Walks in East Lothian

On Saturday we had a lovely walk along the John Muir Walkway from Musselburgh to the Bird Hides at the old ash lagoons at Levenhall Links. 

Along the way, there's a lovely view across the mouth if the River Esk to the Firth of Forth with Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat in the background 

 

The boating pond was looking pretty 

 and the wildflower meadows were looking wonderful

 

We were delighted to see several butterflies and moths in amongst these flowers. We were particularly happy to see this female Common Blue, which despite its name, isn't actually common around Edinburgh, the photo below shows the butterfly's upper wings

and the photo below shows her pretty underwings

We were also very happy to see a couple of Six Spot Burnet Moths  

a Painted Lady butterfly, who looked quite tattered 

and this handsome hoverfly, which I don't think I've ever seen before, but have identified as Chrysotoxum bicinctum

We saw plenty of birds too, including these Black Tailed Godwits (thankfully one of them had raised wings, helping us to identify them as Black tailed rather than the, in many ways, very similar Bar Tailed Godwits.

The male Eider ducks are moulting and look very different in this  plumage (known as eclipse plumage). In the photo below, the male Eider at the front is in breeding plumage, the rest are males in eclipse plumage.
 

 There are lots of Seven Spot Ladybirds this year, this pair were obviously doing their best to secure the future of the species

Last week I had also visited Dunbar to have lunch with a friend. We enjoyed watching the Kittiwakes at their nesting site at the harbour, these are the prettiest of gulls and are named for their distinctive call, which really does sound like 'kittiwake, kittiwake' 

 and more Seven Spot Ladybirds, this one just next to one of the reflective cubes at the Dunbar Battery, which has recently been reimagined as an events venue. 

**

Big Butterfly Count takes place this year from 18 July - 10 August. Find out how to get involved here.  

A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare

 

Swallows are wonderful birds, one of our most familiar summer migrants (though not as common as they once were). 

In this book, the author aims to follow the approximate route taken by a migrating Barn Swallow from South Africa to South Wales. He travels overland and only rarely sees swallows, so the book is mostly about the experiences of travelling across Africa, interwoven with occasional sightings of swallows, details about their biology and habits and the place of swallows in religion, folklore and literature. The author comments on local customs, political borders and environmental degradation (particularly deforestation). 

He notes that birdwatching as we in the UK know it, is a 'luxury' and not something that people across Africa generally engage in, though he does meet some swallow experts and fans along the way and learns some local names for swallow, including Nyankalema the Zambian name which translates as 'the one that never gets tired'. 

Swallows meet with many perils on their journey, including needing to cross the Sahara, storms, collisions with traffic and predation. Yet every year they return to our shores to delight us. 

"they seemed to delight in chaos, charging zig-zag into space, which was at once empty and full, as though playing chicken with physics."

A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare, published (2009) by Vintage.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare, published (2009) by Vintage.  

Orchids and Hoverflies on Corstorphine Hill

I told Crafty Green Boyfriend about the orchids I'd seen on Corstorphine Hill on my butterfly survey the other day and he was keen to see them for himself and to take some photos. So we took a trip there yesterday and here are some of the photos he took:

 

We went into the Corstorphine Hill Walled Garden and were very pleased with how many hoverflies we saw. After hardly seeing any Babded Hoverflies (Syrphus sp) over the past couple of years, we were delighted to see so many! Click on the photo below to zoom in and see how many hoverflies you can count on the Fox and Cubs flowers. 

We were also happy to see a number of other hoverflies, including this Sericomyia silentis, sometimes known as the Bog Hoverfly

and this Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria sp)

We continued our walk around the hill and saw a number of butterflies, including this Small Skipper

We were also happy to see some rabbits, though we were only able to get these two on camera.  

**

I'm happy to have a haiku in  this selection on Haiku Girl Summer.  

 

Orchids and Butterflies

 Today I carried out a butterfly survey on Corstorphine Hill for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Before I saw my first butterfly, I noticed how beautiful the Common Spotted Orchids were! 

 

Their leaves are very spotted, which is how they get their name 

I was also pleased to see several butterflies during the walk: 4 Red Admrials; 9 Ringlets and 5 Small Skippers. Butterflies are generally in decline so it's good to see these numbers, even though years ago, you would have hoped to see more. 

 

The Small Skipper (see above photo) is a butterfly that has been able to move northwards into Scotland as a result of climate change. 

Seven Spot Ladybirds are having a great year this year (How many ladybirds can you see in the photo below?)

I was also happy to see this field of Lady's Bedstraw: 

** 

My latest Substack post is now live! The last in my series celebrating The Wildlife Trusts' 30 Days Wild campaign, it focuses on art and nature. You can read it here. 

**

I was surprised but very happy to win the Gaelic section of the Scottish Book Trust's most recent 50 Word Short Story Contest. You can read my story (with an English translation) here.  

Lots of Insects for National Insect Week!

This week is National Insect Week, an opportunity to highlight the small creatures that are all around us and far more important than most of us give credit to! 

Insects are well known to be in decline, scientific surveys tell us so and my own experience has shown far fewer insects around than there were even just a few years ago. Today, however, when walking along the Water of Leith for my weekly volunteering session of picking litter and recording wildlife, I was very impressed by all the insects I saw.  

I saw at least six Red Admirals

along with a good number of Speckled Wood Butterflies (who were flying too quickly for my camera). 

I saw lots of hoverflies, mostly Banded Hoverflies (Syrphus sp) 

This pretty insect below is a plant bug Grypocoris stysi, (click on the image for a closer look)

 and the fly below is Poecilobothrus nobilitatus. Several of these flies were fluttering around low in the vegetation and in the muddy ground. (Again click on the image for a closer look). 

I also saw lots of bees, mostly Buff / White Tailed Bumblebees, but also Tree Bumblebees and Common Carders.  

Edinburgh's Canal Festival and a canalside walk

We went along to the Canal Festival on Saturday. We started by walking through Harrison Park, past the Harrison Park branch of the Grove Community Garden. 

We were early for the actual festival so we walked up the canal for a while. 

The Meadow Sweet is in full bloom alongside the towpath

as is the Tufted Vetch  

There were a lot of ladybirds alongside the towpath, and a few hoverflies including this Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) 

We walked as far as the Water of Leith Visitor Centre, and this pretty Feral Pigeon posed for photos, under the aqueduct where several of these pigeons nest. 

 

Walking up from the river back to the canal, we noticed this lovely clump of Kidney Vetch, alongside the steps.  

We then walked back along the canal to the festival, where we enjoyed browsing the stalls. The festival this year was split into three, some of the stalls are in Harrison Park, some are outside Boroughmuir High School and some are at the city end of the canal, separated by some construction work that's going on alongside the canal. So it wasn't quite the same event as it has been in the past, but still worth popping in and it's always nice to walk along the canal! 

**

I enjoyed reading the latest issue of Folk Ku journal from King River Press and am delighted to have two of my haiku included https://kingriverpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/folk-ku-issue-5-water_may-june-2025-pdf-edition.pdf

 

Nature inspired Collage

I've been working on a few collages recently, most of them are still in progress! I've been adding items gradually over several weeks to the collage above, and I think it is now finished, though I may change my mind! It's made up of: a piece of wrapping paper, a cutting of a Wood Warbler from a nature magazine, and a number of stickers and paper ornaments from my stash, mostly acquired from second hand shops.