Water of Leith

I had a lovely wander through the Dells along the Water of Leith today. The one drawback was the amount of litter, I collected two big bin bags full and that wasn't even all there was. It wasn't helped by the fact that the bins were overflowing. It was a lovely day though. Most trees are definitely spring like. The exceptions being some of the ash trees, which look distinctly wintery still:

The wych elms are fruiting already:

though some of them are between flowering and fruiting:

The hornbeam that I'm 'studying' for Tree Year is definitely further on than it was last time I shared a photo. Thes catkins by the way are the male catkins, the female chandelier-like catkins won't appear until later in the year (and they're worth waiting for, they're lovely).

The birds were singing beautifully, the blackcaps are now in full voice. I had my best ever view of a singing blackcap this morning in fact. Plus there was a group of about four or five chiffchaffs chasing each other round a stand of birch trees. And I found this segment of egg shell that had been dropped by the side of the path. The parent birds always take the broken egg shells away from the nests when the chicks hatch so that predators aren't drawn to the nest. STV North Edinburgh yesterday interviewed me about the course I teach about the Water of Leith for the University of Edinburgh Office of Lifelong Learning, you can read the interview on their website here.

For Nature Notes.