Saughton Park after Rain

 

We had a lovely walk round Saughton Park yesterday. It had been raining earlier in the day but was mostly dry (or nearly so) while we walked to and round the park. There are some lovely trees round the park including this silver birch 

and the topiary is looking lovely 

The last flowers of the year look quite battered now 

We were delighted (and surprised!) to see a kestrel hunting over the park. At first I thought it was a sparrowhawk, which is the most common bird of prey to be seen in parks and gardens in Edinburgh but once it started hovering it became obvious it was a kestrel, which is the only species that does hover. Kestrels are more commonly associated with the wide open spaces of the hills in and around Edinburgh and it's rare to see them in parks. I was only able to get this photo, not very good admittedly! 

Sadly there has been some vandalism in the park recently, the green houses have been quite badly damaged. The missing panes of glass have been covered over for now.

It's particularly sad to see continued vandalism in this park, as so much money and effort has been put into restoring it to its full glory.

Bird Boxes and Tree Preservation Orders

 Today I met with another member of the new Friends of North Merchiston Cemetery group and a forestry officer of Edinburgh Council to put up some bird boxes in the cemetery. The bird boxes were donated by the Friends Group for the nearby Dalry Cemetery. There are two blue tit nest boxes which are now sitting in silver birch trees

 

We will be following the progress of any bird families that set up home in these boxes. To help make sure I pay attention, I've chosen the second birch tree as my tree for Tree Following next year. It's one of several old gnarled birches in the cemetery

The third nest box is a robin box, which is now hidden away in a holly bush

There's also an old owl box in the cemetery, though it doesn't seem to have been used. 

As well as putting up the bird boxes, we discussed the trees in the cemetery. There is a Tree Preservation Order that covers all the trees in the cemetery. This means that no tree work can be done without the express permission of the council. The council will only remove trees or large branches for health and safety reasons and will aim to keep a sizeable remnant of trunk to allow for wildlife habitat. as is the case with the tree where the great spotted woodpeckers nested this year 

Apparently it seems unlikely that the woodpeckers will use this hole again, as it generally seems that most woodpecker holes are then used by different species the next year. It will be interesting to see what nests in this hole next year!

Sadly, there are a number of mature ash trees in the cemetery which have ash die-back disease. This disease, which is predicted to eventually kill around 80% of the ash trees in the UK,  is often found first in young trees which then spread it to older trees. If a mature ash tree develops die-back then eventually it's upper branches will be entirely hollowed out, meaning that they are at risk of falling and are too weak to allow for tree surgeons to climb up them. If the tree is close to paths then the diseased upper limbs will need to be removed while it is still safe to do so, so sadly some of the ash trees in the cemetery will be cut right back in the near future. The forestry officer also showed us two large branches that overhang the path (one of which overhangs the nearby road) and are very decayed and will soon become hazardous, so these will also be removed. Also trees that are growing through the boundary wall where the cemetery overlooks the railway line will be removed to allow a secure wall to be rebuilt and avoid future stone-falls onto the train tracks. 

As ash trees and others are removed where necessary, other trees will be planted, probably rowan, elder and hazel, native species that won't grow too tall! 

While we were walking round, the forestry officer pointed out that the horse chestnut tree that I've been following for Tree Following this year is infected with bleeding canker! 

This doesn't pose an immediate threat to the tree, which won't be removed, but it is something that we need to keep an eye on! 

For Nature Notes.

 

Fabulous Fungi in Unexpected Places

 Yesterday I met with a fellow member of Edinburgh Natural History Society for a socially distanced walk round Cameron Toll and Kings Buildings to look for fungi. That's right, a shopping centre and a University campus! I studied at Kings Buildings when I did my Botany Degree (though you can no longer study Botany there, it's all Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and genetics, which are all good, but where are people supposed to learn about actual plants?). So I knew that the campus was a nature rich area but I had no idea about the wealth of nature around the shopping centre and was surprised by how many fungi we found. 

Unfortunately my photos aren't very good, but the highlights of the Kings Building Campus included:

upright coral fungus 

earthstars (probably collared earthstars) 

Wrinkled Club 

lots of these fungi, which I think are some sort of waxcap 

these pretty little things, which we think are porcelain fungi (sorry for the poor photo)

and these lovely bright orange fungi which may be orange wax caps

 

(the broken fungus at the front of the photo was already broken but conveniently gives a view of the gills!)

Under the trees around  the shopping centre (and the reason we were doing this walk) we saw birds nest fungi! Unfortunately the 'eggs' had fallen out of the fungi and all that was left was the 'nest' 

 

I have long wanted to see this species of fungus and it's amazing to see it in such a built up place! I was also surprised by how tiny this species is! You can see a photo of the birds nest fungus complete with eggs over on the Woodland Trust site here.

Tree Following December Update

 This year for Tree Following I've been following a horse chestnut tree in North Merchiston Cemetery (one of the cemeteries on our #DailyExercise route that we have been walking most days since the beginning of lockdown - we're no longer in actual lockdown but continued restrictions have meant that we have carried on walking this route every weekday lunchtime. 

The horse chestnut has now lost most of its leaves

9th November 

10 November

11 November 

Several long tailed tits were flying round the tree when I took that photo above but I don't think any of them show in the photo. These lovely little birds form flocks at this time of year and wander through the woodlands, often in the company of other small birds. 

15 November 

17 November 

and time to look closer at the bark! 

and after recent rain, you can see how some areas of the trunk are very wet while some have stayed dry!

Save Sauchiebank Woods

This morning Crafty Green Boyfriend and I joined a small group of other people for a socially distanced photo shoot to highlight the threat to Sauchebank Woods (you can read more about the woods in my recent blogpost here). 

After the photoshoot we went into the woods to look at the proposed route for the cyclepath 

People aren't really protesting the cycle-path as such (green transport is a good thing!) but the decision of Edinburgh City Council that all the trees need to be killed for the cycle-path to be created. Surely it would be possible to remove just a few trees?

With members of Edinburgh Natural History Society, we looked at the plant list put together by the ecologists who claim to have surveyed the whole route of the proposed cycle-path. It was a woeful list, even just looking around on a winter's day we could see several species of plant missing from their list. Fungi weren't even mentioned and there's plenty of those around too (though to be fair probably most of them weren't visible when the survey was done). Here's an interesting fungus that Crafty Green Boyfriend caught on camera

If all the trees are removed then the whole woodland ecosystem is damaged and if saplings are planted around the new cycle-path it will take decades for them to recreate the same woodland ecology.

A spontaneous litter pick was then organised and gathered together 12  bin bags of rubbish! 

You can find out more on the Save Sauchiebank Wood Facebook Page.

Lost Orchards Cider - a cider with a mission

When I spent three months living in Cornwall, the only alcohol I drank was cider but since then I don't drink it very often, my alcohol of choice being a good Scottish real ale or the occasional red wine. However, when in the local off-licence recently, I couldn't see any of my favourite ales and the Lost Orchards Cider caught my eye. 

"For every sip we plant a pip!' is the slogan of this Scottish produced cider that aims to regenerate Scottish apple orchards. So this is a drink with a mission. 

But does it taste any good? 

I drank a bottle of the pure apple Lost Orchards cider and enjoyed it, it's a sweet and delicious cider, though probably too sweet for me to drink very often, as I have more of a taste for ale. 

So far Lost Orchards have planted about 5000 apple trees in their aim to regenerate the country's orchards. You can find out more about the company and their ciders from their website, where you can also order cases of the different types of cider. 

Do we Need to Destroy an area of Woodland to Create a Cyclepath?

Until yesterday, I had never heard of Sauchiebank Woods, but on reading this blogpost on the Trees of Edinburgh site I realised I've passed it often enough. I just hadn't realised you could visit this small woodland, located on the edge of an indistrial estate just up the road from where we live. 

The gate is easy to miss, there's no sign at all that this is a public greenspace and it doesn't look very welcoming 

However if you go through that gate and up the steep hill by the fence you come into a small area of scrubby woodland, located between the industrial estate and the railway. It's a pretty place

though you're never far from industry 

but then that makes it all the more valuable, a green space in the centre of an urban area. There are some beautiful oak trees, their fallen leaves decorating the ground 

While we were there we saw about six bullfinches plus blue tits, great tits and a range of other small birds. We also saw a very large (and camera shy) rabbit. 

Sadly this woodland is likely to not remain for much longer. Edinburgh Council plan to destroy pretty much the whole wood, removing all the trees so they can build a stretch of the Roseburn-Fountainbridge cycle link (planning application 20/03561/FUL).

Cyclepaths are obviously a good thing, we need more people to cycle rather than to drive, but cyclepaths should not be built at the expense of natural habitats like this. This blogpost on Edinburgh Trees points out that there are surely ways that the cyclepath could be built through the woods without destroying many trees. 

If you live in Edinburgh, particularly if you live in the Gorgie Dalry area or anywhere else along the proposed route of this cyclepath, please consider objecting to the proposal. Email  planning@edinburgh.gov.uk with the subject line 'Late objection to 20/03561/FUL', to request that the proposals for Sauchiebank Wood be paused, and new proposals brought that enable the valuable woodland to be retained. Remember to include your postal address in your email! If possible, also please copy in your local Councillors who can help represent your concerns to the committee. You can find your Councillors by following this link and selecting your ward from the drop-down menu. If you click on Councillors' names you will find their email address.