Blackford Pond and Hermitage of Braid

 

Yesterday we had a lovely walk to Blackford Pond and through the Hermitage of Braid. The Yellow Flag Irises are starting to come into bloom around the pond

On the pond itself, we were delighted to see that two pairs of Mallards have young, this mother was looking after ten ducklings

the photo below shows four of them in close up

It was also particularly nice to see this Dabchick feeding its youngster (edited to add: I just found out from Twitter that a week ago there were four chicks, three chicks and the other parent have disappeared from the pond, probably predated by a gull or a mink, predation is a normal part of nature of course, but still sad to see these lovely birds disappear from the pond)

The Mute Swans have a nest, but are still sitting on eggs, though taking it in turns to swim around

 We were surprised to see this Stock Dove, a species that is often overlooked, due to its superficial resemblance to the much more common (and larger) Woodpigeon 

We also saw this Alder Fly

and this handsome leaf beetle 

I had heard that rats had been eliminated from the pond, but that's obviously no longer true and people have been putting large amounts of bird food on the ground, which only attracts the rats.

In the area around the pond, we saw lots of wildflowers, the photo below shows Red Campion, Green Alkanet, Garlic Mustard, Cleavers and Nettles

We passed through Midmar Paddock on the way to the Hermitage of Braid itself. The paddock is still sadly threatened with being built on. It has this iconic group of trees in the middle

and views over to Blackford Hill

The paddock is also full of flowers at the moment, includingWood Avens (aka Herb Bennet)

Greater Stitchwort

and Germander Speedwell

There were a lot of Seven Spot Ladybirds in the Paddock, including this one which was exploring the Sunburst lichen (Xanthoria parietina) on a fallen branch

We then walked through the Hermitage of Braid, which is particularly beautiful at this time of year

It was lovely to see a few Orange Tip butterflies - this male even stopped to allow Crafty Green Boyfriend to take a photo!
 

On a nearby road, we saw these Nomada Cuckoo bees hanging around outside the nest holes of some mason bees, the cuckoo bees will eventually invade the nest and lay their eggs in there.

for Nature Notes.