Arthur's Seat

It was a wild, wet and windy day today for our traditional New year's Day walk round Arthur's Seat.

We saw a total of 20 species of birds, despite the bad weather, including a flock of long tailed tits that followed us for a while, a goldcrest and a mistle thrush. There were lots of birds on the St Margaret's Loch, including this young mute swan, who seemed unperturbed by the choppy waters

moorhen on Blackford Pond

Water of Leith

It wasn't so cold today as it was yesterday. I did my regular volunteering stint round Colinton Dell today .I hadn't noticed before today how lovely the gioldenrod seed heads look in winter.

this tiny toadstool growing in the moss is just lovely

 

and on the same fallen log there's this lovely combination of moss and fungi (this fungus looks like hairy stereum, though I'm not entirely sure)

  and not far away, yet another toadstool (some sort of bell cap) in the dead leaves

I've been learning a lot about fungi this year, though I'm far from being able to identify them all. As to mosses though, I don't have a clue, so I'm looking forward to the forthcoming talk about the mosses and liverworts of the Water of Leith. You can find out more about this talk on the Water of Leith Conservation Trust website.

Lots of birds today as well, including a flock of about 20 redwings  feasting in holly bushes along the mill lade of Redhall Mill. One of the birds fluttered in such a way to show off all the vibrant red under the wing. Beautiful.

for Nature Notes

It's icy out there!

Today we walked through Inverleith Park 

the black headed gulls (in winter plumage, hence white heads with only a back spot behind the eyes) seemed comfortable enough on the ice

there were redwings in the holly bushes all over town. The photo above (taken in Inverleith Park) sums up why I tend to watch smaller fast moving birds rather than trying to photograph them!

We then wandered over to Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and made friends with this lovely squirrel. 

There was a kingfisher on the Botanics Pond, several birdwatchers had gathered to watch it, I enjoyed seeing it fly across the pond from tree to tree. i didn't even try to take a photo!

This tree is beautiful in the cold winter light

and I liked the arrangement of this cone and stone on the icy pond in the Scottish Woodland area of the Botanics

Winter on Linlithgow Loch

black headed gulls

mute swan and (below) with cygnet

bullrushes

Linlithgow Palace

We had a lovely trip to Linlithgow yesterday and walked round the Loch

Corstorphine Hill Christmas Eve

Crafty Gren Boyfriend and I had a lovely walk round Corstorphine HIll on Christmas eve. The weather was beautiful when we set out, though that didn't last

It was another great day for fungi

jelly ears

velvet shank

jelly antler fungus (sorry for the poor focus in this shot, but the light is lovely in it).

and most excitingly this orange peel fungus. Crafty Green Boyfriend works very near Corstorphine Hill and had told me about this orange peel fungus, but we didn't expect it to still be looking good on Christmas Eve. My camera battery failed after taking the photo above, but Crafty Green Boyfriend helped out by taking the photo below

This autumn has been my best ever season for seeing and identifying wild fungi, you can see more photos of some of the species we've seen by following these links

Fungi in roadside verges in suburban Manchester.

November Fungi on Corstorphine Hill.

stump puffballs in Colinton Dell. 

Wishing everyone a Green and Happy Christmas

The Crafty Green Christmas tree is a living tree, in a pot and will return to Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden after 12th night. It's decorated with two wooden bird decorations from my parents and a load of earrings! The earrings are either odd earrings with no pair or earrings that I've found in the street. The star on the top of the tree is made from felt that I made from the shed fur of our old rabbit Anya (it's a lovely way to remember her at this time of year!).