Indian Summer

Although the weather is very changeable at the moment (yesterday we had torrential rain and today we have glorious, warm sunshine) we are having better weather on the whole now than we had through the whole of the summer months.


Today at Musselburgh, I had a wonderful view of a kingfisher at the Mouth of the River Esk. One of the most reliable places to see these birds these days. It was too far to be able to catch it on camera but i watched it for several minutes through my binovulars as it flew up-river, then sat on a branch overlooking the water then dived for a fish. It was shining beautifully in the sun.

The nearby starlings were happier to be photographed and they were also shining in the sun

I was delighted to find this harvestman in the sea wall, if you look carefully you can see it's fitted itself into a small hollow in the wall, harvestmen are closely related to spiders so arachnaphobes may wish to look away now

The pathside verges are losing colour now

but there are still bright splashes like this sow thistle

and this red clover

There were good numbers of velvet scoters on the Firth of Forth and several ruffs on the Lagoons. Plenty of other birds too of course. So a great morning out all round.

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There are still a few places on my creative writing workshop that I'm teaching at Tynecastle High School, starting next Tuesday evening. You can find out more and book here.