Photos from recent days

 I've not blogged for a while, as I seem to be really busy. Here are some photos from the past several days! 

I've been leading some birdwatching walks again, now that the council is allowing outdoor organised activities again. Yesterday's group were excited to see this mute swan family in Figgate Park 

There are actually five cygnets, one was hiding behind its parent. There were two pairs nesting on the pond this year. Bonnie and Clyde were the regular pair, but another pair moved in from another pond in Edinburgh and the male from that pair attacked Clyde who had to be put down and also drove out Bonnie's youngster from last year. The photo shows the new female with her brood. Meanwhile we saw a nest with four eggs, no swan in sight, so we're not sure whether Bonnie was just off the next looking for food or whether she's actually abandoned the nest. 

The weather was lovely and warm in Figgate Park, but by the afternoon when I'd walked over to Portobello to facilitate a creative writing workshop, it had become cold and windy and some people were struggling to write. This is one of the problems with holding outdoor creative workshops in Scotland, though the views are always nice and it's lovely to spend time together out of doors...

 

I went for a long walk with a friend recently, starting in Musselburgh and ending up in Dalkeith Country Park. It was lovely to see this family of Canada Geese at the River Esk in Musselburgh

and lovely to walk through Dalkeith Country Park, where the wild garlic (ransoms) and bluebells are beautifully in bloom

and I was interested to find that there are brass rubbing plates along the Esk, similar to those that are found along the Water of Leith. 

Plus a beautiful mural of a kingfisher 

I also recently had a meeting with Edinburgh Council about the management of North Merchiston cemetery, where I'm on the committee of the Friends Group. 

It seemed to be a productive meeting, with the general consensus that the council are moving towards a more nature aware management of Edinburgh's cemeteries. It will be interesting to see how things develop in the future as our cemeteries are vital wildlife havens but not always entirely appreciated as such. It does at least look as though when the grass was mown a few days ago, the mowers left some areas to grow longer, which is ideal for pollinating insects such as bees and hoverflies (though at the moment the cold weather seems to be stacked against most insects).