Tuesday 21 August 2012

Signs of an Industrial Past

As you may have guessed from reading this blog, one of my favourite places to go birdwatching is Musselburgh, walking along the Mouth of the River Esk onto the John Muir Walkway to the Musselburgh Lagoons. Musselburgh Lagoons  nature reserve is set up on three reclaimed ash lagoons. A couple of lagoons are still in use as repositories for ash from Cockenzie Power Station. The John Muir Walkway can see quite bleak at times (though in summer it's bright with flowers) and the old signs warning about lorries and dangerous land only add to that sense of desolation. But don't be fooled, this is a great place for wildlife, skylarks, meadow pipits and reed buntings all nest here and snow buntings visit in the winter. Then once you look over the sea wall, you never know what you might see, the Musselburgh coast is really fabulously rich for bird-life (and features quite heavily on this constantly updated list of unusual bird sightings on Birding Lothian).


For Signs, Signs

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7 comments:

Ms Sparrow said...

It's wonderful to hear about the rich flora and fauna to be found on reclaimed lands.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I have similar feelings Juliet on the lead mining ruins in Swaledale - they stand as monuments to generations of men who toiled there under harsh conditions. Now they are just inhabited by superb wild flowers and a lot of different birds.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

I will never forget the variety of birds I saw when I went to the West Hebrides, Harris. First time in my life I saw the gannets and guillemots and fulmars.
And at the Shetlands a solitary puffin. One only.

'Tsuki said...

Signs are not the worst in a industrial past, I guess, cause they can still be seen (and removed). It is another story what is left in the soil for thousand of years...

Bill said...

birdwatching
an old sign says watch out
for lorries

We usually think things only go the other way – nature gets paved over in the name of progress.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Ms Sparrow - yes it's a sign of hope!

Weaver - amazing monuments as you say

Tsuki - I didn't mean to imply that the signs were in themselves a bad thing as such, but they are well, signs of everything! And you're right about what's left in the soil.

Tommaso - amazing birds around Harris, strange you only saw one puffin on Shetland, but the birds up there are suffering.

Bill - yes its nice to know nature can reclaim things back!

RG said...

When Mt. St Helens blew, tons and tons of ash came down the Toutle River toward Interstate 5 in Southern Washington. Huge mounds were piled along the road. Now totally vegetated with a wild variety of trees, shrubs, flowers.