Category: Garden WildlifePage 9 of 9
This hoverfly is Epistrophe eligans. I photographed it on a leaf in the Rock Garden at lunch-time today. It is apparently a scarce species in Scotland, but I…
This year’s annual emergence of St Mark’s Flies (Bibio marci) has begun today. A lot were seen flying above the path between the Rock Garden and Woodland Garden…
The Edinburgh Garden’s BioBlitz is now less than a month away, and large banners advertising the event are now up at the East and West Gates. The BioBlitz…
A brood of Mallard ducklings hatched on the main Pond at the end of last week. On Friday I counted about seven but I only saw about half…
On Friday I saw three Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) on the lawn west of the Pond. This rather grainy out of focus image taken from quite a distance away…
This Greater Bee-fly Bombylius major was seen hovering above the Scottish Heather information panel in the Scottish Heath Garden at lunchtime today. It finally settled on the panel…
Local bat experts released a Soprano Pipistrelle bat, Pipistrellus pygmaeus, in the Garden on Saturday 11th May. The bat had been discovered by Robert Unwin on 12th April….
It might not feel like it today, but we had a wonderful warm sunny day in the Garden on Tuesday 7th May. During an early morning bird walk…
Posters advertising the BioBlitz will soon be appearing all around the Garden and in local shops, libraries etc. Look out for them and tell your friends. They’ll look…
Have you heard about the BioBlitz that is taking place at the Botanics on Midsummer Evening Friday 21 June and all day during Garden opening hours on Saturday…
Last year, from its beginning until the end of April 2012, I had recorded the following numbers of insect species and other invertebrates in RBGE: 3 butterflies; 13…
Today I saw a small solitary bee visiting flowers of Woodsorrel Oxalis acetosella in the Scottish Heath Garden. It had a very reddish brown furry thorax and rather…
A total of 41 different bird species was recorded in, or flying over, the Botanics during April 2012. These included the year’s first migrants, as I’ve mentioned in…
A single Pine Ladybird, Exochomus quadripustulatus, was seen today on the bark of one of the beech trees at the top of Stove Brae. This is one of the…
Slowly but surely bees are beginning to buzz in the Botanics this slow, late spring. As more flowers come into bloom more bees, and more bee species, emerge….
A Greater Bee-fly, Bombylius major, was spotted in the Copse yesterday and again today, visiting the mass of Pulmonaria ‘Munstead Blue’ near the entrance opposite the path to…
The Garden seemed full of spring migrants this morning! I heard at least three, possibly four, different Willow Warblers around the Chinese Hillside and Pond areas. A Chiffchaff…
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!…
Three Canada Geese were on the Pond at RBGE Edinburgh yesterday (21 March) – two adults and a juvenile, distinguishable by its more orange beak. A Dabchick (also…
Selected highlights of the 2012 sparrowhawk breeding season at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.