Late Summer expedition to Arthur's Seat

Although the trees are losing their leaves early due to the dry Spring and Summer we've had, the weather still feels like Summer here. We chose Arthur's Seat for yesterday's walk as I particularly wanted to see another Small Copper butterfly (one of my favourite butterflies) before the end of the season. And we were lucky! This beautiful little Small Copper posed for us on the path

We chose a different route than the one we usually use to walk round Arthur's Seat  - partly enforced as part of the main route is closed due to the risk of rock fall after the recent fires on top of the hill. You can see some of the area affected by the fire in the photo below, though it may not entirely clear, the higher land in the background has been burned. The fire was probably caused by a carelessly dropped cigarette or similar and spread quickly in the dry conditions. It was put out pretty quickly by the fire brigade.  

The views around Arthur's Seat are always beautiful 

 the hillside path 

a view towards Salisbury Crags 

  

a view of Arthur's Seat itself  

 

 a view over to Calton Hill 

 

We also stopped at Duddingston Loch (above) where we were greeted by this handsome male pheasant

 

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I'm delighted to have a poem included in the selection published by the Ekphrastic Review in response to the painting Eschatalogical by Kitty North.

A Berry Bright Riverside Walk

 I did my regular litter picking, wildlife recording walk along Edinburgh's Water of Leith this morning. It was a lovely morning, the sunshine looking lovely through the late Summer leaves

I was delighted to find this clump of Cuckoo Pint, which oddly I've never noticed before. 

 

I often see the berries at this time of year, but rarely see the arums. Luckily the clump above is in quite a memorable location so I hope to be able to find the arums in the spring. Wikipedia has a good page about this fascinating plant, along with a photo of the arum stage. 

Weekend Walks

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Blackford Pond and the Hermitage of Braid. The pond is looking quite low after the very dry year we've had so far (though it has been raining occasionally over the past week). 

The Braid Burn is also quite low where it flows through the Hermitage  

and the grass at Midmar Paddock is looking very yellow 

 On Friday lunchtime we had walked the Maroon Mile from Tynecastle Stadium to the War Memorial at Haymarket. The Maroon Mile has been punctuated with information boards about local history and the history of Hearts Football Club to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary. North Merchiston Cemetery (of which I'm a member of the Friends Group) hosts two information boards, one celebrating the wildlife of the cemetery (including the 'Footballer Hoverfly' (Helophilus pendulus) which hasn't been marked with a photo)

 and the other highlighting the people buried in the cemetery who had connections with Hearts. 

I've written a wee bit more about the Maroon Mile over on my Shapeshifting Green blog. You can read it here. 

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In the run up to the 2026 Scottish Parliament Elections, Scottish Wildlife Trust are asking our politicians to Take Nature Seriously. read more here. 
 

Moody Clouds above Edinburgh

 I carried out a butterfly survey today at Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh's Agro-ecology project. I didn't see many butterflies at all, but was impressed by the clouds and surprised it didn't start raining while I was there. (I was hoping it would start raining as soon as I finished the survey, we desperately need the rain but you can't survey butterflies in the rain.)

 

Edited to add: it's now raining! Pouring! Hope this lasts for a while. 

Easter Craiglockart Hill and Pond

Yesterday we walked round Easter Craiglockart Hill and Pond. There are lovely views from the hill over to the Pentland Hills to the south of Edinburgh (the clouds look very moody in the photo below, but there was only the slightest bit of drizzle all day)

 The pond was quite busy with birds, though not many are visible in the photo below 

We were amazed by the number of Harlequin Ladybirds in the vegetation at the edge of the pond - the photos below show two of the very different forms of the adult Harlequins 

 While below shows a Harlequin larva 

It feels as though autumn is already here as the lack of rain over most of the year means that many trees are losing their leaves really early. 

 The Purple Loosestrife is beautiful at the side of the pond

 while it was nice to see these seed pods of Birds Foot Trefoil which demonstrate clearly why this particular plant was given its name 

After a nice lunch, we walked home along the canal and admired the Hairy Willowherb  

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I mentioned a few posts ago that I was considering shutting down my Crafty Green Magpie shop on Etsy. However, I've now decided to keep the shop open for another year before making a final decision. You can visit the shop here. 

Speckled Wood Butterflies

Speckled Wood butterflies seem to be everywhere in good numbers at the moment. They have two broods a year and the adults we're seeing at the moment are from their second brood. I saw this individual yesterday, who looks as though its had some hard times recently but still surviving well enough. 

 

Butterflies on Corstorphine Hill

 We had a lovely walk around Corstorphine Hill today. It's always a wonderful place for a walk and a particularly nice place on a hot day as there is so much woodland cover to offer shade when it gets too hot (which it is regularly doing these days). 

 We started our walk in the Walled Garden, where the flower border was literally buzzing with a variety of bees and hoverflies, including this Dasysyrphus tricinctus (not the best photo in the world, but a rarely seen hoverfly for us, so worth sharing) 

We were also pleased to see several butterflies in the garden, including this Red Admiral  

and this Peacock

 Beyond the Walled Garden, we were delighted to see Small Copper Butterflies in two different parts of the hill, the first time I've seen this lovely little butterfly this year

It's lovely to see butterflies having a good year after several very poor years. We really do need some rain here though, it's been an incredibly dry year so far and wildfire warnings have been issued across Scotland. (In fact, last weekend there was a fire on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh). 
 

 

Butterflies and Oak Galls in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens

We had a lovely visit to Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens yesterday. As this year's Big Butterfly Count  finishes today, we decided to carry out a quick count of butterflies in one of the flower borders in the Botanics. We were delighted to see this beautiful Red Admiral 

 

and this lovely Speckled Wood 

In another part of the gardens, we came across a wonderful oak tree that had several different types of galls on it. We're used to seeing galls on oak trees, but I've never seen so many different galls on one tree. There were Knopper Galls, caused by the wasp Andricus quercuscalicis:

Oak Marble Galls, caused by the wasp Andricus kollari

Artichoke galls, caused by the wasp Andricus foecundatrix

 and Spangle Galls (the circular galls on the underside of the leaf in the photo below) caused by the wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum

We also walked through Inverleith Park and met this very handsome feral pigeon by the Pond 

  

 

Dr Neil's Garden, Duddingston

 On Saturday, we visited Dr Neil's Garden, a hidden gem on the edge of Duddingston Loch,  

near Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat (which you can see in the background to the right of the photo below)

It always seems to me to be an ideal place to spend a hot summer's day, with it's waterside location and benches positioned under a variety of shady, mature trees. We were delighted to see a variety of insect life too including Common Darter Dragonflies 

a couple of Wall Butterflies 

and this bee (I think it's a Common Carder) who had found a pleasant resting place in between the petals of this ornamental daisy 

At the edge of the garden is Thomson's Tower 

which hosts regular small art exhibitions, including the current exhibition of work by Irene Bell, Linda Green and Marion Barron which is on until 7 August.

The above photo of Thomson's Tower was taken from Jock Tamson's Gairden, which is a community garden, with orchard trees, vegetable plots and wildflower areas. 

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Also this weekend we enjoyed an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland. Monkeys: our Primate family is beautifully curated and informative with several interactive activities for children and the young at heart. It would be improved if it could include a bit about the ethics of animal collection, with specific reference to how the taxidermy specimens in the exhibition were collected.  

 

Rosebay Willowherb

 

Rosebay Willowherb is a beautiful flower, often underappreciated as it grows so profusely in some areas. it's well worth stopping to admire though. 

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My latest post is now up on my Crafty Green Poet Substack blog. You can read it here.  

Waterbirds enjoying the Rain

 It was raining most of the day on Saturday but that didn't stop us enjoying a wander around Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens. This family of Moorhens seemed to be happy with the weather

 as did this Mallard mother and her duckling (she seemed to only have one, I'm guessing she must have lost a few to predation from gulls and other predators).