Big Butterfly Count

Corstorphine Hill is a great place to spot butterflies, so as I often do, I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend up there this lunchtime.

We started in this meadow

where we saw a good selection of butterflies: 10 large white, 2 painted ladies, 2 meadow browns,
 

2 ringlets, a red admiral and a small tortoiseshell

We walked over the hill,

picking a few raspberries as we went and enjoying the rosebay willowherb

A buzzard soared overhead

and on the southern edge of the hill we noticed there were lots of connabar moth caterpillers on the ragwort (though none on the ragwort on other parts of the hill, we wondered why that would be!)

On that plant if you look carefully you will also see: red soldier beetles, a ladybird larva and a fly. Nearby there were several large white butterflies and a meadow brown.

The song thrush's anvil has been well used recently

I sometimes wonder why song thrushes are in decline when there never seems to be a shortage of snails, their favourite food.

We will record all our butterfly sightings in the Big Butterfly Count which runs until 11 August.

Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for taking the photos of butterflies, rosebay willowherb and buzzard.