Birdwatching along the River Esk

I lead the last of this season's Beginners' Birdwatching classes today. We walked along the mouth of the River Esk in Musselburgh and onto the shore. The river was full of geese - Canada Geese, Greylags and one lone Pink footed goose, which allowed me to do a nice compare and contrast with this species and the Greylag which are superficially similar though once you see them close together they're quite different really.

There were lots of mallards, one female goosander and a whole load of herring gulls and black headed gulls. I had hoped to see wigeon, a very pretty duck that I've seen at Musselburgh before, but there were none.

On the shore the tide was fairly far out but we did get to see a couple of curlews, some oystercatchers and a couple of redshanks among the gulls and crows. Also two pied wagtails, with their heads turning slightly yellow for winter.

As the walk came to an end a group of Canada geese glided upriver then took off into the air and flew over the bridge.

It's been a good group and we've had reasonable luck with seeing birds - but so much of it is about luck and having a group of 14 people isn't ideal in terms of minimising disturbance to the birds.

The walks start again on 20 February 2012. I'll post the details (and the link to the booking form) here when they're available.

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks which take you to other websites where you can find out more.

Squirrel and autumn leaves

We went for a lovely walk today through Inverleith Park

and round the Botanic Gardens.

Wonderful autumn colours and unexpectedly lovely weather (it had been grey and damp first thing and we had expected it to stay that way!) (The leaves here are from an ornamental species of beech tree).

We made friends with this delightful grey squirrel. Yes they're an alien species and outcompete the native reds, but in areas where reds haven't lived for ages and are unlikely to ever come back, it's lovely to see the greys.

We had a snack at a picnic table at the Botanics Cafe. Given that it's Feed the Birds Day today, it is perhaps fitting that robins and dunnocks were feeding off the crumbs under the tables. The herring gulls and magpies fighting over leftovers were entertaining too, though less welcome!

Blue Autumn Skies

Edinburgh's beautiful autumn continues (with a slight chill in the air now).

Earlier I had got off the bus a stop early and been rewarded with a sparrowhawk flying high above me, gliding then flapping its wings three times, gliding then three more flaps. Its barred chest shone in the autumnal light.

(photos taken on Corstorphine Hill)

NaNoWriMo and a Photo Competition

I was thinking about an idea for a short story, which was getting quite complicated and then I realised it is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November! So I thought, hey, why not? and signed up. So I'm currently plotting and planning my way to a novel, which will be about climate change in a future independent and fractured Scotland. The aim is to get a 50,000 word first draft completed by the end of November. As someone whose favourite literary forms are haiku and flash fiction this will be a fun challenge! Anyone else signed up for NaNo this year?

Meanwhile Crafty Green Boyfriend has been busy and would appreciate a few votes for his photo in the Friends of the Earth Christmas e-card competition (yes I know it's early!). You can see all the photos on Facebook here - Crafty Green Boyfriend's picture is the robin. You can vote for it by clicking the Like button under his photo. (You need to be a member of Facebook to vote and of course you are at perfect liberty to vote for someone else's photo!)

As ever, text in red contains hyperlins to other websites where you can find out more.

Autumnal Colour

We're having a mild and often sunny autumn here in Edinburgh. The leaves are turning and we have some lovely, subtle autumnal colours. I took these photos along the Water of Leith this morning - not so much sun today, but still pleasantly warm.

Foreign Flavours

I'm delighted to be part of the Foreign Flavours anthology, published today by Writers Abroad. This exciting and worthwhile anthology includes fiction and non-fiction about food and cooking abroad (including my piece 'From My Malawian Cookbook'). Proceeeds from the sales of the anthology go to the excellent Bookbus charity, which supports literacy in Africa and Latin America and recently had a book drive for Malawi.


You can buy copies of the anthology from Lulu here.

A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick

Hedgehogs are one of the most popular inhabitants of the British countryside (this book describes them as the most universally loved animals, but the author obviously hasn't visited any bunny blogs!).

This book is a wonderful mix of natural history, animal welfare and total eccentricity. It includes an investigation into the reasons why hedgehogs are declining in the wild, whether hedgehogs have caused population declines in seabirds in Scottish islands, an expedition to China to find the very rare Hugh's hedgehog and a brief trip to the Hedgehog Olympic Games.

We meet people who have given up almost everything to set up hedgehog hospitals; find out whether hedgehogs really can harvest fruit by rolling around and find out how best to look after the hedgehogs that visit our gardens.

I imagine most people will be totally charmed by this book and will then want to observe these wonderful animals in the wild. Well in the UK, that's sadly becoming a rare event these days for most of us. If this book makes you want to help your local hedgehogs, then you can visit Hedgehog Street to find out more.

A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick published by Penguin