Go for a Walk! 30 Days Wild!

May was National Walking Month here in the UK, so what better way to start June's 30 Days Wild than with a walk! So today, as I often do, I walked from the centre of Musselburgh along the River Esk

I stopped to look at the eider creche, the ducklings are adorable, they kept diving down into the water! The females seem to be quite contented looking after the young

while the males were mostly gathered together on the beach further downstream

At the mouth of the Esk I turned onto the John Muir Walkway, which isn't necessarily an inspiring looking walk

However there are often lots of birds over the sea wall (more eiders today for a start). On the grassy side of the path there's a good chance of seeing birds such as reed bunting, meadow pipit and stonechat. Skylarks sing constantly here at this time of year.

At this time of the year there are also a lot of flowers along this walkway, it's slightly too early for the best displays this year but the Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon is already out

I took the turn off to the nature reserve. House martins and swifts were flying round the boating pond and I was amused by the pink horse in the middle of the pond.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the Musselburgh Riding of the Marches.

Turning left at the top of the boating pond, I took the path into the nature reserve itself

There's a lovely wooded path, the trees full of willow warblers and chiffchaffs (recognisable through their songs, not their very similar appearances!).

The paths lead to three bird hides, where you have a good view over the lagoons, which are unfortunately currently being drained for their annual clean and refresh

Coming back from the hides i watched three common carder bees feeding on these white dead nettles (called dead nettles as they don't sting, unlike the similar looking, but unrelated stinging nettles)

I said previously that I would interweave some photos from our recent Shetland trip into my 30 Days Wild blog posts, so here are some photos from a walk we took on Shetland atTingwall Loch

 That's Crafty Green Boyfriend in the distance, he doesn't like to have an online presence, so that's as close as we'll get!

 The loch banks are covered in marsh marigolds

 and lesser celandines

and there's a colony of arctic terns nesting on the island in the middle of the loch and a couple of whooper swans were swimming quietly round as well (thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for this photo).

30 Days Wild is a project from the Wildlife Trusts to encourage people to spend some time engaging with nature every day in June. Some of the things I'll be doing over the next month include: writing poetry, drawing bunnies, reviewing books and films and learning more about nature! I have to admit, pretty much what I blog about normally! It's not too late to join in yourself, if you haven't already signed up, you can do so here.