Water of Leith

Today we walked the stretch of the Water of Leith downstream from the Visitor Centre to Roseburn.

There were plenty of hoverflies around, like these two on a dandelion flower

and several trees had galls growing on them (galls are the plant's reaction when wasps lay eggs in the plant), like these on an oak tree

and these on a willow tree

I was delighted to find this group of cuckoo pints in berry

and I'll need to remember to go back in spring time to photograph them in their arum stage. There are lots of individual cuckoo pints in Colinton Dell (the area of the Water of Leith that I help to look after in my voluntary work) but I never see them as arums. Hopefully this group will be easier to find!

I was also pleased to find this clump of nettles, clearly showing the difference between the stinging nettles (on the left, with the greenish flowers) and the white dead nettles (on the right). Their leaves are superficially similar but they're not related plants and the whilte dead nettle doesn't sting!

We also walked round Saughton Park, but I'll blog about that separately tomorrow - it looks like Saughton Park has an exciting future ahead!