Photos from Midmar Paddock and Blackford Pond

A couple of days ago, Crafty Green Boyfriend and I had a walk round Blackford Pond and Midmar Paddock. It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny, though very cold.

The mute swan family on Blackford Pond currently only has five cygnets, the other two have probably gone elsewhere in Edinburgh to join other adolescent swans. I really wanted to get a photo of them all with their heads out of the water, but they were too busy feeding!

Along the path between Blackford Pond and Midmar Paddock, we were delighted to find some earth star fungi 

Midmar Paddock itself was very frosty 

and the views were wonderful in the cold sunshine 

We walked past the trees in the photo above and spent some time watching four grey squirrels, though only three would fit into my photos 

Unfortunately, we weren't alone in watching the squirrels as a dog came along and stalked the squirrels, eventually chasing them up the trees. The dog's owner had wandered off and we couldn't distract the dog. Thankfully it didn't catch any of the squirrels.

For Nature Notes.