Big Butterfly Count

It was a lovely warm and sunny morning in Musselburgh today. I did my bit for the Big Butterfly Count along the John Muir Walkway. I saw four ringlet butterflies and three meadow browns. Unfortunately no photos as my camera ran out of battery power! The Big Butterfly count lasts until 7 August and I hope to see plenty more butterflies before then. You can find out more about the event here.

As well as the butterflies I was delighted to see loads of sandwich terns! These large terns have 'punk hairstyles' and raucous voices - a flock of 50 certainly makes its presence felt and I saw two flocks of 50 today, one near the estuary of the River Esk and the other on Musselburgh Lagoons.

Plus the lime (linden) trees are in flower and smell wonderful, this is one of my favourite scents of summer and it only lasts for just over a week.

Finally, I find small yellow vetches very difficult to tell apart (there are at least four species that look very similar to me), but this is the time of year when I can at least recognise black medick by its distinctive seed heads