Winter Birds at Musselburgh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

view from Musselburgh, looking across to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Yesterday we had a lovely visit to Musselburgh, in East Lothian, a short bus journey away from Edinburgh. It's always a favourite place for birdwatching, especially at this time of year when the winter birds are still here and the summer birds are due to arrive. Plus, the resident Skylarks are starting to sing. We were lucky to hear probably three Skylarks singing high above us and even saw one of them, a small silhouette against the clouds. 

Meanwhile on the River Esk we saw a large number of Canada Geese

along with a few Goldeneyes, the males trying to impress the females, by throwing back their heads. I'm not sure whether the female in the photo below is impressed or not, but the male is certainly putting on a show.. 

Walking further, along the Firth of Forth, we saw several birds out on the water, the most impressive being this male Long Tailed Duck

We also visited the hides on the Lagoons, where we were impressed by the numbers of Wigeon gathered at the far side of the lagoons, and were also pleased to get some photos of this Curlew that came quite close to the hide. 

Arthur's Seat in the Mist

 Yesterday, Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat and the surrounding Holyrood Park was shrouded in a very atmospheric mist. Here are some of the photos I took:

Looking over to Salisbury Crags 

and from another angle

Looking down to Duddingston Loch 

Mute Swans on Dunsapie Loch - the one on the right was obviously feeling a little camera-shy

The Jackdaws are paired up already (they have a very strong pair-bond and usually stay with the same partner for their whole life).

The gorse is beautiful 

as is the Grimmia pulvinata moss, all covered in raindrops 

Corstorphine Hill today

 We had a lovely walk around Corstorphine Hill today. It's a beautiful hill with a good area of woodland and lots of paths. There are a good number of Scots Pines on the hill, including these two near the top 

We were also very pleased to find a good number of Scarlet Elf Cups, brilliant red fungi that are a feature of winter woodlands, if you know where to find them 

There were plenty of birds around too, including Nuthatch, Jay, Mistle Thrush, Treecreeper and Buzzard. 

Blackford Pond and the Hermitage of Braid

We had a lovely, frosty walk yesterday around Blackford Pond and into the Hermitage of Braid. I have never seen so many Mallards on Blackford Pond, many of them skating on the ice! 

In amongst all the Mallards we were surprised and delighted to find a female Teal! She's the small duck further away than the female Mallards in the photo below, you can recognise her as a Teal, not just by her small size but by the lovely teal green flash in her wing. 

We also saw a couple of Little Grebes (also known as Dabchicks). This one seemed to be asleep!

Though the ice is making life obviously more difficult for the birds, the frozen pond did look lovely

The light in the Hermitage of Braid was beautiful

and we were happy to see a good number of snowdrops in full bloom

In the Dells Today

 Today for the first time since Storm Eowyn hit, I made a patrol of the Dells alongside the Water of Leith. 

It was sad to see so many trees had been damaged, two bridges had also been damaged by falling trees, including Bog's Bridge: 

 Not only is passage across this bridge completely blocked by fallen tree trunks, but it looks like the stone walls and the railings have been damaged too. There's lots of fallen branches in the river under the bridge too. 

(Storm Eowyn has caused a lot of damage across Edinburgh, lots of trees have been damaged or killed, including our tallest tree, a Himalayan Cedar that had grown in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Roofs have been ripped off buildings across the city too. Most people stayed inside during the storm and I've not heard of anyone being injured around here.)

Storm damage does mean that branches and twigs from high up in the trees can now be found on the ground, sometimes with beautiful arrangements of lichens and mosses on them. There's a lovely selection on the branch below, including the bright yellow of the lichen Xanthoria parietina.

One of the things I always look out for at this time of year is the Scarlet Elf Cup fungus. I was very happy to find it again this year, in the same place where I've seen it for the past few years. The photos below show the one fungus I could get a good photo of

 

but when I had a good look round, I could see that there were many more Scarlet Elf Cups hidden away among the fallen leaves and mosses. I think they might become larger and more obvious in the next week or so. 

I was also very happy to see that my favourite patch of snowdrops is in full bloom again

I was very happy to see a good variety of birds, including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, Bullfinch, Long Tailed Tit, Dipper and Song Thrush.

Comely Bank cemetery and National Galleries

 I took a short time out to wander round Edinburgh's Comely bank cemetery yesterday. The light was beautiful

and I was delighted to see my first snowdrops of the year - not yet in full bloom!

Today I went to the Women in Revolt exhibition at The Scottish National Galleries Modern 2 and took some photos to take advantage of the light

It's good to see that the gallery now has an allotment area in its grounds, though it's not clear who does the gardening here (are they growing vegetables for use in their cafes or are community groups doing the gardening?)

The is well worth seeing before it closes on 26 January (and in fact I'm going to see it again tomorrow!).  

I posted more photos of the Gallery building over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, you can see them here.

Frosty Weekend Walk

 The temperature has been down as low as minus six in Edinburgh in recent days. It wasn't quite that cold yesterday and we wrapped up warm for our walk round Arthur's Seat. We had excellent views across to the snow covered Pentland Hills (click on the photo below to enlarge the image)

Crafty Green Boyfriend zoomed in with his camera for the photo below

 The frosty grass was beautiful 

and Dunsapie Loch was frozen over 

We didn't see any Ravens on Saturday but this Jackdaw was happy to pose for a photo, with Duddingston Loch in the background

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you've had a lovely, relaxing holiday break. We've had some lovely walks in our local area. here are photos of some of the highlights.  

We walked into the centre of town on Christmas Day, hoping to be able to walk round Princes Street Gardens, which used to be a Christmas tradition for many people. However, in recent years the gardens have been shut on Christmas Day so that they can be prepared for the Hogmany Party, which this time round had to be cancelled because of high winds.

We had a lovely walk at Musselburgh, starting out walking along the River Esk 

then continuing along the coastal John Muir Walkway to the Boating Pond 

 

and Levenhall Links where we sat in the bird hides for a while. 

We also enjoyed a walk around Corstorphine Hill, where we saw a good selection of fungi including this Scarlet Elf Cap

We also had a good view of the Grevy's Zebras that live in Edinburgh Zoo and can often be seen from the main path around the hill

On Saturday, we visited Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens, with fingers crossed that we might see a Kingfisher at the pond. We did indeed see a Kingfisher, if you look very carefully, you might be able to see it in the bushes on the left hand side of the photo below

The pond was fairly icy and it was amusing to watch the Mallards skating

As ever, there were a lot of Grey Squirrels in the gardens, though only this one allowed photos.

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I've had a haiku published in the latest issue of Shadow Pond Journal, you can read it here (scroll down to read my haiku, but take the time to read all the others too!). 

Thanks to Allyson Whipple, editor of Haiku Girl Summer for nominating one of my haiku for a Touchstone Award. You can read all the nominated haiku here. 

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If you're in the UK, you may want to take part in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, which takes place between 24-26 January. You can do the birdwatch in your own garden or in any greenspace.

Season's Greetings

 

 

Season's Greetings 

to all my blog readers!