Cramond to Queensferry

The walk from Cramond Brig through Dalmeny Estate to South Queensferry is one that needs a sunny day, so that you can enjoy the butterflies, which are one of the top features of this area. So this year hasn't offered many approrpiate days for this trip! As Crafty Green Boyfriend has a few days off work and it was sunny today, we decided that today was the day for this walk.

It passes through a lovely variety of landscapes, including farm fields, woodland

and plenty of wildflowers

 plus the beach

The rock in the photo above is Eagle Rock, so called because of a roughly carved eagle (thought to date from Roman times) on the rock. The carving is above the plaque in the photo below.

The walk ends at the iconic Forth Rail Bridge

As hoped we saw lots of butterflies, including two commas

plus a peacock, plenty of white butterflies and a  few meadow browns. We also saw lots of bees of various species and hoverflies too, including marmalade hoverflies and several syrphus ribesii, like the one below (click on the image for a larger view)

 We also saw lots of common wasps and found this nest, if you look carefully you can see a wasp on the edge of the entrance waiting to leave - the wasps were whizzing around in reality, but it was very difficult to capture one on camera!