Ducklings and Cygnets and more at Musselburgh

I still have more photos to share from our wonderful trip up north to the Scottish Highlands but today I was in Musselburgh and there were so many lovely ducklings around that I wanted to share their photos now.

This isn't the greatest photo for some reason but this mother red breasted merganser had five offspring and all of them were diving energetically

I saw them further down the River Esk later

A lovely little family to watch!

These three eider mothers had a small creche of ducklings (this is only a small grouping, often eider ducklings will gather in large creches with just a few adult females to look after them)

and this pair of mute swans had a pile of (I think) 9 cygnets

There were other birds around too, including some very low flying swifts near the Boating Pond and a total of 25 shelducks in the Lagoons.

Although some dandelions are still in bloom, others are already seeding

Some very pretty bladder campions

these pretty little creatures, I should know what they are, but have forgotten

A lovely snail in the bird hide

and this male Eupeodes sp hoverfly (thanks to the UK Hoverflies Facebook page for identifying this for me)

So plenty to see out there, but where were all the bees? I only saw a few - two red tailed bumble bees, an early bumblebee and a few buff tailed and white tailed bumble bees and this, which I'm not really sure about, it seems very pale

What are you seeing in nature at the moment?

For Nature Notes.