Along the Water of Leith

 

Today was a lovely day for my regular litter-picking, wildlife recording walk along the Water of Leith in Colinton and Craiglockart Dells. I was very happy to see that Common Spotted Orchids are again in bloom in the buttercup field 

I was even happier to see a good number of bees. There were probably over a hundred (including Buff tailed, White Tailed and Tree Bumblebees) flying round the cotoneaster and comfrey in the orchard area, though I didn't even take my camera out there as I was so engrossed in listening to and watching all the activity. I had better luck with the Tree Bumblebee below 

As I was photographing the bee above, I noticed that some of the leaves of the Beech tree were host to galls. The leaf below particularly so:

 

A quick internet search reveals that these galls are caused by a midge, Mikiola fagi. 

The British Plant Gall Society define a gall as ‘an abnormal growth produced by a plant or other host under the influence of another organism. It involves enlargement and/or proliferation of host cells, and provides both shelter and food or nutrients for the invading organism'.  

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My latest Substack post has just gone live. Focussing on Learning about Wildlife for the 30 Days Wild Challenge from The Wildlife Trusts, you can read it here.  

fledgling haiku

newly fledged blackbirds
in the garden —
shadow of a cat

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originally published on Haiku Girl Summer. 

 

Figgate Park

 

We had a nice walk round Figgate Park at lunchtime today (avoiding the rain!). I was very impressed with the duck feeding station, where, for a £1 donation, you can get a handful of suitable food to give to the ducks and other birds on the Figgate Pond. 

 The Mute Swans were looking very happy today with their cygnets

 

One of the adult swans seemed to be enjoying a spot of yoga at one point 

The Blue Tits were also busy with youngsters - the bird in the foreground below is an adult Blue Tit, with a youngster in the background. The youngster has much softer colouring and a yellow face, rather than the white face of the mature bird.  

We were interested to find this Trembling Wing fly, which was surrounded by aphids. We were quite surprised that there weren't more ladybirds around, as we've seen very good numbers in the past couple of weeks and ladybirds are knwn to eat aphids.  

It was lovely to see the River Water Crowfoot in full bloom in the Figgate Burn 

and plenty of other flowers including Forget Me Nots and Buttercups, looking lovely together 

**

 I'm delighted to have three poems in the second volume of North of Oxford's tribute to Russell Streur, former editor of The Camel Saloon and Plum Tree Tavern. 

Pleased to have a poem included in the Ekphrastic Review's selection of responses to a work by Severine Gallardo.  

A few days in and around Perth

 We had a lovely few days away in and around Perth last week. The very changeable weather didn't stop us enjoying a few walks. The highlight was going to the Tay Reedbeds, with the aim of finding Bearded Tits (now also known as Bearded Reedlings). There's a lovely walk from the village of Errol, which takes in the reedbeds and the surrounding area:

 

We were lucky enough to see a couple of Bearded Tits, though we didn't get a close up view! We also saw and heard: Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and Sedge Warblers. After a lovely lunch in the cafe in Errol, we had a quick visit to the Cistern Green Wildlife Garden and Community Orchard, which is a lovely greenspace. 

On another day we had a lovely walk up Kinnoul Hill, which we visit every time we're in Perth. The walk is a lovely mix of woodland

scrubby heathland  

and amazing views over the River Tay (the silvery areas near the river are reflections from the polytunnels in fruit farms)

We had a couple of walks along the River Tay, which runs through the centre of Perth

 

 

and visited a couple of local parks

 We were impressed by the wetland area in the main Perth park

where we became surrounded by feral pigeons, even though we weren't feeding them

Some of the pigeons were very pretty 

We were very happy to find a good number of House Martins and Swifts flying around above the river in some places. 

Perth is always a nice place to visit, as well as the lovely walks, it has a good selection of cafes and restaurants and a good museum and art gallery. 

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I'm delighted to have a poem included in the Ekphrastic Review's selection of responses to a work by Severine Gallardo.  

You can read my latest Substack post, the first in a series about 30 Days Wild, here.  

 

Weekend Walk round Arthur's Seat

 

Arthur's Seat is one of our favourite places for a weekend walk, not least as there are a number of different walks to do on the hill. Yesterday, we enjoyed a sunny morning walk and were back home in time to avoid getting wet in the (much needed) rain that fell for most of the afternoon. 

One of the most wonderful things about Arthur's Seat is that Ravens nest there and yesterday we were lucky enough to see three of these magnificent birds, though only one deigned to be photographed

Lots of flowers are currently in bloom, including Viper's Bugloss 

and Cow Parsley

 and Birds Foot Trefoil 

In the middle of the photo above you'll see a Seven-spot Ladybird. There were a huge number of these lovely insects around yesterday, I've not seen so many of them since the heatwave of summer 1976, which is famous for the huge number of Seven-Spot ladybirds seen everywhere. 

With it being Spring, some of the water birds had youngsters with them, we were delighted to see this Mute Swan family with four cygnets

and two families of Mallards, one of which had three very young ducklings 

As we were getting towards the end of our walk, we met this magnificent male Pheasant

A Few Days of Staycation

 We're enjoying a partial staycation at the moment (I'm still working some of the time!) We've been lucky to mostly avoid the (much needed) rain for our walks. (We'd been experiencing the driest start to the year since at least the 1960s, you can read my latest Substack post about our attitudes to rain here). 

 We had a lovely walk around Saughton Park, with the highlight being seeing a mother Otter with a tiny cub. We were absolutely delighted to see this, but weren't able to get to our cameras quickly enough, so sadly can't share any photos!

I did get some photos of the flowers, insects and birds around the park though. Here are just a few! 

I love  the  ornamental alliums (or decorative chives as I'm always tempted to call them)

 

and quite a few of the roses are just about perfect at the moment

while this iris is just past its best, but still lovely 

We were astonished by the number of ladybird larvae and pupae on leaves in the flowerbeds. At first we though they might be larvae of the invasive Harlequin Ladybird, but after looking them up, I identified them as Seven Spot Ladybirds. Look carefully in the photo below and you can see both larvae (the long greyish creatures with orange markings) and pupae (the rounder, more orange creatures). 

Though we didn't capture the otters on film, I did get this photo of a family of Mallards, the ducklings look almost grown up! 

 We also had a walk through the Dells alongside the Water of Leith, where we found a wide variety of interesting insects, including this Ecdyonurus torrentis mayfly

plenty of bumblebees, including this Early Bumblebee

 several Hoverflies including this Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) 

and this Swollen Thighed Flower Beetle which is apparently quite rare in Scotland 

 

We also saw a Roe Deer in the orchid field - can you spot it?  

Crafty Green Boyfriend also joined me for my butterfly survey this week. We managed to avoid the rain and enjoyed our walk round Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh's Agro-ecology Project. 

 

There were only a few butterflies but the birds more than made up for things, it was particularly nice to see a good number of both House Martins and Swifts. It was also interesting to see how many small moths were gathered in the buttercups, daisies and other flowers. I've (tentatively) identified these as Cocksfoot Moths