tanka

in the river
this fallen tree
so full of rubbish
and low hanging perches
for kingfishers

Autumnal Hornbeam

As you may remember, I've been studying the hornbeams along the Water of Leith for Tree Year. The wonderful chandelier fruits of the tree are turning yellow just now, they're such a pretty sight!

This tree is not native to Scotland (though I think it's native to the south of England) and was planted along the river as its wood is very hard and was used a lot in construction in the years when there were mills along the river. (There were over 70 at one time!). I walk along the same part of the Water of Leith every week, as part of my voluntary work with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. So I pass these trees every week, though I haven't blogged about them as often as perhaps I had intended to when I first heard about Tree year!

For Tree Year and Nature Notes

Corvus by Esther Woolfson

Corvus is a memoir based on the author's relations with birds. Specifically corvids (crows, magpies and jays) and even more specifically the crows and magpies she has kept as pets. In each case the bird was found as a fledgling and abandoned by its parents (fledglings can often seem abandoned but usually the parents are going to come right out, so you should leave them be and trust nature in most cases). I found the style of this book a bit annoying and sometimes felt it could have done with a more thorough editing. However, having said that it is a delightful read. Full of the antics of Spike the magpie, Chicken the rook and Ziki the crow. They seem to have more or less free range of Woolfson's house (and make quite a mess!). They also have huge personalities and are very entertaining. Woolfson often uses incidents from the birds lives as a starting point to talk about elements of bird biology - so the book covers evolution, the structure of feathers, myths and folklore about crows and musings on the intelligence of birds. The reader is left with no doubt whatsoever that corvids are intelligent:


We were standing by the kitchen stove discussing [Spike's future]....... Spike formed a triangle with us, part of the conversation, standing, as he had just learned to do, on the ears of the wooden rabbit on the mantlepiece, when he joined the discourse, gave forth his opinion, sealed the argument.


'Hello!"he said, very suddenly, loudly, with astonishing clarity. Han and I stared, gaped. Then even louder 'Spike!' He was pleased with his effort. 'Spike. Spikey. Hello! Spikey? SPIKE. His voice was a voice so human as to be shocking.

A must read for bird lovers!

Corvus by Esther Woolfson published by Granta

Camera Case from Repurposed Fabric

At the weekend, I made this carry case for my camera using fabric from a load of fabric samples I had found thrown out in the street one day. It looks quite nice. Unfortunately though the fabric had seemed to be the right size when I measured it at the beginning, it was just too small by the time I'd finished making the case (this is the downside of repurposing materials, sometimes you are restricted by the existing dimensions of the materials!) Luckily I have other fabric I can use to make a camera case and Crafty Green Boyfriend assures me he can use this one. (And apologies for the rather poor photo!)

Bridges along the Water of Leith

The Water of Leith Conservation Trust in Edinburgh are looking for information about the bridges that cross the river. They want to put together an information resource about all the bridges! So if you know any unusual facts about any of the bridges, why not let the trust know by contacting them on admin{at}waterofleith{dot}org{dot}uk. Meanwhile here are photos of some of the bridges!

This is Bogs Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the Water of Leith. This is a photo from last year. The bridge has since been repaired and you can see more recent photos here. It's near this bridge that the hornbeam trees grow that I am studying for the Tree Year Project.

This is the aqueduct that carries the Union Canal over the Water of Leith, just near the Water of Leith Conservation Trust Visitor Centre. The aqueduct was built in 1822 by Hugh Baird, modelled on Thomas Telford's work on the Ellesmere Canal.

This is one of the older bridges along the Water of Leith, near Dean Village.

and another bridge!

For Sunday Bridges

haiku

pink clouds
above the city rooftops -
a skein of geese

*
drizzle -
two kestrels
hover

*

World Rhino Day - Stop the Poaching!

One of the most amazing sights I remember from the various safaris I made while I lived in Africa was of seeing a rhino running across Matopos National Park, in Zimbabwe. It was a magnificent creature, though slightly less magnificent for its horn having been surgically removed to prevent poaching.

Despite measures such as surgically removing horns, poaching continues to be a huge problem for rhinos. In 2007 13 rhino were killed for their horns in South Africa. In 2010 the figure was 333. So far, in 2011, 291 rhino have been poached in South Africa. These figures are shocking and don't bode well for the future of that wonderful iconic animal in Africa (most rhinos in Africa are found in South Africa).

There are five species of rhinos across Africa and Asia and all of them are threatened with extinction. There are, for example, only 50 Javan rhinos left in the wild (and none of this species in captivity) making this the most endangered mammal species on earth.

By far the greatest threat to rhinos is the myth that their horns contain medicinal compounds. So this year's World Rhino Day is using that as its campaign theme. Rhino Conservation has a good article: Busting the Rhino Horn Medicine Myth with Science.

Alison Nicholls, a wildlife artist, has written an excellent post for World Rhino Day, which includes a beautiful painting of a rhino, you can see it here.

You can read a poem I wrote about rhinos here.

World Rhino Day celebrates these amazing animals and raises awareness about their plight and about the fact that their horns are not medicine.

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can read more.