blue sky jan

About halfway through the Winter now and we really can't complain too much about the weather. We have had a number of very encouraging days of blue skies and sunshine. Last Sunday was one such and Mary and I did the usual Saturday run then, down the JMW and out the beach at Aberlady. It was Baltic, but as long as you kept moving it was ok.

backlit rushes - I think I have now fully covered this phenomenon 

and should move on

 

A great day to be down the beach although we were robbed of any kind of sunset. Next up, Monday 14th which was again fairly bright. I had a week of doing estimates and site visits but managed to fit in a few miles. Mary suggested we have a recovery run round Inverleith Pk which I had been thinking about visiting with a bag of bread for the duckies.

charming

always worth a look in tree trunks 

you never know what you might find

photo Mary

Mary hadn't brought her camera so to buy time at the pond I gave her mine while I distributed bread and then we swapped duties. It's harder to feed and photo at the same time so this served 2 purposes and Mary stayed engaged with the process considerably longer than if she were jumping around waiting to get going again. It is very difficult to share the bread equally between everyone there as the b-h gulls swoop in and nab it, virtually out the bills of the other birds. And the tufted ducks, who have a habit of hanging back, rarely get anything other than their photos taken. They are exceptionally cute though. And the closer you see their (just the males) ridiculous haircuts the more bizarre they look. A sort of back-to-front rockabilly look.

photo Mary

tufted

bird's eye view

I was trying to see if I could get close enough to get our reflections in the birds' eyes.

The mallards' green heads were looking very dazzling. Due to them being one of the most common British birds there is a temptation to overlook just how marvelous they can appear. They are the original ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks.

On the way back out the park I saw this robin hiding in dark foliage

and was surprised that the photo came out as well as it did, if a bit smudgey.

I then went along to my mum's at Craigleith. I always look into the fields along Carrington Rd as often curlews hang out there, presumably feeding on worms in the grass there. I was not expecting to see alpacas. I think Bobcat Alpacas, the company based at Bonaly, were doing some clever educational marketing. Everyone incl. the alpacas seemed to be enjoying it and many selfies were being taken.

ran back home via the WoL

16th Jan and again the sun had his hat on. I told Mary I planned to head to the Hermitage and she knew immediately I was chasing dippers again. In order to make this as painless as possible I took the bus to Morningside, then ran home from there. Almost straight away I saw a Gray Wagtail, however it did not sit still and the sun was struggling to reach into the depths, where the river runs through. So no decent photos. Also due to the amount of traffic going through (mostly dogwalkers) the birds are fairly cautious and on constant lookout. The wagtail hopped off as a dogwalker approached and I went off downstream in search of dippers. 

The sun was lighting up the trees on the hill but not the stream. I was just about to go up the hill in search of the woodpeckers I could hear drumming on trees, when just before the main bridge I saw the familiar shape and white bib of a dipper. It let me take loads of photos and video and really didn't mind me slowly creeping closer and closer until I was less than the width of stream away. Not much light and as a result the photos are poor, but the 4k video came out better and I will edit it shortly.

This bird seemed to favour the shallows for turning over leaves and stones (some quite large!) hoiking out caddisfly larvae, rather than deeper water for swimming. They then shake the things till the larvae pops half out, hold the end and shake the container off, eating the insect. It's all done so fast you can hardly see more than a couple of quick shakes. They appear impervious to the frigid water which rolls off their feathers.

There was no sign of the woodpeckers (or treecreepers) or anything else of interest, but it was very pleasant to wander about the woods enjoying the sunshine.

I then went round to Blackford pond to see if the Teal was still there but if it was, it was in hiding. Like the stream in the Hermitage, Blackford Pond is in the shadow of the surrounding hills, and so tricky to take picks of the residents. I may have seen Sarah Smith, news reporter, or just someone who has an identically unique voice feeding the ducks with a pal and child. Ran home via Holyrood. 

viburnum?