bird haiku

thick cloud -
the skylark's song
rains down

thick hedge -
the pink hopping
of a bullfinch


for Nature Notes

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Footbridge and Grotto

This is a little footbridge over a tributary of the Water of Leith. The stone building is one of the three Ladies' Grottos near this part of the river. These grottos were built in the 1750s by Robert Bowie who was the landscape gardener for the Redhall Estate who owned this area in those days. The purpose of the grottos was to give the ladies somewhere to rest while their menfolk go hunting.

For Sunday Bridges

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Water of Leith Stakeholder Conference

The Water of Leith Conservation Trust held its first stakeholder conference yesterday. I was delighted to get one of the places reserved for volunteers of the trust (I help to look after the Dells area of the river, recording wildlife and picking litter once a week; I sometimes take part in conservation days and I tweet for the Trust.) Speakers at the conference included representatives from the trust and from Scottish Natural Heritage; City of Edinburgh Council Rangers Service; Scottish Environmental Protection Agency; The Wildlife Crimes Unit of Lothian and Borders Police and the Water of Leith Honorary Bailiffs. Topics covered included control of invasive plant species; the Flood Prevention Plans for the river; litter and dog fouling; wildlife and responsible use of the river and the walkway.

There was time in the packed programme to chat to people, which was great. It was really heartening to see so many people who are committed to the future of the river and there was a very positive atmosphere to the gathering and a lot of excitement about the recent sightings of an otter with a cub on the river! I learned quite a lot too, particularly about fishing on the river!

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

Colinton Dell

The daffodils are almost at the point of opening.

Two roe deer chase each other alongside the path, then they veer and leap gracefully over the path and into the trees.

Great spotted woodpeckers

A pair of great spotted woodpeckers chase each other through the trees, then settle to prod a trunk for insects, the red under their tails catching the light as they move.

Then suddenly, as we turn to move away, the male starts to drum.

Ferns and cog wheels

I took these two photos of the fern Asplenium nigram growing on an old industrial wall alongside the Water of Leith this morning. I think they demonstrate nature's ability to regenerate and to take over human sites that are abandoned.

For Nature Notes

Venti by JoAnne McKay

Venti is a beautiful handmade collection of poetry from JoAnne McKay who blogs over at Titus the Dog. Venti is such a lovely looking book that I seemed to keep picking it up just to look at it before I ever read it. The book includes wonderful images from Matt Kish and rubber stamped hare and seahorse illustrations. The book is made from a lovely cream paper and is printed with a very pleasing font and has a very attractive cover!

So when I'd finally admired all the elements of the book's appearance, I was able to sit down and read the poetry which is as lovely to read as the book is to look at! There's a lot of nature in this chapbook, from the symbolic Fleur de Lis to the fleeting life of Mayflies. We are shown a different take on the octopus in this excerpt from Octopodes:

When the previous cosmos collapsed
there was a sole survivor
of the wreckage, who squeezed
his form through tightest crack
into this our universe.

Also in the realm of strange sea creatures we have the seahorse in Hippocampus hippocampus:

fragile, flimsy-finned horse
fluttering in the sea grass
snuffling for shrimp.


This is a short book but one that the reader will return to again and again.

Venti handmade and published by JoAnne MacKay