Category: Garden WildlifePage 4 of 9

July 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

July 2016 was mostly rather cloudy and damp although very high temperatures were recorded on a couple of days in the third week of the month. Seven additional…

BioBlitz record breaker

Counting the wild species in a given area in a set time is the aim of a BioBlitz. Clearly, the biggest list will be produced by involving as…

A most distinctive bee

The wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) is one of the most distinctive solitary bees that lives in the Garden. During July and August the Demonstration Garden and the…

First grasshopper record for RBGE

On Monday 18 July, which was warm and sunny, I was doing my usual lunchtime wildlife recording walk-round, accompanied by a young work placement student named Caius who…

June 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

June 2016 was gloriously warm and sunny. for the first week, but the rest of the month was cooler and changeable with some spells of quite heavy rain…

RBGE’s first shark record – a Chamomile Shark

Yesterday morning I came across a caterpillar on a flower-head of Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) ‘Fire King’ in the Herbaceous Border. It had a very complex patterning along its…

Diamondback! Mediterranean invader reaches the Garden

This year there has been an enormous migration of tiny Diamondback moths (Plutella xylostella) into Britain from the Mediterranean or farther south. Millions appeared along the south and…

May 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

May 2016 for the most part continued April’s rather chilly but dry theme. In the last few days of the month however, it seemed like summer began, for…

Green Tourism at Edinburgh

Here at the Edinburgh Garden a team of staff from across the organisation are getting ready for our second assessment for a Green Tourism award in July. In…

April 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

April 2016 was rather dry except for one really wet day. However, apart from some days mid-month, it was distinctly chilly, and snow or sleet fell, at least…

Spring Bird and Garden Walk

On the 5th April the Garden offered a special Spring Bird and Garden Walk.  Tamar Duncan, Visitor Welcome Team, Pamela and Cathy our expert Garden Guides led the…

Gorse Weevil, new to the Garden and to Midlothian

On 14 April I photographed Gorse Shield-bug, Piezodorus lituratus, on a gorse bush at the edge of the Scottish Heath Garden in RBGE. The following weekend I was…

March 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

March 2016, like February, began on a rather windy note as Storm Jake passed through although the Garden was relatively unaffected. The month’s other major storm, Katie over…

Botanics Sparrowhawks – Easter Trail Bird Biodiversity

Happy Easter everyone! Just to let you know it’s still pretty quiet with the sparrowhawks although I have seen some dotting about so hopefully nesting will be underway…

Moth trapping at the Garden: Two new records

Monitoring the wildlife in the Garden is an ongoing task that helps us understand the value of gardens, and other amenity greenspaces, for all sorts of different animals….

February 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

February started stormy, with the tail end of Storm Gertrude quickly passing into the next one in the series, Henry, at the beginning of the month. Both storms…

Botanics Sparrowhawks – Living Landscapes Event Sun 14/02/2016

New album: the Week in Edinburgh Wildlife: Keeping warm and preparing for spring. https://t.co/aq3P30d4Z5 pic.twitter.com/j0B9iotLQw — Living Edinburgh (@EdinLandscape) February 13, 2016 In a slight departure from my…

January 2016 Garden Wildlife Report

January was a changeable month. It began as 2015 had ended – wet and windy – but there followed some cold frosty days around the middle of the…

Botanics Sparrowhawks – Species Reproduction

I haven’t posted for a wee while on the Sparrowhawks. To be honest it’s a quiet time of year for them and they are not the most showy…