The Time Between Summer and Autumn

It's that lovely time when summer is still hanging round but there's a definite autumnal chill in the air.

A time for seeing the last butterflies of the year like this lovely speckled wood

and the last hoverflies of the year too like these Platycheirus granditarsus & Eupeodes latifasciatus (thanks to the UK Hoverfly Facebook group for identifying these for me)

 There were also literally hundreds of birds at Musselburgh today. I loved watching wave after wave of oystercatchers flying overhead, their white and black plumage glinting in the sunlight and hundreds of velvet scoters quite far out on the water too. Luckily one of these wonderfully odd looking ducks came close enough for me to get a really good view though not in close enough range for my camera! 

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