The head and neck of a roe deer obscured by a bush. But most of the frame is filled with an out-of-focus classic red telephone box. I did get clearer shots of the deer but was very happy to get this background.
This roe deer was very unexpected this morning. It was at the bottom of the slope of Calton Hill and seeming to be considering jumping down to Regent Road.
#UrbanWildlife #CaltonHill #Edinburgh
A dark-edged bee-fly on a holly leaf. It's a fly, but its furry body mimics a bee. The front edge of the wing has a dark pattern, giving its common name.
My first dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major) of the year at The Botanics yesterday.
I only saw it basking on this holly leaf. I'm hoping to catch it visiting flowers today.
#RBGE #Edinburgh #RbgeNature
Thank you, Glenys. Not my first butterflies of the year, but they were much easier to find today. I did get my first red-tailed bumblebee and a dark-edged bee-fly.
A comma, a predominantly orange butterfly, in the foreground and a peacock (mostly red with eye patterns on its wings) out-of-focus behind it. Both are inverted and feeding on the small blue flowers of grape hyacinth.
Comma and peacock butterflies on grape hyacinth at The Botanics today.
#Edinburgh #RBGE #RbgeNature#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife
A buff-tailed bumblebee with a small green circle with white "64" on its back between the wings. The numbers allow individual bees to be identified. The students studying the bees took audio recordings and physicial measurements of the bees before tagging and ideally would repeat the exercise with a previously tagged bee days or weeks later.
I haven't heard whether the students will be studying the bees this year. I'll certainly be playing bee bingo and posting here if they are.
For those wondering what on earth we're on about, here's a tagged "bingo" bee from September 2023. More info in alt text.
Thank you, David. Just warm enough for them to come out today without the usual manic activity.
A hairy-footed flower bee feeding on a small pinky-purple pulmonaria flower. The ginger hairs on the bee indicate that it is a male. The males emerge before the black-haired females. Long, fine hairs are just visible on the middle leg. These hairs give the bee its common and scientific names, plumipes translates to "feather foot".
A hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) on pulmonaria.
The first I have seen this year, there was maybe another, soon there will be many around this flower bed in The Botanics.
#bees #RBGE #RbgeNature #Edinburgh #UkWildlife #wildlife
I can't recall seeing a pied wagtail (Motacilla alba) in a tree in the middle of the day before. Often at dusk as they gather to roost, but this surprised me. It was soon back down on the grass though.
At Deaconess Garden today.
#Birds #Edinburgh #UKWildlife
From 1130 news on Radio 6 Music this morning: "Two people have been wounded in a suspected knife attack in Edinburgh. Armed officers were deployed to the Calder area of the city following reports of a man armed with a bladed weapon. Police Scotland say the incident has now been contained."
A redpoll (Acanthis flammea) in Lochend Park on Saturday.
I saw three when I passed through on Friday without my camera. They were still there, latterly with a fourth, when I returned next day.
#Birds #LochendPark #Edinburgh #UKWildlife
A queen bumblebee on a small pink flower of Rhododendron dauricum.
A buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) at The Botanics this afternoon.
Not the first I've seen this year, there were a few around today, all queens. Queen tree bumblebees too and a lot of droneflies. No butterflies yet, but maybe tomorrow...
#bees #UkWildlife #Edinburgh #RbgeNature
A redpoll in an alder tree, pausing from taking tiny seeds from the cones.
A redpoll (Acanthis flammea) in Holyrood Park today.
#Birds #HolyroodPark #Edinburgh #UKWildlife
27th 1330 - one waxwing has arrived
27th Dec - no waxwings sightings. I arrived late (noon) but was told there were none earlier.
I suspect the waxwing was ringed by Grampian Ringing Group, in which case there will be three colour rings on the left leg. I rechecked yesterday's pics and there was a glimpse of the dark green darvik there too.
Two waxwings from a group of four that I watched yesterday and today. They're eating white rowan(?) berries in the trees they visited most often. They also visited a tree with red rowan(?) berries nearby.
Waxwings today at Dundee Street (times and locations in earlier posts). The rear bird is ringed, looks like a metal ring with a narrow dark green ring beneath on its right leg. #Birds #Edinburgh #BirdingLothian
The waxwings headed towards Harrison Park at 1235 and I haven't seen them since (20 mins).
The four waxwings have returned to Dalry/Fountainbridge. Again sitting on the easternmost of the tall limes by the Approach Road at Telford Subway. #BirdingLothian
There's plenty of berries, fair chance they'll stay for you. I'll post updates.
A waxwing eating a white rowan(?) berry.
One of four waxwings at Dundee Street this afternoon. I only got two brief photo-ops, they spent a long time sitting in a tall tree pretty much above the Tefler Subway and they appeared to pop down to feed somewhere in Dalry too. #BirdingLothian #birds #Edinburgh
4 waxwings in front of One Sixty, Dundee Street minutes ago. #BirdingLothian
A common gull sitting on top of a lamppost. The lamppost is not straight, that's the lamppost rather than dodgy camera work (sometimes it's the latter). The background is the spire of Barclay Viewforth Church.
A common gull (Larus canus) at The Meadows this afternoon. They're not common here, I was happy to see 12-14 of them, other winter visitors have been harder to find.
#birds #UKWildlife #Edinburgh
A northern brown argus (a small butterfly) sitting on a non-flowering head of knapweed on the left of the image with two out-of-focus flowering knapweed heads on the right.
It's fairly late for a northern brown argus, but that does mean it's not autumn yet. Spotted today in Holyrood Park.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #HolyroodPark #Edinburgh
A wool-carder bee visiting a purple and yellow flower, I think annual toadflax (Linaria maroccana). There's a lovely patch of these by the big pond.
A wool-carder bee on toadflax at The Botanics.
This was a nice surprise, I seldom see them visit flowers other than lamb's-ear (I'd watched a very aggressive one there earlier).
#bees #UkWildlife #Edinburgh #RbgeNature
A white-letter hairstreak on the small yellow flowers of lady's bedstraw. The white "W" that gives its name is visible here (but not the clearest example). It also gives the scientific name Satyrium w-album.
This was a big surprise today, a white letter hairstreak appeared on the lady's bedstraw by the observatory building on Calton Hill.
@caltonhill.bsky.social, have a look high in your elms, they're likely there.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #CaltonHill #Edinburgh
A small skipper, a diminutive orange butterfly, sitting on the lavender-blue flowers of catmint (Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant').
A small skipper on catmint at The Botanics.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #Edinburgh #RbgeNature
Stock doves at The Botanics this afternoon.
#birds #UKWildlife #RbgeNature #SexyPigeon
A four spotted-chaser resting on the tip of a long grass stem. The marks on the wing that give its name are visible, most dragonflies have similar outer marks but not the middle ones (pterostigma). The background is pale green with patches of pink. This is provided by purple loosestrife that is growing around the edge on the main pond.
A four-spotted chaser at Inverleith Park yesterday. There were three doing lots of chasing around lunchtime; this one let me admire it later in the day.
A dividend from letting the grass and loosestrife grow around the edges of the pond.
#UkWildlife #dragonflies #odonata #InverleithPark #Edinburgh
Jelly ear fungus? Although I would happily defer to David or Joanie. Or Carolyn. Or...
A cuckoo sitting on a low branch of a tree just above long grass. I assume it was finding food in the grass because it would go into the grass for a few seconds and then back up into the tree.
A cuckoo! An unexpected sighting in the centre of the city. I spotted it when looking over the wall from the Innocent Railway path into Murder Acre (the field below Samson's Ribs). #birds #UKWildlife