Saturday 9 May 2015

Arthurs Seat

Arthur's Seat is a wonderful natural landmark in Edinburgh. An extinct volcano now a great place to see wildlife. Today we walked through the valley in the middle of the area, which is quieter that the main paths round the outside. There are some wonderful views along this route

and lots of gorse

The air was full of birdsong - chiffchaffs, willow warblers, whitethroats, chaffinches, blackcaps, robins, blackbirds , possibly stonechats (their song is very like that of the whitethroat and their call note is very like that of the robin!) and even what might have been a grasshopper warbler (suddenly I seem to be hearing these elusive warblers that, yes, do sound like a grasshopper, everywhere.)

Five minutes after we finished our walk, it started raining, so we timed things perfectly!


9 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

it's beautiful!

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Today is apparently Adult Learning Courtesy of Juliet Saturday:
1. Looked up gorse in the dictionary.
2. Looked up Arthur's Seat on Wikipedia and then looked up some images on Google. Like the side where it looks like a crouched lion. But, then, I would!
Hope you and CGB are having a good evening.
:) m & jb

Anonymous said...

I would love to visit that place - one day :) I've only been to Scotland once when I was 9 - too young to appreciate it fully but still I loved it.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Lovely to hear all that beautiful birdsong and be able to identify at least most of it. I am not at all good at that.

Bill said...

Beautiful, even without the birdsong.

Pietro Brosio said...

A nice walk indeed, very beautiful views!

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks everyone, yes it's a very beautiful place!

Maureen - yes Arthur's Seat has a wonderful profile!

Donna said...

I have heard of Arthur's Seat but never have seen it so this was a treat!

Lynn said...

I spotted those monuments that look like ruins from a restaurant window when I was in Edinburgh several years ago, and wondered what they were. Lovely to see your photos - I didn't know that area was called that.