Hawthorn in Bloom

 I did a butterfly survey today at Edinburgh Agro-ecology's project at Lauriston Farm. The weather was perfect for butterflies, warm and sunny with not too much wind. The farm is looking particularly lovely at the moment with all the Hawthorn trees and hedges being in full bloom 

It was lovely to see so many small insects on this Dandelion flower

This used to be the standard situation for dandelion flowers, they used to be always covered in small insects, but these days this is a rare sighting, many dandelion flowers these days have no obvious insects on them, which is a sad indication of the decline in insect numbers. As insects decline so do the birds and other animals that feed on them. Some insects are more well liked than others, most people like butterflies for example! On today's survey, I saw a good number of butterflies, but the only one that wasn't a species of white butterfly was this rather faded looking Speckled Wood 

I saw and heard a lot of birds, including: Reed Bunting, Skylark, Meadow Pipit; House Martin; Swallow and several Whitethroats (in fact I don't think I've ever seen or heard so many Whitethroats in one place). I also was interested (and saddened) to find this dead newt - probably a Palmate Newt. I had no idea there were newts at the farm! 

Although this sunny weather that has lasted for most of the year so far is lovely and great for butterflies, we desperately need more rain. There have been wildfires across the country (and Scotland is not a country where wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem!) and fire warnings are in place. Rain isn't forecast for Edinburgh for at least another week.