best part of the day: day trip to the Botanics

5th April

Happy Mondays indeed! Mary had the day off and I had booked tickets to get us into the botanics as I'd noticed it was sunny and all the rhodies would be out. Well some of them. And Campbell's Magnolia. And butterflies, there might be butterflies. Actually the winter and early Spring birds had done much to calm my lepidopteral obsessions and Mary got on board too, learning the names (and songs) of a few of the garden birds and matching my enjoyments of them and taking pics. We both went armed to the gardens with our new cameras that make taking photos of the birds easier, if still not a walk in the park. But not quite so impossible as before.

chiffchaff

We arranged to meet on Inverleith Row as I was going to go past Warriston on the way (I could only get tickets for 12.30.) We said 12.10 outside the gates and I surprised myself by making it spot on 12.10. First I took some birdfood and had a stroll round the cemetery. It is just nearby but I tried to keep one eye on the watch as it's easy to lose yourself in that ivy covered wilderness.

dunnock

I think this wren, the East Gate wren, is getting to know me and doesn't rattle into the undergrowth quite as quickly as before. There are several wrens around the East Gate but this one has a short shredded stump of a tail like a cat walked off with a mouthful of feathers. It has several favourite perches from which it declares. Not really a song, more a shouted threat or a boast.

Since the ivy was taken off portions of the wall next to the feeding tables it is now possible to see the scurrying things that used to travel under cover. I referred to this beast as a smooth tailed squirrel, since they are nearly the same size and habits, but rats get such bad press, even compared to the evil grey squirrels, never mind the righteous red squirrels who have the same status as teddy bears and £20 notes. Yeah, love 'em, why not? Meanwhile poor ratty has to scurry about with his head down and persecuted. But he noticed I'd put down some seeds near his wall and slowed for a look on his way to the shops. Before I could lift the camera he had shot into the ivy again, but later galloped along the top of the wall which is above head height and quite exposed without ivy, while I raced to get the imperfect shot.

run ratty run!

pray it's not going to snow

one legged robin

This is the crypt robin. He hangs out near the catacombs and is even more helpful than the East Gate robin. And I'm fairly sure he has 2 legs but isn't using them both here. He will make more of an appearance in a later blog and photos. I am guessing male because he was seen feeding an offspring which is often the duty of the male. I suspected the missus was on a nest in the big wadge of ivy at the right hand end of the crypts. He disappeared in there with a bit of bread.

dogwalkers, sigh

Oh that time already, best get along to meet Mary, did we say 12 or 12.15? Look there's a rug shop with an ethnic mask in the window. And a second hand bookshop. Full of interesting things. Mary was padlocking her bike and we went to the entrance about 12.15. A student informed us we should come back at 12.30 so we went for a walk while whispering under our breaths lots of words associated with over-zealous time-keepers and sniffy-nosed jobsworths. While having a lovely time-killing walk along the Water of Leith and taking photos of robins and long tailed tits. We wondered how late we would have to be back at the gate before we were disallowed entry. 😁

topical

WoL LTT

I have found in the past, the people behind the counter at the Botanics to be very easy going about late comers (once it was raining and I was allowed in about 2 or 3 hours after my entry time) but I didn't want to push it.

Immediately through the gestapo check point we were approached by this female blackbird who must have been able to smell the bread in my backpack although she approached Mary to ask for it. A small queue formed behind us as we stopped to take photos and it looked like a queue was forming to interview the curiously tame blackbird.

this bit was cordoned off due to the carpet wearing thin in places

lots of this sort of thing

Rhododendrons quickly exhaust your eyes with all that flowery bloomeration so we could only face a bit of it, though like their name they are spectacular, if a bit overblown.

ghostly collared dove (possibly)

Last night a nuthatch caught my eye. Or DJ saved my life. Mary likes to play the fool and call them nu-thatches attaching the pronunciation of the t to the h and not the nu. Anyway I don't often see nu-thatches in the 'tanics. Or treecreepers so it felt like we were getting extra bonus features for our entry fee of £0. A bargain and soon we were wandering round eyes poking into the trees for more goodies, and getting them too.

Ah, first there was this one, working the Chinese garden like the short skirted working girls used to work Saxe Coburg St. I fished out some bird bread and it reluctantly made do. It had already been scampering up my trousers at the sight of me getting out the bag-o-bait. Talk about shameless. I took these photos and it came back over saying now you pay me mister.

The treecreepers were superfast. Mary didn't even have her camera up to her eye before they had done 6 yards of trunk and up-and-flown to the next tree. I got the above photo and cursed the lack of focus. The new camera seems to know 97.4% of the time what it is I am trying to capture and is almost telepathic about it. It doesn't mention this in the manual, and it sometimes lets me down, but hell it is quite astonishing most of the time. I suspect it is based largely on what is in the centre of the frame or different from the majority of the texture/colour available.

no bird here just beautiful tree

there goes the treecreeper
superpowers: removing insects from nooks and crannies, and invisibility

some more of this

The ugliest thing in the park by a golden monkey mile.
Can someone test if it is flammable please?
Or puncture resistant? Or bullet proof?

Sir William Wagtail

greenfinch

We stopped for a sports bar intermission near the large beech hedge at the non-greenhousey end. Luckily we were just in time for the lunchtime lecture from Professor G Finch and his entourage. Chaps in yellow green jackets, ladies in same but muted. The subjects covered included why Long Tailed Tits can't stop moving (or like sharks they die) and why chaffinchers tear strips of wallpaper for their nests off silver birches even though they don't have access to a decent wallpaper paste.

LTTs constantly moving

chaffinch with newly peeled wall paper sample

hoverfly at the rhodie iMax

Campbell's Magnolia

as discussed previously the best way to appreciate
this sculpture is in the reflection, even though the water is still a bit turquoisey
from the Christmas light show. 😞