A Willow Warbler was heard singing from bushes on the Chinese Hillside this morning (15 April) – the first spring migrant bird to arrive in RBGE this year! Usually the first to arrive is the Willow Warbler’s close relative the Chiffchaff but, although they have arrived in the Lothians, none has been heard in the Botanics yet this year.

[Illustration: By Illustration by Henrik Grönvold (d. 1940); in a book by Arthur Gardiner Butler (d. 1925) via Wikimedia Commons ]