Arthur's Seat and Dunsapie Loch

 We braved the high winds today to walk round Arthur's Seat. Looking over Duddingston Loch, we saw that about eight pairs of herons have started constructing their nests in the trees on one of the islands. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it and look carefully, you may be able to see some of the herons:

We continued our walk to Dunsapie Loch, where there were more ducks, geese and swans than we've seen there for a while. 

The male tufted ducks are looking resplendent in their breeding plumage with the tufts on the back of their iridescent heads 

 The black headed gulls though haven't yet developed their breeding plumage of dark brown heads and still just have the dark spot behind the eye

There were a lot of Canada geese around

and this unusual looking goose, who is a hybrid between a Canada goose and a greylag goose 

The mute swan posed beautifully for the camera, hiding its head in its wings

We had seen two kestrels chasing each other early on the walk and right at the end, at the edge of Holyrood Park, we caught up with the female 

Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend who took most of the photos in this blogpost!