Arthur's Seat

Yesterday morning was mild and sunny, perfect autumn weather for a walk round Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat, one of our favourite places for a weekend stroll. 

We caught sight of a Kestrel being mobbed by two Carrion Crows, click on the photo below for a closer look

We got a much closer look at one of the Carrion Crows  

Everything looked particularly sharply focussed in the bright light

Later in the day it started raining and in fact is still raining as I type. We need the rain, but it was certainly lovely to be able to enjoy the sunshine yesterday morning. 
 

 

Moorhen family at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens

 We had a lovely walk yesterday at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens, always a great place to visit. The wildlife highlight yesterday was watching the Moorhens. Three generations were present. Adults, including the individual in the photo below 

 Juveniles (probably chicks from earlier this year, though possibly last year's chicks), who have duller colours, like the individual below (though some have entirely brown beaks)

and very young chicks like the one below  

Even at this age, the chicks can swim around quite happily, but they can't yet find food for themselves, so the adults and juveniles are busy with feeding duties. We really enjoyed watching this juvenile feeding the chicks

 

Grey Squirrel

 I met this Grey Squirrel today, who was shouting loudly as they tend to do at this time of year. 

 

Figgate Park and Portobello Beach

Yesterday we had a lovely walk, as we almost always do on a Saturday. We started off in Figgate Park, where the pond was covered in waterweed and there were few ducks in sight.  

The crab apple trees were a delight though, full of red fruit that look good enough to eat, but crab apples are generally too sour to eat fresh and need to be made into jelly or wine.   

 

We were amazed by the number of Speckled Wood butterflies in the park, they seemed to be everywhere, 

The wildflower meadows (which have been planted rather than being native meadows) are still vivid  

and supporting a reasonable number of insects, including this Common Carder bee

and this Red Admiral butterfly 

 

Our favourite sighting though was this incredibly well camouflaged Treecreeper

We were also happy to sight a Sparrowhawk soaring above us 

Just as we left the park, a bus turned up that was heading to Portobello so we jumped on for the short ride, had lunch in Portobello and then walked along the promenade to enjoy a sunny afternoon at the seaside. (Portobello was actually much busier than it looks in the photo below!)

 Shared with Nature Notes. 

Fungi everywhere!

 On Saturday we had a lovely walk around Blackford Pond and the Hermitage of Braid. 

We saw a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies in the woodland, including this individual who's obviously had a hard life

 There were fungi everywhere, including Sulphur Tufts

Turkey Tail

Hairy Stereum

and Common Puffballs 

The fungus below I think is Sheathed Woodtuft (but I may be wrong, so if you recognise it as something different, please let me know!)

Today I found this beautiful Larch Bolete underneath a larch tree 

It's definitely the time of year for fungi, so keep an eye out when you're out and about! 

Shared with Nature Notes.  

Red Raspberry Slime Mould

It really does pay to look closely at things! I noticed these little blobs of a pretty orange colour today on some dead wood. I thought it was probably a slime mould and took a photo and it is indeed a slime mould. I think it's Red Raspberry Slime, but I'm willing to be corrected if there are any slime mould experts reading this. 

 Read more in this week's post on the Crafty Green Poet Substack.

Shared with Nature Notes. 

A Small Copper Butterfly on Corstorphine Hill

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Corstorphine Hill. One of the highlights was seeing this beautiful Small Copper butterfly, one of my favourites. These are really tiny butterflies with gorgeous colours and markings. They're not uncommon but they can be very elusive, partly because they're so small. This individual was very happy to be photographed, first posing on Ragwort, which is an important plant for many insects

then the butterfly moved to the thistles

We also saw a Speckled Wood 

Buzzards nest in this area, and two were flying above us (not that you can tell they're Buzzards in the photo below!) 

A Raven also flew over, but too quickly to be captured on camera! 

Shared with Nature Notes.  

A Walk at Cramond

 Earlier today we had a lovely walk along the Firth of Forth from Silverknowes to Cramond, passing Cramond island

 The walkway was very busy with lots of people walking, a few people cycling and a lot of dogs. The walk is quite quiet at this time of year in terms of birds, there are lots of gulls and crows but few waders, as they tend to gather here in autumn and winter. We were, however, very happy to see a large family group of Goldfinches, you can see them in the photo below, feeding on the thistle seeds, the adults have red faces, the youngsters lack red faces, and if you enlarge the photo and look very carefully you may be able to recognise the Goldfinch with a partially red face, that is almost (but not quite) an adult). 

For Nature Notes. 
 

Not all bees are social!

 When you think of bees, you probably think of honey bees and bumblebees, which are all social insects. However, not all bees are social, most bees in the UK in fact are solitary bees. Yesterday Crafty Green Boyfriend and I attended an excellent Introduction to Solitary Bees event, organised by TWIC (The Wildlife Information Centre). You can read more about it in this week's Substack post.

The photo below shows a female Hairy Footed Flower Bee, my favourite solitary bee! These bees can be seen in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens in the Spring. 

 

Easter Craiglockart Hill and Craiglockart Pond

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Easter Craiglockart Hill and Craiglockart Pond. It's quite a steep hill so it's nice that there are a few benches at the top where you can sit and enjoy the views. 

It was lovely to see several patches of Harebells, such lovely, delicate flowers 

We then walked through the pleasant meadow / orchard area 
 

which is in the grounds of Craighouse, which has a long and interesting history, starting from Old Craig House which was built in the 16th Century, through the development of a clinic which later became part of Napier University and is now a housing development, though with plentiful green-space surrounding it. You can see most of the buildings in the photo below 

From there we walked to Craiglockart Pond  

which is next to a lovely wetland area, full of bulrushes and other plants

There are three superficially similar but different flowers growing here, Rosebay Willowherb

the closely related Hairy Willowherb (also known as Great Willowherb) 

and Purple Loosestrife 

Always a lovely area to walk round! 

 

 

Arthur's Seat

We always love walking around Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and it's sad and terrifying how often it's being hit by wildfires these days. The latest fire, which was on Salisbury Crags, adjacent to Arthur's Seat started on 19 July and took days to be put out. it's now out, but the site has been extensively damaged as you can see from the photo below, with the blackened areas on the Crags being a very sobering sight. 

 Luckily we've had a fair amount of rain since the fire was put out, but wildfires are becoming more and more common as climate chaos takes hold (wildfires are still raging in the Cairngorms in northern Scotland and across large areas of France and Spain, to mention just a few.)

We walked our usual route round to Dunsapie Loch, where there were a lot of Canada Geese, a couple of Mute Swans and a few Mallards. 

We were delighted to see this female pheasant with her two chicks 

watched this Kestrel for a while

There were some insects to watch too, including this Common Wasp busily eating a slug  

and several bees, including this Buff Tailed Bumblebee 

The thistles are already shedding their thistledown, which makes for some nice photo opportunities

Hopefully there won't be more wildfires, but rising temperatures and lack of rain make them more likely. If you're out and about in hot, dry weather, don't light fires or use barbecues and dispose of cigarettes carefully. Many wildfires are started by human carelessness and human induced climate change will often make them spread.

Posted for Nature Notes.