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
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
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 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 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
A very young moorhen looking towards the camera. Its beak is red with a yellow tip. Its down is black with some long grey wisps at its neck giving the impression of a beard. The down on the top of its head is thin with skin showing. A wing is visible, but it is barely a stump. Its legs are not visible (obscured by vegetation) - those are well-formed already, and the young chicks can walk through the reeds.
A juvenile moorhen, I guess days old based on its size and baldness. One of seven at the big pond at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh today.
#birds #UKWildlife #RbgeNature
A side-on image of a male orange-tip butterfly. The underside of the lower wing is spotchy green on white, ideal for camouflage, but the upper wings are not fully folded in, showing a splash of the orange that gives the butterfly its common name. It is sitting on a cluster of pale pink flowers. I had to check the plant label for this one, it's Syringa x chinensis. The image is framed by out-of-focus green and pink achieved by taking the shot through a gap in the foliage.
An orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) on Chinese lilac (Syringa x chinensis) at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh yesterday.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A side view of a butterfly with its wings together so one underside is visible. The wing is brown with cream patches and the background has similar colours with some greens provided by moss on a rock. The grape hyacinth has a cluster of small blue urn-shaped flowers a little like a bunch of grapes.
A speckled wood on grape hyacinth at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh yesterday.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A peacock butterfly sitting on top of a pale, almost white, daffodil. There are many other daffodils out-of-focus in the image. The trumpets of the daffodils are more yellow.
A peacock on Narcissus 'Salome' at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh today.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A speckled wood sitting on the pale yellow flowers of a Corylopsis (I think Corylopsis sinensis, Chinese winter hazel).
My first speckled wood of the year, on Corylopsis at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. A holly blue was charging around the nearby hollies but not stopping for photos.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A comma butterfly sitting on a spike of small, blue grape hyacinth flowers with other spikes of the flower out-of-focus in the background. The rest of the background is green from the foliage of the flowers.
This comma spent a lot of time on the path, gravel, branches and ivy leaves but gave me a brief photo op as it fed at the grape hyacinth (Muscari aucheri) in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh today.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A hairy-footed flower bee on a pulmonaria flower. The bee has the short ginger hairs of a male and the legs hairs that give the common and specific names are visible.
A hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes), on pulmonaria today at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
That was one of a few first-of-the-year sightings today. Others were frog spawn, a small tortoiseshell and purple toothwort.
#bee #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A peacock butterfly sitting on the pink flowers of a rhododendron.
A peacock on Rhododendron dauricum 'Rosa' in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh today.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A red admiral sitting with open wings on a cluster of small pink rhododendron flowers (it's Rhododendron dauricum 'Rosa'). The background is mostly pink, provided by out-of-focus flowers on the same bush.
I saw the red admiral at the same bush yesterday in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Of course, I looked again today, but the sun didn't poke out until I was on my way home. I'll try again tomorrow...
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A red admiral with wings spread sitting on a small pink flower at the end of new growth on a rhododendron. The background is a fairly uniform pale brown with some patches of pink, provided by out-of-focus rocks behind and other rhododendron flowers.
A red admiral on Rhododendron dauricum 'Rosa' at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh yesterday (27th Feb).
It's always a thrill to spot the first butterfly of the year.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
A backlit red admiral with sun shining through its spread wings, sitting on the small, tightly clustered pink flowers of Rhododendron dauricum 'Rosa'.
My first butterfly of the year: a red admiral on Rhododendron dauricum 'Rosa' at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh today.
Yeah, I did my happy dance.
#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #RBGENature
