A Summer Walk along the River Almond

One of our favourite summer walks is to go along the River Almond towards the airport. Yesterday was very hot and promised to be an ideal day for this walk, which offers a nice mix of shady woodland and sunnier areas where butterflies and other insects like to bask.

The walk starts in shady woodland

with beautiful views of the river from the bridge

and then opens out

very few people walk this far along the path and that, combined with the hot and often wet weather we've had recently means that the path is very overgrown, with a rich selection of wildflowers and insects - though not as many butterflies as we had hoped to see (nor as many as we've seen in the past). We didn't see a single painted lady on this walk, which astonished us, as currently you can barely walk down a street in Edinburgh without seeing at least a couple of painted ladies!

We did see this beautiful peacock butterfly though

and hoverflies everywhere including this handsome Volucella pellucens

and the closely related Volucella bombylans (with the white tail)

and this Syrphus sp which wanted to be on the wrong side of the camera

We had lunch in our usual favourite picnic spot

with these mute swans gliding by

and the water full of young fish

on the way back we were delighted to see this banded demoiselle damselfly

and then we visited the Shetland ponies

one of which was looking distinctly grumpy

It's a lovely walk to escape the heat and crowds of Festival City Edinburgh.

Thanks Crafty Green Boyfriend for the photos of the insects, swans and fish.