Portobello Cemetery

I'm continuing my wildlife surveys of the cemeteries managed by City of Edinburgh Council. Today I made my third visit to Portobello cemetery, which I used to think of as quite small, as I had only ever seen it from the bus before starting this survey work. In reality it is much larger than it seems and contains a good amount of interesting wildlife. Today was warm and sunny, great weather for pollinating insects! Crafty Green Boyfriend joined me for part of the day and took several of the photos included in this post. 

We were delighted to see this beautiful Wall butterfly 

This is a relatively uncommon butterfly, though I saw one last time I visited Portobello Cemetery and we saw one on Saturday when we walked from Cramond Brig to South Queensferry. 

We also saw a couple of Meadow Brown Butterflies 

a couple of commas, this one was in beautiful condition

while this one looked fairly battered

We also saw a few Speckled Wood Butterflies, chasing each other through the trees, though only this one stopped for a photo 

and this Green Veined White Butterfly 

 I'll be recording these butterfly sightings as part of the Big Butterfly Count, which continues until 7 August.

There were some hoverflies around too, including this Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)

and a few bees, including this Red Tailed Bumblebee  

And we met a cat in the cemetery! This is the first time I've met a cat here, but she was very friendly and we nicknamed her Bella. She only has a stump of a tail and a squeaky voice, and enjoyed playing with grass stalks that we waved in front of her. 

Portobello isn't the only cemetery with a cat, you can see photos in this post of 'Craig' the feline tour guide at Craigmillar Castle Cemetery.