Ken D

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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

A shrew in grass with a fat caterpillar in its mouth. The shrew is a small rodent with short brown hair, small ears and a pointed snout. The body of the caterpillar is pale pink with small black spots. It has a pale head with maroon "eyes" (ocelli).

A common shrew with a dark arches moth caterpillar. We were thrilled to watch the shrew hunting for several minutes, rooting around at the base of clumps of grass. The pursuit of the caterpillar took a while, but it looks like it was worth the effort. #HolyroodPark #UKWildlife

Yes, I am happy for you to use my photo if you give me credit.

Yes, Ochlodes sylvanus. It was briefly on the red valerian beside the observatory building on the 17th. iRecorded. bsky.app/profile/gazi...

Yes, I'm happy for you to use my photo on your website, just give me a credit (Ken Dobson).

You might also be interested in the large skipper I spotted, that's very likely a first for the hill; it was the first in iRecord. That's in an earlier post, I'm happy for you to use that too.

The Nelson Monument, clad with scaffolding and with security fences around it, and a crane in the foreground with a fully extended jib with a large black ball hanging from it above the top of the Monument. A man wearing hi-vis clothing looks very small atop the scaffolding.

The Nelson Monument black ball was hoisted into position on Wednesday.

A small, fluffy, yellow gosling sitting in short grass. The geese, including the goslings, graze this patch of grass. I remained a respectful distance away, used a long lens and cropped the image.

A gosling (Canada goose) in Holyrood Park this afternoon. It has one sibling and two attentive parents.

The swan is still on the nest at Dunsapie Loch.

#birds #UKWildlife #HolyroodPark

A male large skipper on red valerian.

A large skipper made a brief appearance on Calton Hill yesterday. They can be found at Levenhall, but there are few records of them in the city. This one is early too. iRecorded.

#butterfly #ScotButterflies #UKButterflies #UKWildlife #CaltonHill #Edinburgh

A cinnabar moth resting on the underside of a garlic mustard leaf. Its wings are folded, the visible wing is black with a long red stripe and two red dots.

A cinnabar moth, my first of the year. I saw it fly into the garlic mustard during one of the last sunny intervals yesterday.

I suspected it might still be there today because the temperature had remained low. This time, I'd packed a macro lens and flash.

#moths #TeamMoth #UKWildlife #HolyroodPark