers to the nest, with the lining being made from very fine vegetation

 I hope the Magpies are able to make another nest in which to raise their young, though no doubt the other birds in the neighbourhood would be pleased to not have another generation of Magpies in the area to potentially steal their eggs ...

birdsong haiku

song thrushes sing
after the downpour —
petrichor

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer.  

Haiku Girl Summer will re-open for submissions of haiku on 15 May. 

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I've just added some vintage sew on patches to my Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop, you can see them here.