Photographing Nature for 30 Days Wild

 30 Days Wild encourages people to engage with nature and wildlife in some way every day in June. If you join up on the website, then you'll be given a list of suggested activities to ensure you keep exploring nature over the whole of the month. I'm just posting my own ideas each day as I go along!

Today I had a walk around Silverknowes. I'll be bringing a birdwatching group next week but I haven't visited for a while due to lockdown restrictions and then being busy so i thought I'd have a wander along before meeting a friend in the area. 

The fields of the Lauriston Farm here are due to be transformed into a local agroecology project (though there is some concern from some birdwatchers that the project will actually damage the area for certain species of wading birds that winter here, while undoubtedly improving the area for other species). You can find out about this project here. The project seems very keen to survey what wildlife there is in the area and are keen for people to send in their wildlife records so if you have any recent records from the area, do send them in to the project, using this page on their website. 

I made a note of the birds I saw, including swallows, pied wagtails and whitethroats, all these records will be sent to the project. At the same time I took the chance to take some photos. 

The farmland is looking lovely at the moment, everything is so green and the hawthorn hedges are in bloom. 

On the water, herring gulls were trying their best to ride the waves

though the water looks calmer in this photo below 

I was particularly interested in this beautiful hawthorn tree 

The air is scented with the sweet cicely that grows in profusion here 

There's a lovely variety of habitats in this area, including a small patch of woodland, which looked particularly beautiful when the haar (sea mist) lifted and the sun came out.