Figgate Park

We had a lovely wander round Figgate Park in Edinburgh today. We'd never been before, but had heard (via Edinburgh Wildlife) that it was a good place to see Shovellers, a species of duck that we don't often see round Edinburgh. And indeed we did see a pair of Shovellers, and as you can see from this photo, they're very handsome ducks, or at least the males are, the female looks much like a female mallard (and there were plenty of those around too).

We also saw three nesting coots, several tufted ducks (those in the photo below are males)

and a cormorant, looking slightly out of place, as it is more usually a shore bird. Also Canada Geese, mute swans, herring gulls and black headed gulls (some of which had their summer heads, some were still with their winter heads). There were lots of goldfinches flying around in the trees too. Parts of the Figgate Pond have been recently planted with wetland plants and a boardwalk has been put in, which offers a nice route over the pond.

The photos in this post were taken by Crafty Green Boyfriend. I took some photos too, but my camera battery is currently recharging and I'll post them next week.....

As ever, red text in this post takes you to other webpages where you can find out more.