Orchid

Not a rare one, but I think there's something inherently exotic about orchids. T and I went to Aberlady Nature Reserve which was our first proper expedition since lockdown. We weren't the only ones with the idea of getting out of Edinburgh and there was a lot of traffic on the roads and more people in the nature reserve than I've seen before. At times it was like the old normal - sitting at Gullane Point watching terns, gannets, eiders and cormorants had almost nothing different about it - although you couldn't escape the new normal most of the time. There was only one group allowed on the footbridge at a time, passing places had been strimmed along the path and there was a one-way section of path with a diversion on the return journey. The glorious beach was still very quiet as you have to walk some way to get there, although some people had gone to the trouble of bringing chairs and windbreaks with them. We were overtaken by a quad bike converted to an ambulance but we caught up with it later and the casualty seemed to be walking wounded which was probably just as well as I don't think a ride on a quad bike would have had much to recommend it. I guess a helicopter might have been summoned if needed.

We saw quite a variety of birds including little egrets, black-headed and herring gulls, shelducks, mute swans (a pair without cygnets on the Mire Loch who flew off and later reappeared at the footbridge, so maybe they are looking for a territory), moorhens, mallards, a wheatear, a ringed plover to name some of them. We also heard curlews making their lovely trilling call, one of my favourite sounds. All in all it was a grand day out.