Thursday 15 March 2012

Musselburgh

trees by the boating lake



pussy willow by the boating lake


The grey hill in the distance is part of the existing ash workings.


The old ash workings have been filled with water and form the Musselburgh Lagoons, which are wonderful for waders and ducks. Today they were quite quiet (I saw a heron, four shelduck and a couple of teal) but often they are full of hundreds of birds of many species. Today, along the nearby coast I saw velvet scoters, very distant grebes (great crested?) and twite as well as lots of waders including a grey plover.


As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

11 comments:

Greenpatches said...

Hi. Just checked out the Shelduck on the RSPB map. They look rather beautiful. Not a bird I remember seeing before, which isn't surprising as I live inland. We've mostly mallards and moorhens down our way, oh, and swans of course.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Hi Greenpatches, shelducks are lovely, i used to think of them as 'patchwork quilt' ducks when i was young.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

Herons and egrets are part of my lagoonscape near Venice I see every morning and early afternoon commuting by train from Venice to the countryside where I teach.
Egrets and herons have this old Egyptian solemnity and grace in their shapes and postures...

Ms Sparrow said...

Here in Minnesota we have tall Blue Herons like your gray ones and smaller Green Herons. They, and all the other water birds have to fly south in the winter because all the bodies of water freeze over.

Carol Steel said...

Hi,

Thanks the fuzzy growth of pussy willows. Great to see especially as we received fresh snow in Eastern Canada today and won't likely see our own pussy willows for a little while to come.

RG said...

How is Edinburgh taking the stopping of the Encyclopedia Brittanica hard-copy printing?

Is there a wake or a celebration or some such?

Denise Wong said...

inspiring pictures and words...

Christina said...

I was checking out a pussy willow at the garden center. I dont know how well they do in Oklahoma but I love how they look.

Carver said...

These are all beautiful shots. I particularly love the pussy willows.

shoreacres said...

I love your pussy willows, although they look quite different from the ones I grew up with. Yours are rather more interesting! But ours were sleek, and smooth, and beyond all doubt the first sign of spring, so they always made us quite happy!

Crafty Green Poet said...

shoreacres - these pussy willows start off sleek and smooth and then they mature and look like they do in the photo here!