Lauriston Farm Agro-ecology Project

Lauriston Farm has been the site for Edinburgh's Agro-ecology Project for a few years now. Their aim is to engage the local community in growing a range of crops and rewilding the area. I've been carrying out butterfly surveys on the farm for the last couple of years. Sadly, there aren't usually that many butterflies to see, as populations of these beautiful insects are declining. However, there are often good numbers of other insects to see in the farm fields, including today this Batman Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

The birdlife on the farm is amazing. For the past couple of weeks, when I've visited, I've been surrounded by House Martins and Swifts, I'm pretty sure every Swift in Edinburgh feeds above the fields here! The presence of these two insect-eating species must be proof that the insect populations are, in general, doing well here. I also regularly see and hear a variety of other birds including: Skylarks; Meadow Pipits; Reed Buntings; Willow Warblers; Chiffchaffs. There are always several Goldfinches, today I saw a parent Goldfinch being followed around by two youngsters. I didn't see any Swallows today, though they are nesting in at least one of the barns on the farm. I've heard a rumour that there are also Sedge Warblers on the farm, but I've yet to see or hear them! 

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.  

Coming Soon! 30 Days Wild

  

Speckled Wood Butterfly, photo taken by Crafty Green Boyfriend on Corstophine Hill

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30 Days Wild is The Wildlife Trusts' annual challenge event, which invites you to do one wild thing every day throughout June.

This year marks 10 years of 30 Days Wild!

Sign up on the website today and receive a FREE pack in the post, plus lots of inspiration for activities. 

Speckled Wood Butterfly

 Lovely to see two Speckled Wood Butterflies in Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum's garden when we popped in around lunchtime

 These are lovely butterflies to see, not a species you would really expect to see in a garden, even a garden with several trees. Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum doesn't use any pesticides or herbicides and normally her garden is a haven for insects of all sorts. This year, however, there are far fewer insects here than we would expect for the time of year, a phenomenon that is being noticed across the country.

The rhododendrons in the garden are also looking lovely

The cooking apple tree is also looking great, I blogged about that tree yesterday for Tree Following. 

In the garden for 30 Days Wild.

Tree Following June Post

This year for Tree Following, I've chosen the beautiful cooking apple tree in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. You can read the post where I introduced the tree here. 

The tree is around fifty years old and produces a lot of apples (last year was a bumper year and I gave apples to colleagues, neighbours, students in my writing classes as well as friends!). The apples are excellent in apple crumble or just stewed and eaten with custard or added to porridge. 

Here are some photos of the tree from the beginning of May: 

 

The flowers were just coming into bloom!

and on 11 May:

Some of the blossoms were already losing their petals

I also took a photo of the eating apple tree on 11 May

Towards the end of May, the blossom was fading, and you can see where the fruit will form

Another couple of photos from the end of May

For Tree Following and 30 Days Wild.

Visit a Cemetery / Do a Litter Pick for 30 Days Wild

 30 Days Wild takes place in the UK throughout June. I'll try to blog something about it every day, though that won't always be possible! 

As many readers of this blog will know, we started visiting our local cemeteries every day when the first COVID lockdown was imposed, the two cemeteries creating an ideal Daily Exercise Route. I've been visiting regularly ever since, though these days my visits are no longer daily. Over the past couple of years, I have also been employed to carry out wildlife surveys (now completed) of  all of the council managed cemeteries in Edinburgh. 

I can definitely say that cemeteries can be excellent places for wildlife! Of course, different cemeteries are managed differently, those that are still in use for regular burials need to be kept very tidy, but can still offer useful habitats for birds and insects. Cemeteries attached to historically interesting churches are usually also kept fairly tidy. Cemeteries that are no longer used for burials and that are not attached to churches are, in Edinburgh at least, allowed to grow a bit wilder. 

North Merchiston Cemetery is one of those cemeteries. My main impetus for visiting the cemetery this lunchtime was to pick litter. There have been a number of big concerts at the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh over the past few weeks. This is great, it's good to have big concerts in our city and the stadium is an excellent venue. Not so great, however, is the litter left over afterwards. Specifically, plastic feathers from feather boas that were sold at the events. 

The  cemetery isn't exactly on the doorstep of the stadium, but I counted at least 20 such feathers around the cemetery as I collected these and other bits of rubbish. 

Edinburgh Council is carrying out deep cleans of the area around the stadium after the events, but this doesn't prevent lightweight rubbish such as these feathers from littering the city (they are literally everywhere!). The council doesn't have the power to ban the sale of plastic feather boas, but also doesn't seem inclined to actually make the point that that would be a good idea, as it would stop the problem at source. 

Apart from that, I had a lovely time in the cemetery, enjoying the sunshine. 

One of the laburnum trees in the cemetery, in full bloom

A dog rose in full bloom

A Whitebeam tree in full bloom 

A close up of the Whitebeam flowers 

Buttercups and Daisies

As I've mentioned in previous posts, there were only a few insects around. A couple of Orange Tip butterflies, a Speckled Wood Butterfly and a few Bumblebees of different species. Edinburgh Council does not use herbicides or pesticides in this cemetery (except for very focussed applications of herbicide to remove invasive Japanese Knotweed).

If you're interested in the wildlife in burial grounds, you may be interested in Churches Count on Nature 2023 which starts tomorrow, Saturday 3 May and is part of Love Your Burial Ground Week, focusing on the brilliant wildlife to be found in churchyards and chapel yards.

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Visit a Cemetery for 30 Days Wild 

Pick Litter for 30 Days Wild 

 

 

How will You Enjoy and celebrate Nature in June?

I can't believe it's June already! Some people say that Summer starts today, others wait until the solstice, personally I think Summer starts when it wants to start! It's certainly a great time of year to enjoy nature, and there are lots of projects to help you do that. 

30 Days Wild is a project from the UK's Wildlife Trusts encouraging people to do something wild every day this month - find out more and sign up here. 

International Nature Journaling Week is an opportunity to use creative writing and art to record what you see around you in nature. Today's prompt is Colour! You can find inspiration for this topic here.

Big Meadow Search, one of many nature surveys going on at this time of year, is a UK wide project to raise awareness and interest in grasslands and to record plant species. You can survey any grassland, including a grassy cemetery or a park, and you don't need to be an expert botanist to take part. Find out more here.

Nature at Inch Park

After an enforced break to the programme (due to COVID) I was back at Inch Park yesterday, leading a nature walk. These walks offer people a chance to get to know the wildlife of the park, learning to identify species of plant, insects and birds. At the same time, the information collected will go towards making a resource for Inch House Community Centre to use as a basis for future nature based activities in the park. (I'll be leading another series of nature walks in the park in the Autumn). 

Yesterday's observations included: 

The Lime (Linden) trees are starting to come into flower 

 

When fully in bloom (which should be in a week or two), Line trees smell amazing! 

 

Most of the Lime trees look very healthy, but the leaves of one tree were covered with galls formed by Lime Gall Mites (Eriophyes tiliae). The mites release chemicals that cause the galls to grow.  The photo below isn't great as the wind was blowing quite hard and the leaves wouldn't stay still. 

We also found galls on a Walnut tree, these are caused by the Walnut Leaf Mite (Aceria erinea). 

 

Near the entrance to the park is a lovely wildflower bed, that is currently blooming beautifully, though I didn't take any photos of the whole flowerbed as we were too busy identifying plants and insects. I did however, take a photo of the borage, which is such a lovely colour 

We all stopped to take photos of the Knapweeds that were growing alongside a path, they're such impressive flowers

 

For 30 Days Wild.

Angle Shades Moth

 I was delighted when Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum pointed out this moth to me in her garden. Thanks to Edinburgh Natural History Society's Facebook group, I've found out that it's an Angle Shades, isn't it lovely?

Insect Week in Dalry

 So having been indoors isolating after catching COVID, I can now get out and about again (Crafty Green Boyfriend has been able to get out for a few days longer than me as he caught the virus and got rid of it before me.) Aware that we shouldn't overdo things in the first week or so after getting rid of the virus, we walked round Dalry Community Park, which is just round the corner from where we live. 

It's a long, thin park, with much of its space given over to play areas, including a large sandy area that has inadvertently become a lovely flower meadow. 

As it is Insect Week, we took time to wander through the grass, looking for pollinating insects. We saw a number of Eupeoides sp hoverflies 

and several bumble bees including this Common Carder enjoying the white clover

By the edge of the path, we found this ladybird larva, which I think is the larva of the 7 spot ladybird

which will grow up to look like this 

 

There were quite a few bumblebees and hoverflies enjoying this bush, including this buff / white tailed bumblebee

We then had a rest before walking into Dalry Cemetery. The bramble bushes in the cemetery were buzzing with bees and hoverflies, including this Pellucid Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens)

and this Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

It was lovely to see several speckled wood butterflies in the cemetery

Insect Week is a chance to celebrate insects and learn more about these fascinating invertebrates. You can find out more on the Insect Week website.

For 30 Days Wild,  Insect Week and Nature Notes.  

a haiku for 30 Days Wild

I took these photos before COVID hit our household and am only now back to blogging at all. We're both feeling a wee bit better, but both still definitely have the COVID. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery, as we're both missing getting outside. Though at least we have the lesser black backed gull 

 chick across the road to entertain us!

 

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bumblebees buzz

the white clover -

scent of honey 

haiku for 30 Days Wild

 

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