Birdwatching at Musselburgh Lagoons

On a beautiful October day, Wild Reekie member and birdwatcher Ewan took a group of complete novices down the Esk to Musselburgh Lagoons.

We saw a huge range of birds which sit there at high tide, including Oyster catcher, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew, Bar-tailed godwit, Snipe, Lapwing, Grey plover, Teal, Widgeon and Grey heron. Canada goose, Greylag goose, Gooseander, Black headed gull, Herring gull and Lesser black backed gull were in the mouth of the river. Out in the Forth, we saw Merganser, Gannet, Eider duck, Swans and Cormorants. The grassland of Levenhall Links was full of Meadow pipits.

Lapwing (foreground), Teal (behind), Godwits and Oyster catchers (further lagoon)

Snipe on a tussocky island

Many thanks to Ewan for leading such an excellent event: he couldn't have planned the weather, but the route, the perfect state of the tide, the knowledge of the birds we were looking at and the clear explanations all combined to leave a very happy group, with a much better knowledge of the birds that live around Edinburgh's coast.

I hope Ewan will lead some more birdwatching events in future so sign up to follow our Meetup page for these and other events celebrating the wildlife of Edinburgh.

Follow me on Twitter @eleanormharris.

Bioblitz at St John's Princes Street

St John's Church, on the busy corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road at the West End of Edinburgh, might not be the most obvious place for a bioblitz - a survey of the diversity of wildlife at one place and time.

Yet the graveyard behind the church is a small oasis for biodiversity, with old trees and walls, varieties of shade, sun and slope.

Moreover, unlike most graveyards in Edinburgh, this one is managed by the congregation themselves. By understanding the importance of the site for wildlife, the congregation could easily take steps to enhance it.

This event was a collaboration between Wild Reekie and St John's. St John's was one of the first churches in Scotland to celebrate Creation Time in September, a month of focus on nature and the environment, which is being celebrated in more and more Christian churches around the world.

The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the moth trap, and Wild Reekie are hugely grateful to  ecologist Mike Smith who lent us the trap and gave us a tour of the moths. The star species was undoubtedly the beautiful Large yellow underwing:

With limited time and skills, the list of wildlife was just a small proportion of the biodiversity in the graveyard, and many were not identified to species level, but it is fairly impressive nonetheless:

• Common wasp (nesting)
• Earwig
• Stinging nettle
• Herb robert
• Large yellow underwing moth
• White clover
• Brown slug



Baby millipede

• Micromoth (there are thousands of species!)
• Millepede
• Common rough woodlouse
• Black ant 
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Solitary wasp
• Tree bug
• Daisy
• Dandelion



Hunting bugs under stones

• Creeping buttercup

• Pellia epiphylla (liverwort)
• Marchantia polymorpha (liverwort)
• Common carder bee
• Buff/ white tailed bumblebee
• Cranefly
• Broad-leaved willowherb
• Groundsel
• Ivy

• Spearleaf willowherb
• Grimmia pulvinata (moss)
• Oxford ragwort
• Greater plantain
• Broadleaved dock
• Bittercress
• Red campion
• Tortula muralis (moss)
• Eristalis pertinax (hoverfly)
• Syrphus ribesii (hoverfly)
• Welsh poppy

Feverfew, and wasp nest in the hollow base of an old Rowan tree. 

• Rowan
• Hawthorn 
• Feverfew
• Self heal
• Red campion
• Orthotricum sp. (moss)
• Bryum capillare (moss)
• Ground beetle
• Wood pigeon
• Bracket fungus
• Kindbergia praelonga (moss) 
• Rhytidiadelphys squarrosus (moss) 
• Ash 

Liverworts and mosses

• Holly 
• Peacock butterfly
• Dryopteras sp. (fern)
• Small tortoiseshell butterfly
• Yew
• Centipede
• Dunnock (Hedge sparrow)
• Human

The list of over 50 species (illustrated by the Sunday School) is being exhibited inside St John's as part of the September display. Hopefully it will give the worshippers inside a sense that the users of their premises are far more diverse than the people.

I'm just pleased the moth trap worked, after I set it up.

To be notified of future Wild Reekie events, please sign up at meetup.com/Wild-Reekie. You can also follow me on Twitter at @eleanormharris.

There were a lot of wasps, and one of the Large yellow underwings didn't get away fast enough...

Excursion to the Slamannan Bog Project

Today was Wild Reekie's first foray out of Edinburgh, to visit the 9000 year old peat bog which my friend Scott Shanks has been restoring in his role as Conservation Officer at Buglife.

Scott introducing members of Wild Reekie to the bog

The raised bog near Cumbernauld is the remnant of a mighty peatland that stretched all the way to Copenhagen - when giant elk could walk across it. We didn't see giant elk but we did see Giant wood wasps.

Female Giant wood wasp

Over the past year, Scott has been overseeing the installation of peat dams to block the drains which have been being damaging the bog since the seventeenth century. These have been causing it to release carbon into the atmosphere, release pollution into the water, and lose its value as habitat for a unique range of plants and animals.

New dams blocking an old drain to create pools, with wet ground on either side

Just a few months after the dams raise the water level, and stop the peat from eroding, sphagnum moss and cotton grass began to re-grow, and dragonflies, darters, pond-skaters, whirligig beetles and other water-loving plants and invertebrates, recolonised pools and marshes which had been silent for hundreds of years.

Female Black darter

Spotting Pond skaters, Water crickets and Whirligig beetles on the surface of a pool

We were able to contribute to the restoration of the bog by helping to fell some self-seeded Lodgepole pines which were encroaching on one edge.

When we started, the trees came up to just behind where this photo was taken. (Look there's me on the right!)

We were all inspired by Scott's passion and knowledge, and by the speed with which this degraded landscape was recovering and being filled with wildlife.

You can support projects like this by joining Buglife - it's only £2 a month - and I'd warmly encourage you to do so here.


Sign up to hear of future Wild Reekie events on our Meetup page, and follow me on Twitter @eleanormharris.

Launching the Great Park Hunt

Today I had the luxury of attending a Wild Reekie event without leading it. Heili shares my enthusiasm for urban greenspaces and having come to many of my events, suggested the idea of trying to visit every park in Edinburgh. She then discovered there are around 150!

But you do a thing by starting it, and so today Heili led a trip to King George V park in Canonmills. Given its fascinating history and its closeness to the centre of Edinburgh, it is very little known: several of the group had never been before.

Heili had done great research on the history of the park and was able to tell us all about its industrial history; its incarnations as a curling pond, Victorian gymnasium, football ground and award-winning children's playpark in 1989; and its periods of neglect.

We peered into the Scotland Street tunnel and strolled down the route of the old railway line to Canonmills.

Sign up to hear about future Park Hunts as well as other Wild Reekie events on our Meetup Page. We have made a Park Hunt Reward Card, so if you collect five parks with us you'll get a prize!

Mini bioblitz in the Astley Ainslie

We were invited by local resident Jean to do a mini preliminary survey of the biodiversity of the grounds of the Astley Ainslie hospital in Morningside. The aim - apart from having fun - was to begin to raise awareness of its importance as a green corridor through the city for wildlife and people. The site is owned by the NHS but is likely to be redeveloped in future, so understanding its importance as part of Edinburgh Living Landscape is timely.

Five of us spent a leisurely couple of hours exploring and I listed all the species we identified in that time. It was not a scientific survey, but we all had smatterings of wildflower knowledge, were all trying to learn our bumblebees, and John could recognise birds from their song which as far as I'm concerned is a skill bordering on magic.

We easily made a list of 66 species, over 50 of which were native:

1. Wych elm
2. Common lime
3. Ash
4. Silver birch
5. Holly
6. Alder
7. Elder
8. Scots pine
9. Goat willow
10. Yew
11. Pedunculate oak
12. Rowan
13. Ivy 
14. Stinging nettle
15. Goosegrass
16. Bramble
17. Raspberry
18. Creeping buttercup
19. Meadow buttercup
20. Ribwort plantain
21. White clover
22. Red clover
23. Lesser stitchwort
24. Wood avens
25. Willowherb
26. Wood forget-me-not
27. Herb robert
28. Meadow cranesbill
29. Garlic mustard
30. Dandelion
31. Sanicle
32. St Johns Wort
33. Coltsfoot
34. Common ragwort
35. Broom
36. Foxglove
37. Daisy
38. Cocksfoot grass
39. Wood pigeon
40. Jackdaw
41. Magpie
42. Wren
43. Robin
44. Blackcap
45. Goldcrest
46. Swift
47. Song thrush
48. Blackbird
49. Chiff chaff
50. Wood wasp
51. Common carder bee
52. Buff tailed bumblebee
53. Tree bumblebee
54. Rabbit
55. Grey squirrel
56. Sycamore
57. Norway maple
58. Horse chestnut 
59. Sweet chestnut
60. Beech
61. Turkey oak
62. Deodar cedar
63. Blue Atlas cedar
64. Rhododendron ponticum
65. Monkey puzzle
66. Green alkanet
67. Himalayan balsam
68. Japanese knotweed

We didn't know our beetles! Photo by Kay

Some of the non-natives were superb trees from when the grounds were formal parkland. There were large numbers of the recently-arrived Tree bumblebee. We also noted the invasive Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed, and arranged to contact the Council about the latter.

The range of old trees was spectacular, as was the diversity of flowers, including woodland flowers like Sanicle which indicates ancient woodland. There were plenty more flowers, grasses, mosses, ferns and invertebrates which we didn't have time or skill to identify. We felt we'd had a glimpse into a treasury on our doorstep.

You can see future events and sign up on the Wild Reekie Meetup page. You can also follow me on twitter at @eleanormharris or email me at eleanormharris@gmail.com. 

Bunny and rhododendron, by Kay

Scottish Wildlife Trust's most urban reserve

As part of #30DaysWildReekie, we visited the tiny Johnston Terrace nature reserve,  Scottish Wildlife Trust's most urban reserve right under Edinburgh Castle.

We listed over 40 species, mostly wildflowers: Stinging nettle, White dead nettle, Mayweed, Red campion, Hogweed, Creeping buttercup, Meadow buttercup, Bramble, Herb robert, Meadow cranesbill, Round-leaved cranesbill, White clover, Red clover, Dandelion, Flag iris, Rosebay willowherb, Cleavers, Green alkanet, Wood avens, Ivy, Bittersweet, Dog rose, Bluebell (just!), Teasel, Cocksfoot grass, Elm, Hazel, Elder, Ash, Hawthorn, Silver birch, Rowan, Bluetit, Swallow, Greater black back gull, Magpie, Common carder bee, Woodlouse, Diamondback moth (part of the current invasion), and Human (also part of the current invasion!) We didn't have any ecologists in the group and there were plenty of other species we couldn't identify including ferns, moss, grasses, plantains, snails, bumblebees and other invertebrates.

Bittersweet

Snail enjoying the damp weather

Not a bad list for a tiny area in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town.

Many thanks to Scottish Wildlife Trust for permission to visit the reserve. I hope it won't be Wild Reekie's last.

You can see future Wild Reekie events and sign up to receive notifications on our Meetup Page. You can also follow me on twitter at @eleanormharris.

Bug hunting on Arthur's Seat

We met up with Suzanne Burgess of Buglife for a bug hunt in Holyrood Park. After a quick lesson in using sweep nets...

... we set off up the hill to see what we could find in the long grass...

Green lacewing

Truebug (left) and one of the many flies 

Sweeping amongst the buttercups and orchids

Soon everyone had caught things in pots to ask Suzie about...

Cranefly, owning the pot

It was a cloudy day without many pollinators about, but we did catch a worker Red tailed bumblebee, giving Suzie the chance to tell us about the seven common bumblebees we're likely to see in Edinburgh: Buff tailed, White tailed, Red tailed, Common carder, Early, Garden, and the recently arrived Tree bumblebee. There's a guide to most of these here.

Bumblebee ID

We saw the grub (which looks like a caterpillar in a crash helmet) and the adult of a Sawfly, both of which seemed to enjoy the attention:

Sawfly grub. Hey, mister!

Sawfly adult, posing

We did catch one butterfly, despite the clouds, a Small copper:

But as it's Moth Night (which lasts all weekend), it's appropriate that we had more chance to see some of Edinburgh's beautiful, diverse and underappreciated moths:

Silver-ground carpet moth

Carpet moth ID

Micromoth

Tiny, intricately patterned micromoths busy pollinating a dandelion

There were quite a lot of Click beetles around, and much discussion of how various jumpy things jump:

But the most abundant invertebrates about were flies: who knew they were so diverse and interesting? 

A pregnant hoverfly, with a fat abdomen

Non-biting midge (with punk hair!)

Soldier fly

My favourite: a Dagger fly

Many thanks to Suzie for such an interesting and inspiring outing!

You can find out more about Buglife and support its work by becoming a member on its website, buglife.org.uk. You can also follow it on Twitter at @buzz_dont_tweet. 

For information on future Wild Reekie events, join our Meetup group. You can also follow me on Twitter at @eleanormharris. 

You never know where Meetup friendships might lead... I introduced these two weevils to each other in this pot.