Category Archives: birds

loch with trees and wetlands

Listening to the garden and woodland birds.

birds, birdsong

When I do get time to relax in the garden I love listening to all the birdsong around me.  I can identify a few of them but every now and then I hear something different and wonder which bird is calling so, when I heard of event nearby about the ‘Language of birds in gardens, woodlands and waterways’ I jumped at the chance to go.  Chris Macefield was our guide and we met up in Jock Tamson’s Gairden one lovely Thursday evening a week or so ago.  We thought that we would just be going around the garden but when we were asked if we wanted to go into Bawsinch nature reserve  (I have always wanted to go there)  of course we said yes.  I thought that Chris meant that we would be going to the northern shore accessed via a road but actually he meant the southern shore.  We said great, but we hadn’t really anticipated the terrain  – we were told we would be going through a wild flower meadow then along a track to a bird hide.  That all sounds do-able we said as Harry would be pushing me in my wheelchair.  Well, crossing the wild flower meadow was ok, then the initial track was ok but quite bumpy, then came the narrower tracks with all the tree roots, hidden boulders, steep walls with ferns along them until we came to the hide.  Lots of nettles along the way and some of the gaps between the walls were so narrow that Harry had to tip the wheelchair on it’s side to be able to navigate through them.  When we got to the hide, I was lifted onto the area in front of the slit of a window   to get a view of Duddingston loch.  The scenery was  fabulous in the calm, balmy evening light.  We listened to different warblers,pigeons, swans, covids, wrens, blackbirds, blackcaps, chiff chaffs, woodpecker, tits, goldcrest and a few others that I can’t remember.  Then we went further towards the loch through the  reed beds with lots of yellow flag iris, this track was even more precarious as to either side was often still ponds which I really didn’t want to end up in.  There were little bridges over some of the still water ponds and streams which were easier to negotiate than the narrow tracks.  It was so lovely to go through that landscape with all the reeds, iris,  trees, ferns and dead trees all around us and it was so quiet that you could not believe we were in the middle of Edinburgh.  We came to the end at another hide that I couldn’t really get a view from.  Then we had to go back through it all again to get back to the road (although we took a detour after the wild flower meadow to we wouldn’t have to tackle the narrow gap between the walls). Wow what a great chance to get to experience all of that and it is right on our door step.  If you get the chance I would recommend going.  However, in you are a wheelchair user you need someone who is strong enough to push you over very  tough terrain and a word of caution – these motorised third wheels would be more of a hindrance than a help.

My photos from my phone don’t do the reserve justice.  Thank you Chris for your knowledge and patience and, the hand out at the end is a great help, and thanks Harry for all that pushing.  It is such a shame that it isn’t more accessible for the wheelchair using, bird watching community, but I realise there has been a lot of work already done to the reserve to maintain it, and it would take a mammoth effort and pots of money (not impossible) to make it more accessible.  I am so thankful that I did get the opportunity to be there on the southern side of Duddingston loch to enjoy it on such a lovely evening.

Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with trees and wetlands
Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with trees and wetlands, Arthur's seat in the back ground
Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with trees and wetlands
Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with wetlands and trees
Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with trees and wetlands
Bawsinch nature reserve
loch with trees and wetlands
Bawsinch nature reserve
picture of the slit window in a bird hide on Bawsinch nature reserve
Slit window in the Bawsinch nature reserve bird hide

A few links for those interested:

British Trust for Ornithology

Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

Scottish Ornithologists Club

Edinburgh Natural History Society

 

 

Parakeet visitor.

birds, parakeet, wildlife

So Christmas is over, I do hope you all had a happy festive time.  A few good days with unusually mild weather has certainly brought the squirrels out to play.  They are digging in ever plant pot, and pulling out the cyclamen and other small bulbs, and generally being a bit of a pest.  Harry put chicken wire over some pots to protect them from little paws, but it can’t really be done over some other pots.  It doesn’t look very attractive but it does work.
We did get a rather noisy, colourful visitor over the last few days – a green parakeet!  I don’t know if he/she is an escapee from somewhere near, or if it is one of those that have now found a home in Edinburgh.  Apparently they originated from the foothills of the Himalayas so they have acclimatised well to living in the UK. So far, I have seen him eating the last few berries of the Rowan tree, and either the buds or flowers (or both) of the Viburnum.  He has been getting mobbed by the crows, jackdaws and magpies but he doesn’t seem overly bothered by them.  I did read somewhere that in areas where there are flocks of these noisy parakeets, the chattering and vocabulary amongst the other bird species increases.  We shall see (or hear).  As much as it is nice to see him, I don’t fancy have a flock of them around, making a racket and eating everything in sight.

wildlife, birds, parakeet,
Green parakeet eating Rowan berries
wildlife, birds, parakeet,
Green parakeet eating Viburnum buds or flowers (or both)

And, back to being cold again…

birds, fungi, garden, wildlife

oh this fickle weather.  You just never know when you can put the thermals away.
I spotted the common morels again this year but a metre or so over from where they last appeared.  It is always lovely to see fungi in the garden.  I often go around the garden looking for slugs and it is a great opportunity to find unexpected things popping up in the garden.  I noticed also that the ragged robin hasn’t appeared yet so I don’t know if it has died, along with the blue poppies and the bronze fennel.
While I was on the patio I spotted a pigeon, just sitting having a wee soak in the pond, he then started splashing about having a real bath.  I took a pic from upstairs of some of the back garden.  I am finding it more difficult as the years go by to push over the grass, especially when it has been raining, so we will be getting more slabbing put down in June sometime.  I don’t want to have a lot of slabbing but it will make gardening easier and a lot less messy.  At the moment, every time I come in from the  garden, I have to get a stiff scrubbing brush on my wheelchair tyres, and also an old towel, to get most of the dirt from my tyre treads before going into the house proper.   The new slabs won’t prevent me getting pigeon poo in my tyre treads though, and it can be very tricky trying to dodge them.  The grass is also very uneven and some of the slabs we put down years ago have actually sunk as they were only put down onto sand.

plants, fungi,
Morchella esculenta (common morel)
plants, fungi,
Morchella esculenta (common morel)
pigeon, birds,
Pigeon in the pond
garden,
May 2019

Still chilly out there…

birds, flowers, plants

yesterday saw snow, sleet and rain.  Today, so far, a bit of sunshine and a chilly wind.  Out in the front garden, the daffodils got a bit flattened by the snow and rain, but they have perked up again.  The mahonia is looking a lot better this year, compared to the same time last year, and is flowering quite happily and smelly lovely.  A brave hoverfly landed just as I was taking the photo.  The tiny sulphur yellow flowers of the epimedium and looking good and so are the white vincas.  I found loads of snails camped out behind the epimedium.  There are a few little grape hyacinths coming through but not flowering yet.  Out in the back garden the hellebores are all flowering (some better than others), some primula are flowering, pulmonaria is up and has started flowering,  the snowdrops have all gone over, the iris reticulata haven’t flowered yet (although they were out this last year), a few pink corydalis are flowering, and a few chinadoxa too.  It is a bit windy to get good crisp photos.  The crow swooped down just above my head and landed next to me, and proceeded to follow me around the garden like the robins do. He didn’t mind me blathering to him either.  The magpie was trying to get to the fatcake and not managing very well.  Funny how we always think of them being black and white birds.  I caught the blue colour of the wings but not the iridescent green of the tail.  Still looking forward to some warmth of spring proper.

flowers, plants,
Daffodils and white vinca
flowers, plants,
Mahonia
flowers, plants,
Mahonia and brave hoverfly
flowers, plants,
Epimedium sulphureum flowers
plants,
Epimedeum sulphureum leaves
birds, wildlife,
friendly crow
birds, wildlife,
magpie, not just black and white

THAT BLOODY HERON AGAIN!

birds, heron, wildlife

I have been guarding the pond as much as I can from that bloody heron that keeps pinching the frogs – no wonder we only have a small clump of spawn so far.  I know it is a wildlife garden so I can’t be too choosy about what wildlife visits, but I would like to see more frogs and toads, and it would be great to see some newts.  Harry is going to make some kind of chicken wire thingy to see if we can prevent more frogs being nicked from the pond.  The heron may still be picking them out from the borders around the garden too.  I am not sure if it has a sore leg.  It looked a little like it was limping, and when it flew away, it only stretched it’s left leg behind it properly.  Maybe it knew it was just going to land on the nearest chimney so didn’t bother stretching them both.

heron, birds, wildlife,
Heron watching me from the garage roof.
heron, birds, wildlife,
Heron taking a stroll around the borders.
heron, birds, wildlife,
Heron, crow and hen pheasant.

That sparrowhawk again…

birds, wildlife

so a slightly better picture of the sparrowhawk but I still haven’t got to grips with the new camera lens.  I just can’t get a really clear focussed shot and through a window is never going to do it justice.
It was hiding beside a large shrub and checking out the bird feeder for little birds.  It had it’s left claw tucked inside it’s feathers again.

birds, wildlife,
sparrowhawk

Brrrr it’s flipping freezing today…

birds, pheasants, redwings, squirrels, wildlife, woodpecker

but it has brought in a few more birds to the garden.  At least it is nothing like the polar vortex that is hitting the US at the moment – I really feel for them over there.  I don’t know how the wild life over there will cope with that kind of extreme cold, I guess many won’t survive.
I have been camped out beside the camera in the back room taking bird pics through the window.
The bird bath and pond are totally frozen so I keep putting out fresh water for them and feeding them as it is bitterly cold.  I haven’t seen the fox with the poorly leg so I don’t know if it has survived.
The redwings wanted their bath in the the pond but it is completely frozen, and they don’t want to have a go in the 1/2 melted bird bath, so they will have to wait for Harry to melt a hole in ithe ice when he gets home.  The pheasants have been picking up the little bits of fat that fall down while the squirrel is feeding at the fat cake.  Trouble is all the other birds want to do the same, so there can be a lot of chasing about happening under that fat cake feeder.

wildlife, birds, woodpecker,
Woodpecker with fat cake
wildlife, birds, redwings,
redwings
wildlife, birds, squirrels, pheasants,
2 hen pheasants under a squirrel
wildlife, birds, pheasants,
2 hen pheasants
wildlife, birds, pheasants,
hen pheasant feeding
wildlife, birds, pheasants, squirrels,
squirrel and hen pheasant feeding
wildlife, birds, pheasants, squirrels,
squirrel and hen pheasant feeding

Clever crow…

birds, wildlife

he/she has found that if they put their talons out first, then they can grip onto the fat cake long enough to peck a big bit of fat out.  Unlike the magpies, and some other crows, who just fly at it and peck hoping to dislodge a bit that falls down then they collect the bits from the ground.  It’s the squirrels that usually hog it while the pigeons and blackbirds collect the bits that fall down while they are feeding.  The squirrels don’t like this much and will try and chase the birds away to no avail.  When this crow wants some however, it just pecks the squirrel to tell it to get lost!  It is very windy today so not a great photo as the crow, fat cake holder, feeding station post and all the background plants were all moving.  The long tailed tits are still about but all these big birds just scare them away.

wildlife, birds, crow,
Clever crow at the fat cake.

A couple of days ago while Harry was working in the garage with the door open, the sparrow hawk flew in and hit the back window.  Harry managed to pick it up and show me, then quickly let it go, quite unharmed by it’s experience.  I would have liked a photograph of it close up but we didn’t want to cause it any undue stress.

Ta Da Redwings…

birds, pond, wildlife

Yeah I finally managed to get a photo of the redwings have a bathing in the pond.  Not a great photo as I have a new lens which I haven’t got used to yet, and it was through a window, and my hands were very shaky.  I can count 10 (there is one skulking behind a plant). I am so please as I have only ever seen 2 and this is the first year I have seen them in the garden.  They were having a bit of a stand off with the blackbirds.  The female blackbird won and saw them all off, but as soon as she started to bathe, the redwings came back.  She did manage a few minutes bathing before she gave up.

wildlife, birds, redwings, pond,
Redwings (Turdus iliacus)

It’s all fairly quiet here…

birds, squirrel, wildlife

just waiting for some rain that was promised.  I thought we were going to get thunder storms and lots of rain so I brought in all the small pots of  cuttings for the next charity sale, hid some others under the bench where they wouldn’t get water-logged, and put a large trug under the garden table (under the hole where the parasol should go) to collect lots of rain water to help top up the pond.  Sadly, we only had a short shower so just collected a dribble of water.  The back area of the garden under the golf course trees is still like sand! Back to blue skies and that horrid muggy feeling. Just sitting, watching the world go by just now and planning what needs to be tackled next in the garden.  Doing a bit of dead-heading, cutting back, and getting a few weeds out today.  There are some young squirrels about who are making little holes everywhere, and young crows making a heck of a racket waiting to be fed by mum.  This photo shows a young squirrel in amongst a pot plant, a crow collecting seed on the small tray feeder, and a young pigeon waiting for it’s turn on the feeder.

wildlife, birds, squirrel,
Squirrel, crow and pigeon.