best part of the day: bawsinch

Tuesday 20 June 2023

bawsinch

10-06-23 Bawsinch: an unfortunate name for a lovely place. A peaceful, wild and woolly nature reserve near the city centre where you can get in touch with nature or just have a blissful wander.

But first half a dozen photos from the day before 09-06-23, when Mary and I walked about Holyrood. Although we saw the crows and humming-bird hawk-moth the photos were a bit meh and I'd just be repeating myself to post more of the same here again. And there is still tons of stuff to get up to speed with - you can tell it is slap-bang in the middle of the year with new species appearing every few days and plenty to see. Also I have cut right back on work and may actually be retired! Well not quite but enjoying not having to consider working unless I want to. Which I don't when the weather is decent. And we have had a lot of decent weather recently. The secret is low overheads. No expensive car to pay for monthly, the mortgage is paid off and the monthly bills are lower than ever before. A sense of freedom is creeping in at the edges and it is fantastic.

As we were on our way home we came across this vintage comma just sitting on the path next to the road up to Dunsapie. I felt I should move it from where it could get trampled by humans or dogs and lifted it up onto a rowan or similar small tree. It was an absolute gem of an old timer and happily climbed aboard my hand without a fuss.

out of harm's way

heron fishing in St Margaret's Loch

a few days the weather has been better in the evenings

Back to Bawsinch on the 10th. It was a lovely day and the keys had arrived for the nature reserve. I had thought there might be some sort of induction or introduction from an official, pointing out rules and telling one how to behave. Not so. Included in the annual membership for the Scottish Wildlife Trust is access to Bawsinch although you have to pay them a further £15 for the keys, which are sent very promptly. It surprised me how easy the whole process was. I'd sort of put off getting round to this because it seemed more faff than I could be bothered with. However a visit recently as guests of Andrew and Unda made me reconsider. The place currently is burgeoning with new growth and the wildlife is abundant. It was an excellent visit and inspired me to get keys for myself.

where the magic happens!

Towards the Southern section there is a path near the Innocent Railway boundary wall where several commas were flying. They would buzz us as we walked by and it felt like they were checking us out. One landed on Mary briefly but I wasn't quick enough to get a photo.

no shadow of a doubt as to the species

comma on Mary's hand

Since it had worked in Warriston we held out hands to see if the commas would like a perch. One did a couple of loops of Mary and then landed. It then took off, did a couple more laps and landed on her head. And stayed long enough for a photo. It felt like a great welcome on our first official trip to Bawsinch! Richard and Linsey were in a day or 2 later and had the commas land on both of their hats.

comma hair clip

green-veined white

blue tailed damselfly

at the hide at the far end I took this photo of a mallard
it was only later I realised there was a duckling or 2 as well

cinnabar moth

yellow flag iris

Mary was slightly ahead when I heard a lot of cheeping and peeping. It was a family of long tailed tits calling to each other as they flitted through the trees. The juveniles were less cautious of me and sat quite close while I tried to take photos. Which was tricky as they were surrounded by foliage. I was gutted Mary was too far ahead to call back without chasing off the birds. It was a delightful moment.

thrush

There were lots of these silver-ground carpet moths (or similar) but most were keeping to the shade and undersides of leaves, and didn't make for decent pics.

I am hoping there will be NBAs and common blues on this lovely flowering meadow of ox-eye daisies and wildflowers near the entrance. None as yet, but fingers crossed.