Drama at Figgate Park

 We had a lovely walk round Edinburgh's Figgate Park yesterday. The main feature of the park is the Figgate Pond, which is home to a number of water birds including Mute Swans, Mallards and Canada geese, all of which have bred there this year. As all the parent birds are keen to protect their offspring from attacks from predators, they can sometimes become quite aggressive.

We were watching the Canada Goose family, with their five appealing goslings

when suddenly one of the parents rushed away, followed by all the goslings

It didn't take long to find out what had caused this, as a Mute Swan had decided to chase the other adult Canada Goose

This chase went on for quite a long time, though oddly, at one time the swan chased the goose towards the swan's own nest on the island in the middle of the pond! 

The Mute Swans only had one cygnet. 

It seems likely that there would have been more cygnets to start with, so this family may feel a particular pressure to guard their remaining offspring. 

There were a number of mallards on the pond, including this family with small ducklings.

 

We were delighted to see several damselflies, though mostly further away from the water than we would have expected to find them! There were at least two species, the Blue Tailed Damselfly 

and Common Blue Damselfly (I think! If anyone disagrees and thinks its actually an Azure Damselfly, please let me know in the comments!)

There were a good number of Speckled Wood butterflies flying around.

We saw a few hoverflies, though not as many as we might have hoped. It was particularly nice to get such a good view of this Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)