12 Days Wild - the nature of Christmas

Twelve Days Wild is a new initiative of the Wildlife Trusts to encourage people to celebrate and enjoy nature and the great outdoors over the twelve days of Christmas (25 December - 6 January).

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I have been out and about as much as possible and here are some of the highlights that we've seen (I've also tweeted every day since Christmas Day about #12DaysWild.)

We finally found the waxwings that have been travelling around Edinburgh for the past few weeks. We saw them in Princes Street Gardens where they had been reported from several times but every time we had walked past previously they hadn't been there. They did pose nicely for us on Christmas Day

We had a walk along the foreshore at Silverknowes and saw these turnstones

there were also about 50 lapwings on the nearby fields, which was a lovely sight, though we didn't get photos.

We had a walk round Edinburgh Botanics and met this very friendly squirrel

though we were slightly concerned over these strange white things that have appeared in the Botanics pond, they're part of the festive light display and I'm sure they look very pretty at night, all lit up, but they look to be made of plastic and the mallards don't seem too happy with them

We saw this mallard on the Water of Leith near Roseburn

Finally, we saw several voles on Corstorphine HIll, including this cute little one, though the photo is not at all good

What wildlife have you seen over the festive season so far?