colourful insects for 30Days Wild

I was happy to find these colourful insects today along the John Muir Walkway in Musselburgh

These are (I think) green nettle weevils

and this is a Xyphosia miliaria 

This species is common across the UK, according to Nature Spot, but according to Crafty Green Boyfriend (who knows these things) it has very rarely been recorded in Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians. Yet very recently someone else added a photo of this species to the Edinburgh Wildlife Group on Flickr. So the moral of the story is, record your wildlife sightings! I'll be sending these sightings (and others) from today to the Wildlife Information Centre for Edinburgh and the Lothians. They then use people's observations of wildlife towards informing conservation work and preventing inappropriate development on areas that are important for wildlife.

I was also impressed with these fungi, though I'm not sure what species they are - any ideas?

Also lovely to see the mute swans coming in on the tide

and these male eiders in their eclipse plumage, so they don't look like their usual selves and they don't look all the same either!

for 30 Days Wild.