River Almond

We went on a lovely walk today through Cammo Country Park and along the River Almond to the sand martin colony. The weather was gorgeous and there were orange tip butterflies everywhere

and a few peacock butterflies too.

there were also several of these bright little beetles in amongst the white dead nettle plants.

In Cammo and along the early part of the riverside walk, the path is through woodland and the blackcaps were singing their lovely rich song, chiffchaffs were calling their name loudly and other woodland birds were singing too. The later part of the riverside walk passes much more through scrubland. There were loads of whitethroats here, singing loudly and displaying too, with their short steep songflights. There didn't seem to be as many sand martins as we've seen here in previous years, though I've been pleased to read (via Twitter) that just up the coast from Edinburgh, Montrose Basin has 3 times as many sand martins this year as it had last year!

We sat and ate lunch by the river, just downstream of the railway bridge (see the photo below for Sunday Bridges), surrounded by singing whitethroats and yellowhammers and the occasional willow warbler. A kingfisher few past us as we ate our sandwiches!

Butterfly photos by Crafty Green Boyfriend, the rest are mine! Most of them contain shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday

For Nature Notes

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks to other webpages where you can find out more!

Craiglockart Hill and Pond

We went for a lovely walk today, up Easter Craiglockart Hill then down to Craiglockart Pond and then home along the Union Canal. There were lots of birds singing, we heard chiffchaffs, willow warblers and blackcaps, blackbirds and song thrushes. We also almost bumped into a pair of bullfinches that flew away from us muttering angrily! Plus there were loads of robins everywhere, including three who were all together on the path, normally three adult European robins together would be fighting but these three didn't seem as though they could decide what to do! On the Pond we got very close to a family of moorhens - this adult came right up to us in what seemed a friendly manner (look at the lovely pattern in it's side and tail and those funny little feet!)

There were three or more very young moorhens in the reeds, they hid very quickly when a crow called out. It was lovely to watch the parents feeding the young and leading them around the reedbed (though you can't see them in the photo below!)

There were a lot of mallards along the canal. They're very handsome birds, as I've said before, though the males are very aggressive to the females (you can see my video of their mating here, if you've not already seen it).
There were also a few patches of the cuckoo flower (or lady's smock), one of the prettiest flowers of this time of year.

For Weekend Reflections

as ever, text in red contains hyperlinks that take you to other websites where you can find out more!

Tree Year

The cherry trees, even the pink ones, are already mostly past their best, I took the above photo by the Water of Leith yesterday, while the photo below goes back a few days more, when they were still at their best.

I finally managed to get a decent photo of the male hornbeam catkins, see below, this is on one of the hornbeams in the group along the Water of Leith, that I photographed in this post.

And finally, this is an apple tree in the 'Hidden Meadow' near Redhall Gardens along the Water of Leith. I took the photo yesterday, and the air was full of birdsong and the sun was shining beautifully. A perfect Spring day.

for Tree Year

Stop!

I liked this altered Stop sign on a road in Edinburgh! Click on it to see a bigger version and to read the small print!

For Signs, Signs

Dawn Chorus

Woken by an early alarm, I leap out of bed and immediately open the living room window. Our local blackbird is singing his heart out, accompanied by a chaffinch and a dunnock. I eat a quick breakfast and pack my rucksack before heading out for the bus (thankfully there is a service this early in the day!). I meet with several other bleary-eyed birdwatchers at the Water of Leith Conservation Trust Centre.

crescent moon
caught in the trees
dawn chorus

We wander slowly along the path, all eyes and ears open. A song thrush sings loudly at the entrance to the walkway and all the way along, the wrens are singing so loudly they almost drown out everything else. We catch sight of a tawny owl high in a tree, while a dipper flies low over the river, calling as it goes.

The blackcaps (common along here) are elusive for most of the walk, but finally they start singing, but always in the distance. A pair of bullfinches appear, the male's red breast glowing red in the low sun. Blackbirds, robins, chaffinches, chiffchaffs, blue tits and great tits join in the chorus, all singing so loudly in a mass of song, that it can be hard to identify each individual bird's song.

Squirrels are dancing in the trees as we make our way back to the Visitor Centre for coffee, the dawn chorus still ringing in our ears.

spring haiku

bluebells haze
under the beeches
birdsong

Bridge to the Galleries

There are lots of characterful bridges along the Water of Leith. This one take you to the stairs up to the Gallery of Modern Art (which has wonderful art exhibitions and a lovely cafe, which serves delicious cakes.) I took this photo a couple of days ago, there were blue tits playing in the cherry blossom trees and several orange tip butterflies flying around. It's also apparently a really good place to see kingfishers, though I've never seen one here!

For Sunday Bridges