First Swift of the Year!

Do you see the swifts are here again?
They swoop so low and soar so high
I think there may be more than ten -
do you see the swifts are here again?
We know it's summer round here when
our favourite bird comes gliding by
You see the swifts are here! Again
they sweep so low and soar so high!

**

We're lucky enough to live in an area of Edinburgh where there are several active swift nests sites. Sadly, numbers of these amazing birds have been severely declining across the UK over the past several years (a decline of 65% since 1995), due largely to a lack of nest sites and reducing populations of insects (their main food source). (See this 2020 article on the Bird Guides website for some thoughts on the factors behind the decline of the swift).

I saw the first Swift of the year today at 10am, flying over the roofs opposite our flat. 

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a few years ago (we persuaded the roofing contractor to fit them when our last roofing work was carried out). I haven't seen the swifts going into the nest boxes, though they have flown close over the past couple of years. Hopefully this year may be the year that they decide to use the nest-boxes....

I enjoyed this video from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) about how we can help swifts. I played it at quite a high volume with the windows open, hoping that the calls of the swifts on the soundtrack would attract the local swifts to our nest boxes. Another great video from the RSPB is this one, which shows the route of one swift as it flies from its breeding grounds in the UK across Europe and around Africa and back here for the next breeding season, a journey during which it will not land at all! I particularly like this video as it looks as though this swift passed directly over the village where I lived in Malawi for two years! 

Bank Holiday in the Dells

Monday was a bank holiday so for my regular walk along the Water of Leith in the Dells, I left the litter picker at home and Crafty Green Boyfriend came along and took most of the photos below. The weather was lovely and there were plenty of birds around including this very round Robin

There were also plenty of insects to see. We saw a surprising number of Hairy Shieldbugs (below) in a small area 

and in the same relatively small area we saw a good number of different hoverflies, including this Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)

this Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma sp)

 this Banded Hoverfly (Syrphus sp) (with 7-Spot Ladybird) 

 and this Common Dainty (Baccha elongata) which we don't see particularly often, though it is apparently quite common

Other insects included several butterflies, including Comma  

and Small Tortoiseshell 

Also a Scorpion Fly  

and a Dark-edged Bee Fly 

A lovely way to spend a bank holiday! 

**

My latest Crafty Green Poet Substack post, focussing on the hares we saw at the weekend at Dalkeith Country Park is now up, you can read it here.   

Late Spring

After a mild winter, everyone predicted
an early, warming spring

but instead, chill mists kept back
the flowers and buds

so now in May, celandines,
those flowers of March,

still gaze at us, star-like
from the undergrowth.

Their timing all wrong.

Like you.

Far too late now
to look at me
the way you do. 

 

originally published in Mslexia (a few years ago now, don't know why I've never posted it on this blog before!)  

Dalkeith Country Park

We try to visit Dalkeith Country Park at about this time every year, primarily to see the Bluebells, which make a spectacular display, alongside the Ramsons, which are generally in full bloom at the same time too. We had timed it perfectly! 

 

Some of our favourite paths around the park are currently shut off, so we needed to find a different route

The path opened out at one point and we passed some barns where a group of Swallows were nesting, it was lovely to see them all flying around. Even more wonderful, was to see two hares chasing each other around the fields! We've never had such good views of hares before! Here are a couple of photos of just one of the hares

The Place of Tides by James Rebanks

 On a trip to Norway, the author met Anna, a woman who lived a traditional life looking after Eider ducks and harvesting their feathers. Years later, when feeling uncertain in his own life, the author contacts Anna and arranges to spend time with her, learn about her lifestyle and help out with the work where he can. 

This is a fascinating look at a vanishing tradition that has been carried out in Anna's family for generations. The Eider guardians make protective huts for the ducks to nest in and then once the ducks have left the nests at the end of the season, the guardians collect the eiderdown to make duvets.  

This kind of traditional lifestyle was threatened when Norway began rapid modernisation after discovering oil in the 1960s, and at more or less the same time period, the arrival of feral mink, which preyed on the Eiders. The islands with their tradition of looking after the eiders have since been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

During his time with Anna, the author gets to know her and her way of life. We hear about how she came late to her family tradition, after having worked in a care home and brought up her children. Seeing a stuffed Eider in a local museum inspired her:

"She stared at that duck. She wondered if that was what a thousand years of island culture had been reduced to - some display panels and a stuffed duck. She didn't want this to be all she could show her children in the years to come." 

Anna comes across as having a wonderful attitude to life, living close to nature and in tune with the natural rhythms around her. The reader is impressed by how this ancient tradition still lives on.

 The Place of Tides by James Rebanks, published (2024) by Penguin Books. 

Cherry Trees in The Meadows, Edinburgh

 At the moment I'm taking every opportunity I can get to wander through The Meadows in Edinburgh. The cherry trees are at their best. Here are some photos I took today. 

 

A conference and a garden in north Edinburgh

Yesterday was Earth Day (you can read my Substack post on the topic here). I attended an excellent half day gathering on biodiversity in Edinburgh, hosted by ECCAN (Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network) held at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre, which is now housed in a newly built community hub building. There was a keynote speech from Simon Dures of Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival who shared an excellent film featuring entomologist and museum curator Ashleigh Whiffin outlining the rewilding project on the land around the National Museum of Scotland's collections centre in Granton.  It was great to meet like minded people and the lunch was excellent too. 

Part of the gathering included a workshop. I chose the workshop Reimagining Our Local Spaces for Nature & Community facilitated by Gill Hatcher of Scottish Wildlife Trust. The workshop started in the art centre's impressive garden, 

 

which has growing areas

 a play area and seating 

and a willow tunnel 

We then visited a small green area in the shopping centre that is still being developed to the front of the community hub building

Our task for the rest of the workshop was to think how this latter green space could be developed by the local community as an appealing, biodiverse space that would offer benefits to local people. We came up with a lot of ideas, which hopefully will be shared by the art centre, who are likely to really be working with the local community in the future to make this greenspace into an appealing, biodiverse mini-garden.

(I'll be expanding on my thoughts about the gathering in next week's post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack). 

After the conference I got a bus back into the centre of town and walked through the Meadows, to appreciate the cherry trees which are still in full bloom, though just starting to lose their petals.