Damsels at the Pond!

 I had read on Twitter, that someone had seen damselflies at Blackford Pond last week so Crafty Green Boyfriend and I went down there yesterday to see if we could find any. I didn't hold out much hope to be honest, thinking that these lovely insects might be few in number and hiding in the waterside vegetation. 

Thankfully, I was wrong! We saw at least twenty damselflies of at least two species and Crafty Green Boyfriend even got some photos of them! 

Most of the damselflies we saw were mostly dark with bright blue tails, we think these were all common blue tailed damselflies:

 

There was a smaller number of very blue damselflies, which I'm pretty sure were Common Blue Damselflies (Edited to add, I've since been told they're Azure Damselflies)

We enjoyed watching the damselflies and the various waterbirds  - the mute swans are still on their nest, and we saw the head of one cygnet! You're not supposed to take photos of nesting birds, so I don't have any to share. I can however, share a photo of the yellow flag irises that are currently in bloom

and we saw this caddis fly on the path 

 We then walked past Midmar Paddock 

 

The paddock is sadly threatened with development, it seems that a planning application for a care home and housing is about to be submitted. If you live in Edinburgh and want to protest this development, please follow Friends of Midmar Paddock on Facebook and Twitter to find out what you can do. 

Greater stitchwort was blooming in profusion

and we were delighted to see this green longhorn moth 

 

 We then walked into the Hermitage of Braid and walked along the Braid Burn

We noticed these weird looking cup fungi, if anyone can identify them to species level, we'd be most interested to know what they are!