Frost!

 Ice crystals round the little waterfall between the two paths in the Serpentine Walk.

Frost at the side of the Kiel Burn in Lundin Links.

Amazing Sky

 The sky over Lundin Links tonight

From Lundin Ladies Golf Course.

October Butterfly

A red admiral butterfly making the most of the valerian flowers in the October sunshine. After a cold spring there seemed to be few butterflies about in the summer. However, in the last few weeks there have been a few peacock, red admiral and painted lady butterflies in the garden.

A Tangle of Creels

A tangled jumble of ropes and several creels, presumably washed up on the beach at Lundin Links by the recent storm.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a walk and Largo Bay looked stunning.

Heron at the Bridge

Heron perched on a branch of a willow tree at the bridge over the Keil Burn in Lundin Links. It seemed quite unfazed  by the constant stream of traffic just feet away on the road.

Bluebells amongst the Trees

 Bluebells in the trees at the top of the Massney Braes in Lundin Links.

Bluebells line the path in the Serpentine Walk.

In the Serpentine Walk in Largo an orange-tip butterfly lands on a blue or in this case pink bell flower.

Vixen with Foxcubs

Looking over the fence to the old railway track while walking down the steps leading to the Massney Braes in Lundin  Links, spotted a vixen feeding her cubs.

The vixen eventually wandered off into the undergrowth, but the cubs stayed around playing in the sunshine. I think there were 6 or 7 altogether.

Maybe the foxhole. Used to be a lot of rabbits in this area. Haven't seen any in recent weeks. Perhaps, the foxes are the reason.

Disappearing Gnomes

Over the last few days gnomes in the garden have gradually got buried in the snow. One is up to his neck and only the hat of his little mate is visible. Guess we'll know that the thaw is setting in when they start to reappear.

A robin photobombs the picture.

Ring Around the Moon

Cold night but the sky was fairly clear. The moon appeared to have a ring around it. There are two different phenomena. A halo is caused by refraction  when moonlight passes through thin clouds of ice crystals high in Earth's atmosphere. As moonlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent in a way similar to light passing through a lens. The shape of the ice crystals causes the moonlight to be focused into a ring.

However, this looks more like a corona.  This happens when the light of the Moon, is diffracted on small drops of water in the clouds, so by diffraction of the light and not refraction. A whitish disc with a coloured rim becomes visible.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2018

For over 30 years now the RSPB has been conducting a garden birdwatch at this time of year. The public are invited to take part by watching and recording the birds they see in one hour in their garden or a park and sending in their results by post or on-line. My results for this year, taken yesterday, were:

Blackbird: 1
Dunnock: 1
Blue tit: 2
House sparrow: 6
Robin: 1
Starling: 2

The count was fairly representative of what we see most days. Other birds that we see regularly are coal tits, great tits, goldfinches and woodpigeons. Occasionally see bullfinches, long-tailed tits and collared doves.

Saltire in the Sky

Beautiful sunny day yesterday with a bright blue sky. Doing a bit of tidying in the garden, I looked up to the sky and there was a diagonal cross directly above me. It reminded me of the St Andrews Cross. Not sure if  it was caused by aircraft trails or natural cloud or a bit of both.

Dipper at the Keil Burn

Looking from the bridge on the main road, spotted this dipper flitting about the rocks in the Keil Burn. It settled on a small rock, close to the pipe that goes across the burn. I have seen them here before but never close enough to get a photo.

The white throat and bobbing motion make it instantly recognisable.

October Red Admirals

This has been a very poor year for butterflies, but with the milder weather this week there have been quite a lot of red admirals about.

 Red admirals seem particularly fond of the valerian flowers in my garden.

Sparrowhawk

Strange to see a sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) standing on a pavement in Lundin Links, as I've normally seen them perched on a post or fence. I thought it might be sick or injured, as I got quite close to it but then it heard some small birds chirping in nearby bushes and off it went diving into the bushes in search of its prey.

Helicopter on the Golf Course

You know that there's an election in a few days time when a helicopter lands on a golf course and thankfully, it's not because someone is being lifted to hospital by air ambulance which was what I thought when I first heard it.

Helicopter after landing at Lundin Ladies Golf Course yesterday afternoon.

Rainbows Over Largo

Rainbow over Largo Law from Lundin Golf Course.
An afternoon of sunshine and showers brought some spectacular rainbows.

 Rainbow over Largo Law from the beach walking towards Lundin Links.

Rainbow over Ruddon's Point at the end of Largo Bay.

A Far-Travelled Butterfly

 A painted lady butterfly enjoying the early October sunshine on valerian flowers in the garden. It is a migrant from North Africa. There is a programme on BBC 4 tonight about the extaordinary journey that it makes.

A Colourful Bank

A colourful bank of purple and gold flowers at the foot of the Massney Braes in Lundin Links. The gold comes from tansy flowers and the purple from common knapweed.

For many years, tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) was used as a medicinal herb despite its toxicity. A bitter tea made with tansy flowers has been used for centuries as an anthelmintic to treat parasitic worm infestations, and tansy cakes were traditionally eaten during Lent because it was believed that eating fish during Lent caused intestinal worms. However, it has no place in modern herbal medicine.

Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by various other names e.g. lesser knapweed, black knapweed and hardheads.
Knapweed is a good source of nectar attracting bees and butterflies. Its seeds also provide food for many birds.

Colours of May in June

May or hawthorn blossom in the Serpentine Walk.

The may blossom seems to have been particularly spectacular this year, perhaps, flowering later because of the cold spring weather.

Most of the blossom is white but some is tinged pale pink.

This bush in the hedgerow bordering the field between Upper Largo and Lundin Links had bright pink blossom. Couldn't take a close-up photo as it was on the opposite side of the busy road to the pavement.