Spring Flowers in the Hermitage

Easter weekend weather has been very changeable indeed, we've had rain, high winds and snow! On Friday we did have a lovely walk by Blackford Pond and through the Hermitage of Braid. It's lovely to see so many flowers in bloom, including Marsh Marigolds at Blackford Pond 

 and Wood Anemones alongside the Braid Burn 

We were busily making lists of all the birds we saw, to take part in the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology)'s Birds in Greenspaces project. This project is running through the summer, asking people to share their observations of birds in urban greenspaces, such as parks, cemeteries and local nature reserves. We saw plenty of birds on Blackford Pond including Mallards, Tufted Ducks and Little Grebes (also known as Dabchicks). In the Hermitage alongside the Braid Burn we saw and heard several species including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest, Long Tailed Tits and Chiffchaffs. I've now added all our sightings to the Birds in Greenspaces website and look forward to cintinuing with the project throughout the summer. Anyone in the UK can join in! 

 

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley

 This is an excellent book from Tristan Gooley, the self styled Natural Navigator. The idea isn't to learn to recognise different species of trees, but to look at how trees grow the environment affects individual trees from the roots to the leaves. We learn how to look at trees in a whole new way and how to recognise, for example, signs that the trees are growing in poor soil or that they've been affected by high winds. 

It's a fascinating book and more elegantly written than earlier books I've read by the same author. I can definitely recommend it if you're interested in finding out more about how trees interact with the world around them. 

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley, published by Hodder (2023).  

Read my tiny reviews of other books by Tristan Gooley:

How to Read Water. 

The Natural Navigator.  

 

By the River

 It was a lovely cold and sunny day today for a walk along the Water of Leith. 

I checked up on the larch cones that are developing nicely, they're at their most beautiful at the moment 

Regular readers may notice that a recent post about non-native daffodils having been planted in amongst Ramsons along the riverside has been removed. Although I did not accuse the trust that looks after the river of planting the bulbs, I had suggested that they might have done, given their enthusiasm for planting bulbs along other sections of the river. The trust has asked me to remove the post, after assuring me that they didn't plant the bulbs. 

Loads of Toads! (And Hairy Footed Flower Bees!)

 

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk round Arthur's Seat, hoping to see both Hairy Footed Flower Bees and Common Toads. We were not disappointed! As soon as we got to the top of the steps up to the circular path round Arthur's Seat we saw several male Hairy Footed Flower Bees, busily buzzing around, mostly moving too quickly for our camera. Luckily one did land for long enough for me to get this photo 

 We then carried on to Dunsapie Loch, a small loch, which is generally a good place to see toads. 

 

And there were indeed toads. Loads of toads! We stood watching the Common Toads for a while, many were mating - some on the rocks 

some in the water
 

Some Common Toads were just swimming around, probably looking for a mate

There was a lot of toadspawn in the loch - you can see the strings of toadspawn behind the mating pair in the photo below  

in one area of the loch, we saw a few large clumps of frogspawn, with strings of toadspawn wrapped around it! You can see this in the photo below (the grey clumps are the frogspawn, the black ribbons are the toadspawn). 

There must have been hundreds of Common Toads in the loch! You can get an idea of how crowded the water was in the photo below - click on the photo to get a better view.  

In the area shown in the photo above, we noticed some females were actually laying spawn as we watched. We also saw a couple of toad balls, in which several males pile on top of one female, hoping to get the chance to fertilise her eggs. Despite all the frogspawn, we only saw a couple of Common Frogs. 

You have to be pretty lucky to see the toads gathered together like this. I've never seen so many before. After mating, the toads will disperse to live in damp areas all around Arthur's seat and the surrounding areas. It's nice to see that the countryside rangers have put out some toad ramps so the toads can more easily get onto the pavements on their way to the loch

 Read this article on The Guardian website on how to help toads at this time of year. 

Rhododendrons, Cute Cats and a Kingfisher

 We had a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens on Saturday, hoping to see the first lot of rhododendrons on display and we weren't disappointed! Here's a selection of the various rhododendrons currently in bloom - I love the variety of colours! 

 

We were also delighted to meet this beautiful cat with bright blue eyes

you can really see the eye colour in the photo below
 

we also met another cat hanging out at one of the Botanics' ponds 

At this point, I have to admit that I was more interested in the Kingfisher that  was flying around the pond, occasionally diving into the water. You can just see the splash of kingisher orange and turquoise in the far tree in the photo below - click on the photo to enlarge it 

The Botanics pond is a surprisingly reliable place to see Kingfishers in Edinburgh! 

Edited to add: I should also have mentioned the lovely area covered in Common Liverwort  (Marchantia polymorpha) and mosses! I think the most obvious moss is Bonfire Moss (Funaria hygrometrica) but please correct me if you know I'm wrong!

 

In the Dells

The weather has been very changeable today. Once the early morning rain stopped I went out to do a litter-picking, wildlife recording patrol of the Water of Leith. About three quarters of the way through, it started raining / hailing / sleeting! I didn't take many photos as it was also very windy and the wind kept threatening to blow my litter bag away, so I had to keep hold of it all the time, which made photography a bit tricky. I did however, make sure to get this photo of the developing new cones on the larch tree. 

 

I don't think I've ever caught them so early in their development! I blogged about the stages of their later development back in 2014, you can see those photos in this post. 

The Water of Leith features in this week's Crafty Green Poet Substack post, which marks International Day of Action for Rivers (which happens on 14 March).  

A Walk at Musselburgh

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk at Musselburgh, following part of the John Muir Walkway along the Firth of Forth. The weather was lovely and the tide was out when we started the walk 

There were plenty of birds around! The photo below shows a group of Mallards on the beach and a male Goldeneye on the water behind them.  

We were delighted to hear Skylarks singing! This is always one of the most wonderful things about walking this route at this time of year, as Skylarks are much less common than they used to be. One Skylark was singing, as you might expect, high up in the sky, but another (lazy!) Skylark was singing from the ground, which is very unusual (though I have once seen a Skylark singing from a fence post). 

George A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes

 

The author had recently moved to Wales, when she rescued three injured magpie chicks that had fallen from their nest and been abandoned. Only one of these survived, she named him George. 

This is the story of Frieda Hughes' life with George, who for a few short months was a huge presence in her life until he flew away back into the wild. 

The book is a very engaging tale of looking after a mischevious and very intelligent wild magpie who had a 'tangible sense of humour'. Interwoven with this primary narrative are details of Hughes' work at renovating her new home and garden, while suffering from chronic health problems and the breakdown of her relationship.   

George develops a good rapport with the author's three dogs, and we are treated to many scenes of how they would play together, George often hiding dog treats and the dogs finding them. George in fact seems to think he is a dog! 

He also developed a very close relationship with the author herself:

"He was also happy just sitting in my hand as I loved around doing chores: cooking, tidying up, whatever I could do one handed. Sometimes I held him in one hand and painted with the other; and he'd watch my face or my pantbrush as it moved, and seemed captivated. So was I. Of course I realised that everything took twice as long to do with a magpie hanging off me, but I also wanted to make  the most of every minute. His warmy feathered presence was like having an emissary of the natural world grounding me daily."

This ia a very readable account of life with a wild bird, with fascinating insights into the intelligence of magpies.  

George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes, published (2023) by Profile Books. 

**

Today is World Book Day! To celebrate this fact, yesterday's Crafty Green Poet Substack post was all about books! You can read it here.  

In the Dells

Spring is definitely here! I did my regular volunteering session in the Dells alongside the Water of Leith this morning and took these photos. 

The Scarlet Elf Caps are more hidden away this year than they normally are, in the place where I've found them over the past few years, but I did manage to get this photo

The Hazel Trees are in full bloom just now, with all the catkins out and lots of the tiny red female flowers too, if you look carefully along the branches.  

In the corner of Colinton Cemetery, there's a lovely patch of Winter Aconite and crocuses

This is one of the few places where I regularly notice Winter Aconite, it's a lovely flower  

As well as all the Spring flowers, there were lots of birds around. Among others, I saw Bullfinches; Buzzards, Dippers; a pair of Coal Tits checking out nest sites; and a Nuthatch that looked like it was carrying food to a nest. I also heard Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming and Song Thrushes singing. 

 

Blackford Pond and Hermitage of Braid

 Yesterday we walked round Blackford Pond and then through the Hermitage of Braid. Here are some of our photos. 

There were quite a few birds on Blackford Pond, including Moorhens, Coots, Mallards and Black Headed Gulls.  

 The Hermitage is looking very green just now with the fresh leaves of Ramsons and Few Flowered Leek 

I like the patterns formed by the Turkey Tail fungus on this fallen log. 

and the Hazel Trees are wonderful at the moment, with both the male catkins and the tiny female red flowers out 

 

A Walk at Cramond

 Yesterday we took a bus to Cramond and had a walk along the River Forth. The tide was well out, so we didn't get close views of any of the Oystercatchers, Curlew and other wading birds that were hanging around further out on the mud flats, but the light was beautiful so we managed to get some decent photos.

 

This Carrion Crow posed for us nicely.

 We were delighted to hear a Song Thrush singing a little bit, almost as if he were tuning up for the Spring. 

Snowdrops

 

I love seeing snowdrops, one of the first signs of Spring every year, these are in North Merchiston Cemetery, which, just now, has more of these lovely flowers than I've ever seen before. 

Linlithgow Loch

 Every year we visit Linlithgow Loch at this time of year, hoping to see Great Crested Grebes performing their courtship dance. Saturday was a beautiful day, though very cold, so we made the trip. 

Linlithgow Palace dominates views across the Loch 

The loch is beautiful and a great place for wildlife. We saw about three or four distant Great Crested Grebes, but none seemed in the mood for dancing. However, we were delighted to get very good views of a pair of Slavonian Grebes, rare cousins of the Great Cresteds. Adorable looking birds that we spent a good few minutes watching, though the light wasn't entirely kind for photos, but here they are, in their winter plumage (so lacking their distinctive breeding plumage).  

We were also happy to see several Tufted Ducks, the males in their smartest breeding plumage 

 The Coots were clearly annoyed about something (though this could be part of a courtship display)

and the Grey Herons were generally happy to pose for photos 

We saw lots of friendly Robins too, one of which sang to us. 

**

Edited to add: Grebes also feature in this week's post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack. 
 

Two Books about Dinosaurs

 Dino Gangs: Dr Philip J Currie's New Science of Dinosaurs by Josh Young 

 This is a very engaging introduction to the science (carried out by Dr Philip J Currie and others) behind the claim that dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, may have hunted in packs. Dinosaur finds from Alberta, Canada, and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia are studied, and insights given into how the paleontologists work, both in the field and in the lab. Predatory dinosaurs are compared to modern day ostriches, Komodo dragons and lions to try and work out how the extinct creatures may have hunted. 

The book was written to accompany a TV series and feels like it was written for teenagers, with lots of repitition to drive home the points. This probably means that it's a particularly good read for people who aren't so scientifically minded, but makes it a less satisfactory (though still interesting) read for those who have a scientific background. 

Dino Gangs by Josh Young, published (2011) by  Harper Collins. 

**

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte  

 

This is a fascinating overview of the development of dinosaurs from the first small examples that appeared so many millions of years ago to the modern feathered varieties we now know as birds. Brusatte is an enthusiastic expert in the field and gives a focussed and interesting overview of the evolution and decline of dinosaurs and the istory of paleontology as a science. He also shares stories from field trips and conferences. I found him an engaging and entertaining writer, though I know some people aren't so keen on his style. 

The science is fascinating enough to keep any interested reader gripped until the last page. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for an unimaginable length of time. I still find it astonishing that my childhood favourite dinosaurs Stegasuarus and Triceratops would never have met because Stegasaurus went extinct millions of years before the first Triceratops appeared.  The book has a bit of a focus on the tyrannosaurs (the best known of these being Tyrannosaurus Rex with its 'pathetic little arms' that are referred to possibly slightly too frequently).

Definitely a good book for anyone interested in dinosaurs.  

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte, published by Picador. 

**

I wrote about Dinosaurs and Birds in my latest Crafty Green Substack post, which you can read here.