A Sunny Walk on Easter Saturday

The weather is sunny and very warm here today. Lovely for a walk round Blackford Pond and Midmar Paddock.

The mute swans are nesting on the island in the middle of Blackford Pond again,

 

the nest is quite well hidden but you can just about see the swan on the nest, specially if you zoom in

This moorhen was zooming across the pond at top speed

There are lesser celandines everywhere at the moment, these were alongside the path behind the pond

This path leads to the wet woodland area, which is pretty dry at the moment but still worth walking through

Going back to the main path then takes you past Midmar Paddock

a lovely area that is currently for sale and may well end up covered in housing. I took lots of photos around here to share on the Save Midmar Paddock Twitter feed, some of which are also in this blog post.

 There are lovely views of Blackford Hill from the Paddock

It's a great place to see nature, the walls are full of plants including wild strawberries

green alkanet

and ferms including this common polypoidy

There are flowers in the field too including primroses

and I was delighted that this peacock butterfly, after fluttering all around the place, finally decided to land and bathe in the sun so I could get a photo

Lots of birds were singing but only this carrion crow came close enough for a photo

I also walked around the side of Blackford Hill to enjoy the gorse

 the violets clinging on in the spaces between the rocks

and the view towards Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags

then back to Blackford Pond

You can find out more about the campaign to save Midmar Paddock from development on the Friends of Midmar Paddock Facebook page or on their Twitter feed.

You can find out more about the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Pond Nature Reserve here.