It was lovely and mild this morning as we went for our walk round
Craiglockart Hill and Pond. The hillside wood was full of birds including
bullfinches,
song thrushes singing and
great spotted woodpeckers drumming and flying around from tree to tree, almost as if they were checking out the best sounding tree trunk for drumming on. On top of the hill we had brilliant views of a kestrel, first sitting on a post then hovering as it hunted for prey.
The pond was hosting lots of
mallards,
moorhens,
coots and
mute swans with a couple of
goosanders too.
edited to add: I think the fence here is to do with habitat creation. It has rained a lot here over the past few months but this fence is usually in the middle of the water!
The
City of Edinburgh Council is currently consulting on the future management of the Easter Craiglockart Hill Local Nature Reserve. You can add your views to the consultation in this short survey
here or go along to the public meeting on
Thursday 21 February 2013 from 7.30 - 9.30pm at Meggatland Sports
Complex, Function Suite, 60J Colinton
Road , Edinburgh , EH14 1AS. The Nature Reserve is a wonderful green part of Edinburgh and its future management is very important.
for Weekend Reflections
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more
9 comments:
How beautiful the Kestrel..I think the smallest, but retaining the solemn air of all the others, bird of prey.
joli endroit ;o)
I guess it has been raining a lot in your country too... What a flood ! But it allows great pictures of reflection, obviously... Well done !
It looks like your lakes are doing well. Many of our lakes-including the five Great Lakes-are low.
Sounds like a great day of birding. The scenery is pretty too. Hope you weekend is great!
The fence in water makes a beautiful image.
Your description of the walk with all the birds makes me wish I had been on that walk with you.
Do goodly amounts of people comment and/or attend the public meetings to speak?
I have a friend who, everytime he sees a kestral says - "Look, there, the Kestral. Our smallest North American Raptor. When it sits on a wire it always sits at the lowest point." Always says this ...
Thanks for all your comments
Tommaso - the kestrel is the smallest common bird of prey but the merlin and hobby are smaller (and less common)
Ms Sparrow - we've had a lot of rain over the past year to keep the water levels high!
Rabbits Guy - these public meetings are usually well attended, lots of people care about this particular area and the proposed development nearby has caused outrage because it is so potentially destructive of natural and historical heritage
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