Butterflies, birds and bees

It was lovely in Musselburgh this morning. These swans amused me, they're feeding above the small weir at the mouth if the River Esk, that is totally underwater at the moment because of recent heavy rain. Looks like it offers a nice patch of shallower water to feed from, or possibly food gets stuck at the weir....

There were plenty of insects around, here's one of the few ladybirds I've seen this year (a seven spot)

one of the many bumble bees that was buzzing around

and a lovely Meadow Brown butterfly, I took lots of photos of these, hoping to find a picture good enough to enter into the Big Butterfly Count photo competition. This photo didn't make the grade!

On the Lagoons, I found a group of birdwatchers who showed me where to see a wood sandpiper and a juvenile little gull, both of which were lifers for me. The wood sandpiper was quite distant and since I had to clamber up the wall of the hide to see it (the walls are concrete and quite used to being clambered on by birders), I'm not sure I quite fully appreciated the sighting, but the little gull was lovely and floated in circles on the water within very good viewing distance.

All in all a lovely day! 

For Nature Notes

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