A Sunny Autumnal Day at Dalkeith Country Park

We're continuing our staycation and yesterday had a lovely visit to Dalkeith Country Park just outside Edinburgh. This is a beautiful place to explore.

The most impressive part of the park is the old oak woodland, which is full of ancient oak trees

We were delighted to see lots of speckled wood butterflies around the whole park

I love watching these butterflies as they dance around in the sunshine. 

We were surprised not to see many fungi around the park, though this fallen tree trunk was host to a wonderful display(I'm not sure what species this is, feel free to identify it in the comments below!).

  We were disappointed not to see many birds until we reached this yew tree, which hosted about ten mistle thrushes, a selection of tits, a nuthatch and this goldcrest. 

The weather was unseasonably warm (I've recently heard that apparently weather forecasters aren't allowed to use the word hot in forecasts between September and March, which is ridiculous in these times of climate chaos and rising temperatures). Climate chaos concerns aside though, it was lovely to have another day of hot sunshine after such a wet summer.