Birds and Blooms in the Botanics

We had a lovely morning in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens yesterday. These crocuses and daffodils offer a beautifully contrasting colour scheme by one of the entrances

while some of the rhododendrons and azaleas are already at their best

It was interesting to see this demonstration rain garden, which is a new project developed by the Botanic Gardens in collaboration with Heriot Watt University and Edinburgh Living Landscape. The rain garden is constructed in such a way that excessive rainwater will drain away naturally and is planted with species that can tolerate occasional flooding.

There were birds aplenty around, including this magpie showing off the beautiful irridescence in its tail and wings

this treecreeper which spent several minutes climbing trees around where we were standing

this male chaffinch that was feeding on some seed someone had left in a fence post

and these male  tufted ducks on the pond in the neighbouring Inverleith Park

Sadly we didn't see the water rail on Inverleith Pond, this iconic little bird, a bit of a local celebrity in bird terms was found with its beak caught in a plastic ring (see this tweet) and although I know the local animal rescue groups were trying to rescue it and remove the plastic I haven't been able to find out whether they were successful. Please don't throw litter in the countryside or in parks!

Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for the bird photos.