Well as the Norwegians say there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong choice of clothes! So bearing that in mind we've gone out for several walks in the last few days, braving rain, hail, snow and fog. We've had a great time!
On New Years Day we walked through a rain drenched Edinburgh, past the Scottish Parliament to Holyrood Park. We were too early to catch the annual husky race but we walked up the hill to Salisbury Crags (an ancient extinct volcano). The views of Edinburgh were amazing, actually we couldn't see Edinburgh at all, apart from the castle, various charch spires and a few cranes poking through the mist! We walked home through the Meadows, where we saw several redwings and a couple of fieldfares. These are the winter thrushes here, the redwing is small and gaceful with red under its wings, the fieldfare is bigger and quite colourful if the light is good.
Yesterday the weather was dull but dry and we walked along the canal, there were plenty of mallards and swans and some moorhens and a coot. We also saw an albino squirrel! Well it was mostly white with a little bit of brown on its back, it was playing quite happily with an ordinary grey squirrel! Read more about albino squirrels in Scotland here.
Today we went out in the snow and walked to the Botanics. On the way we saw more redwings, haning at eye level in a holly bush, gobbing the berries greedily. The Botanics was full of squirrels, all of them grey and very friendly! The snow was really heavy at times, which is unusual in Edinburgh these days and very nice to see!
Crafty, not only do you live in a beautiful part of the world, you know it and know how to tell the rest of us about it.
ReplyDeleteI'd have loved to see a picture of Edinburgh poking out of the mist.
On Abe Lincoln's My Birds Blog a few posts back he talks about an albino starling which he also has never seen (He lives in the US). Apparently the same holds true for them as well - the hawks pick them off pretty quick because of their unusual color.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you give links to everything Juliet - it makes the post that much more interesting.
How nice to hear the details of your walk. I liked your first line and it encourages me to get out.
ReplyDeleteJanice - thanks for that link - what wonderful photos he has!
ReplyDeleteFarfetched - we didn't have the camera with us and the photo probably wouldn't have come out particularly well
deb- I hope you enjoy your walks!
A walk is not a good walk without such beautiful birds and, of course, playful squirrels. Glad you had all of that and more!
ReplyDeletewww.greyandred.blogspot.com