Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

 

 Some readers of this blog may be familiar with Dara from his appearances on Springwatch and in fact may have heard of this book even if you haven't already read it.

Dara was 16 when this book was published - a diary of a year in his life (age 14 - 15) as he records his observations of nature, his thoughts as growing up as an autistic teenager in a family with an autistic mother and two autistic siblings and his increasing involvement in climate activism. In the course of the year he moves across Northern Ireland and starts at a new school, where he sets up an ecology group and gets his classmates involved in the School Climate Strike. 

Dara has a beautiful way with words, and never either overburdens his diary with polemic, nor overwhelms the reader with overly flowery prose. He writes with a straightforward but lyrical style, whether he's describing an encounter with a bird, an episode of bullying he's experienced at school or thoughts about climate change and the human relationship with nature: 

"... we saw the damage of last night's raging winds: trees toppled over, branches brutally snapped. Some had escaped their prison of decorative concrete or clay pots. One tree, an oak, growing below the pavement had fallen to expose its root ball, so tight and tangled that there couldn't possibly have been any more space for life. It wasn't the wind that toppled the oak, not really. Being confined  in asphalt and under slabs, that's what did it. When we strolled past on the way to school there were traffic cones all around it, but I stepped inside the space anyway and wondered if anyone saw me touch the bark. 'Sorry' I said."

I don't normally like books written in diary format, but this one works very well for me. Dara writes so well about his love of nature and his experiences as an autistic teenager. It's a very engaging read and one I definitely recommend. 

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty published by Penguin (2020)

Signs of Autumn and an Otter in the Dells!

Yesterday, I did my regular volunteering (picking litter, recording wildlife) in the Dells, alongside the Water of Leith. The weather was warm and sunny and most of the woodland still had the look of summer

though there were many signs of Autumn, such as beautifully coloured leaves like this Sycamore leaf (the black spots here are Tar Spot fungus, which occurs on Sycamore leaves late in the Summer every year and doesn't harm the tree)

and fungi, like these, which I've been reliably informed (by Edinburgh Natural History Society on Facebook) are Pleated Inkcaps

The highlight of my walk though was seeing an Otter in the river. I spent about ten minutes watching it swimming around. It was too far away for me to feel able to guarantee getting a good photo, so I just enjoyed the moment, rather than fiddling around with my camera.

Tree Following September Update

 For Tree Following this year, I've chosen a magnificent old cherry tree in North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I started walking round this cemetery every day for our #DailyExercise during the first UK lockdown last year. And we're still doing the same walk regularly, though not quite as often. 

Here are a couple of views of the cherry tree from the middle of August 

The leaves are starting to turn already, and some have even fallen 

Later in August, we noticed these small fungi growing near the tree

in fact, they are growing all round the tree, in a classic 'fairy ring' arrangement, which is lovely to see.

Craigmillar Castle Park

 I had a walking meeting today with a colleague to scope out a route for a walk we'll be leading next month. We met at Craigmillar Castle Cemetery, though we did in the end decide that wouldn't be part of the walk. It was nice to walk round the cemetery though, to admire the views across to the Pentlands 

and to Arthur's Seat 

As you might guess from the photos above, it did rain for part of our walk, which is probably why Craig, the Cemetery Cat wasn't able to give us a guided tour (see previous posts about the cemetery here, here and here).

We then moved on to Craigmillar Castle Park

and then on to Little France Park, where for some reason I didn't take any photos. It's a nice walk that links up with convenient buses at both the beginning and the end. There is also plenty of nature to see along the way, hopefully the Autumn colours will be showing nicely when we do this walk again with a group in October. The pretty Grimmia pulvinata moss should also still be looking lovely 

 

Around Arthur's Seat

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk round one of our favourite places, Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat. 

with views over Duddingston Loch, which is where most of Edinburgh's Grey Herons nest, though they have left their nests by now. 

 

Yarrow is still in bloom, in both the usual white 

and a very pretty pink variety 

Also in bloom were Vipers Bugloss 

and Bird's Foot Trefoil 

It's lovely to see so many flowers in bloom at the end of summer. 

Yesterday's weather was dull and windy, but mostly dry. The rain has moved in today! I hope it lasts for a while, as we've had a very dry summer and really need the rain.

Our summer of drought is a sign of climate change, though a relatively benign one compared to the boiling temperatures and forest fires in many parts of the world and the devastating floods in Pakistan, where 33 million people have lost their homes.

The Dells, Water of Leith

I did my regular litter pick in the Dells along the Water of Leith today, accompanied by Crafty Green Boyfriend. The weather was hot and sunny and everywhere looked beautiful. 

It was nice to be in the shade of the trees for much of the walk. There was plenty of wildlife to see too, including this seven spot ladybird, hiding in a thistle head as they often do

and it was interesting to see this encounter between a hoverfly larva and a parasitic wasp, neither of which moved for a couple of minutes while we watched them

The wasp may have just parasitised the larva and have moved away. 

We heard Sparrowhawks calling above Spylaw Park, which is close to where they nest. We enjoyed watching a family of Grey Wagtails with three youngsters, all of about adult size, dancing about around the stones in the river.

Water of Leith and a new Second Hand Bookshop for Edinburgh

With many second hand shops in Edinburgh currently unable to accept donations (due to a build up of stock in the immediate months after lockdown) it's nice to find a shop that is in desperate need of donations! The Edinburgh Community Bookshop will open in Great Junction Street in Leith in October, supporting a number of local charities through the sale of books. The shop is currently looking for donations of good quality books. So today we donated a couple of bags of books there! It's a big shop and looks like it will be a great addition to Edinburgh's range of bookshops. 

After leaving our books, we went for a nice walk along the Water of Leith from Leith to Canonmills. 

 

We were very happy to see this beautiful Red Admiral butterfly, which will go into hibernation soon

and this young Herring Gull 

There were several mallards around, but they proved quite tricky to capture on camera, due to the light