Brunstane Burn Bees

Very mixed weather today. We decided to walk along the Brunstane Burn path, which starts just outside Musselburgh. I've often passed the entrance to the walk but we've never explored it and decided that it was time we did!

The start of the path is a nicely landscaped park

with a pretty burn (small stream) running through it

and some very pretty floral verges

with lots of bees buzzing around, like this red tailed bumblebee approaching the bramble flowers

and this buff tailed / white tailed bumblebee

 There was competition over this wild rose, with this buff tailed / white tailed bumble bee

being driven away by this much larger bumble bee (we think a queen of the same species)

We had hoped to be able to see lots of butterflies for the Big Butterfly Count, but it was probably too windy for them and we only saw one ringlet butterfly

We also saw this very handsome hoverfly, which I think is a Volucella pellucens, but hoverflies are tricky to identify and I may well be wrong (this isn't the best lit photo after all), if you have a better id let me know in the comments.... Whatever it is, it's a very impressive hoverfly. Edited to add, my id has now been confimed thanks to the Facebook UK Hoverfly Group (which is well worth joining if you are interested in UK hoverflies!). You may also be interested in this guide to UK hoverflies.