rail journey

 

20th & 22nd Feb.
There were several encounters with the recently arrived water rail near Warriston on the Water of Leith. It has taken a while to document this, because sitting at the computer has been limited to ouch minutes per day due to ongoing sciatica issues. Things have been slowly improving but we are still a few days away from anything like a cure or the next run. Meanwhile here is the update on the rail.

We go back to the 17th Feb for a day when I went along to the botanics, with a visit to the water rail first. It seemed to be there most days but often required a bit of hanging about for it to come out into the open; its preferred state to be hidden deep within the scrub and long grasses of the riverside foliage. 

local heron

stock doves

thar she blows

Every now and then the rail (gender not known but I suspect male) would appear for a paddle in the river or to beak through the muddy leaves in search of invertebrates. Occasionally it would have a splash about followed by retreat into the grasses where it would preen and then peep like a maniac for 5 minutes. I have seen youTubes of them making squealing pig calls known as sharming but this one hasn’t yet done that while I’ve been there.

Then along to the botanics hoping for an early sighting of a butterfly. The flowering rhodies can be good for admirals but no joy and not really warm enough - double digit temps work better with sunshine and there’s not been enough of either lately.

Went to the Chinese pond but no kingfishers. Nice encounters with robins and great tits.

not confusa but hookeriana - but same heavy fragrance
(this was to be the site of my first 2026 butterfly on the second March)

22-02-26 My sister’s birthday. Anne has really impressed and surprised me by taking up running as she approached her 60th. She did a bit of couch-to-5k training and has done a parkrun and a trail race. She is looking younger and fitter than in a long while and is really enjoying the process and feeling the benefit. It takes the edge off entering an otherwise potentially downhill decade. 

stock doves at St Marks

The 22nd was a great day for photos. The sun came out and lots of birds appeared while I stood shooting the breeze with Dan, waiting for the water rail to strut his stuff. 

I worried slightly that a couple of dudes with cameras would attract a larger crowd (most assumed otters or kingfishers) and this would chase away the rail. However it was across the river on the far bank and that 20 yards seemed to be enough distance for it not to mind or notice the small crowd that would occasionally form. The absence of anything obvious of note meant most left after a short while of seeing nothing impressive!

When we’d been there a short while things improved dramatically. A kingfisher, which had been flirting with us, settled in the area and caught a few fish while we took its photo. It was never right beside us and tended to stay on the far bank trees but it was fairly sunny and made for pretty decent photos. A heron was stood in the shallows directly in front of us and when the grey wagtail from Warriston appeared on the raft of grass directly below, I felt we were seeing a splendid selection of spectacular local wildlife. At times I didn’t know where to point the camera. 

We put all this down to Dan coming out with a dead battery in his camera. He used to have a couple of fast dying batteries he recharged daily but then bought a new reliable one which went longer between charges. And of course led to him forgetting to charge it on this occasion. I was really grateful for him jinxing out so much wildlife which he was unable to photograph - singularly the best day of the water rail season. He graciously accepted his role and said (through slightly gritted teeth) he was happy to take one for the team and hoped I’d do likewise on subsequent occasions.

breeze ruffling feathers

video of water rail splashing and dashing (and peeping)

soundtrack Yellow Jacket by Kent Nishimura

arboreal heron

some of the best images of the day 

were of the Warriston grey wagtail in sunlight - a delight!

Although a bit drab in general if you study this photo above closely you can see why it is one of the most impressive of the day. The kingfisher (top right) perched above the water rail (left of centre at the bottom). The chances of a water rail and kingfisher in the same frame is astronomically unlikely. Albeit not as spectacular to look at as a close up! This could be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

grey wagtail, kingfisher, goldcrest, long-tailed tit
with water rail audio at 1m30s

light beginning to fade

I didn’t get further than Powderhall today but it was a great day for pics

Mary realised this alternative to walking back up MacDonald Rd

taking a short cut through Shrubhill Walk

world of pain

 

12th Feb ~ 27th Feb. Following on from the last 2 blogs, the 7 Hills and S'no Buntings, I was plunged into a world of pain. Both outings were fairly full on and I spent the following 2 days of poor weather processing the photos in front of the computer. Whether it was the 2 days of exertion or the subsequent poor posture, slumped in front of the screen, (or in fact both) I felt a growing problem in the small of my back I recognised from previous excursions into the world of pain from 2 of the last 3 years, very much centred around this time of the year. I refer to it as sciatica although I haven't had a formal diagnosis. Also previously it lasted about a week to 10 days before quietly slinking off as it had arrived. 

Another reason to dislike Winter. This country at this time is not only bathed in the worst light for photography and enjoying outdoors, but it actively goes out its way to bring me down. I tried to head off the sciatica before it got its claws into me by going to Mary's current massage guy, the infamous Steven McQuin. He is really good and Mary has been several times and suggested I follow suit although she did warn me his approach is VERY full on. So after a couple of days suspecting I was in for a week of sore back stuff I made an appointment and Mary drove me over to his studio. He seemed very knowledgeable and made an examination and assessment of me. Before doing a lot of what seemed like trying to pull and push all my muscles off their attachment points. I was literally screaming out loud lying on his table sweating, and shaking in pain. Enjoyable it was not. The hour in his surgery was the most painful experience I ever hope to have. The trivial sciatica discomfort was not even registering against the huge and seering pain as he forced muscles over bone edges in what felt like torture for torture's sake. It was excruciating!

I did feel better after the intense process (which was trying to even out my crooked posture and imbalances) and walked out his door more straight up and down than I had walked in. However I could still feel a distant pain in the small of my back, the reason I had gone in. I hoped this would be gone the following day but in fact it slowly built over the next few days until it kept me up at nights and insisted I munch paracetamols and ibuprofens at the maximum allowed doseage, 24 hrs a day. A fortnight of 2~4hrs sleep a night with no running possible followed. I'd go out for a walk of a few miles, pretty much the only time I was nearly pain-free. After the first mile of nagging back-ache and leg-ache.

The observant will have noticed the non-over-the-counter Dihydrocodeine tablets in the top photo. They were a donation from Mary who had a more serious issue a while back but not so bad it required those after all. I tried one of them and not only did it not do anything marvelous but I couldn't shit for 2 days afterwards. I have so far resisted any more of those.

There was a tiny beneficial side effect, a tinfoil lining in all this cloud. I lost my appetite through the haze of pain and painkillers. Food stood in the fridge growing mould. Yoghurt and cheese grew furry green islands. And I have lost some of the excess waistline I previously sported. However I would not recommend the Paracetamol Diet as it is rather depressing and discouraging. The nights have been worst - if I don't get off to sleep I can lie tossing and turning while the pain, like a deep toothache in back and right leg gnaws into my soul. I haven't asked my doctor for stronger painkillers because if they worked I'd never get off them. Although I had anticipated a full cure in 10 days as before. And here we are a fortnight on. That said I can measure the progress made by how easily I can put on socks and shoes; a little less struggle every day, things slowly easing off. Or how long I can spend at the computer before I have to force myself out for a walk. Things are improving. But there is still some way to go, some hardship to endure. I am writing this down not to enlist sympathy but to archive the experience for reference next year or the next time I am struck down.

The best tool by far in combating this disability (other than chomping down painkillers) is the massage gun Mary bought a while back and has sat mostly unused. I use it when wakeful in the night and sometimes it gives me 10minutes blissfully painfree to hurry off to sleep after a session of vibrating all the trigger points on my back and leg. However my leg (just the right leg, the left is 100% pain free) is now a bit trashed (mildly bruised) after too many visits from the massage gun and I have to go easy not to exacerbate the situation. 

kingfisher at the Botanics - 12-02-26

Well all of that is a thoroughly depressing read. I'm sorry! However I have been finding a number of jollies along the way. My enforced nature rambles have been quite fun and also a great distraction from the pain. I realised this as I left the flat the other day. As stated the first mile is always filled with gritted teeth and squats to relieve the trapped nerves. Around the mile mark it all eases off and my body relaxes as it gets used to the new position. However about 200 yards in to a walk the other day I was going down Pilrig Street when I saw a goldcrest in the gardens of a local flat. I was so absorbed by the process and difficulty of following it and trying to keep it in the frame that when it eventually left the area I realised I'd been unaware of any pain or discomfort for the full ten minutes I was chasing it through gardens and trying to get shots in the (for once) sunny morning as it went about its business. I was delighted to eventually see the footage achieved; one of my most successful short videos of late.

This male goosander was at the Willow Pond at the Botanics. Mary and I were out for a wander on the 16th but the weather forecast never really materialised. Nothing much at the Botanics so we went to Inverleith Pond (Mary knowing feeding the duckies brings me a simple pleasure!) (Mary has been looking after me really well, doing all the household chores without complaining.)

distant kingie on the willow pond

yellow brain fungus

fun with pigeons and duckies

tufted duck

black-headed gull

On the way back along Powderhall, our pal Dan (to our surprise) was still where we'd left him. Looking over the Water of Leith to where a recently arrived Water Rail was occasionally visible. He had seen it going into a bunch of straw and reeds and was waiting to get a decent photo. Water Rail are notoriously shy and secretive and you often hear them peeping without actually seeing them. Consequently photos are usually hard won and highly prized. I had never seen one at this point reckoning if they wanted to avoid cameras they'd be a lot of work for little payback. There's one at Valleyfield pond I have never bothered to visit for those reasons. 

water rail; shy and secretive

Mary had even less enthusiasm than myself and headed home while I decided to wait and see if it appeared. Dan is fun company to hang out with and discuss the difficulties of aging. He is a few years younger than myself but well aware of the back conditions induced from years of computer programming in front of a screen. There were very slight glimpses of the rail a few times and I think I had to wait nearly 90minutes for a decent reveal. By this time Dan had headed home along with another couple of photographers with insufficient stamina. It was kinda overcast and the still photos I took were poor but the video worked much better. This was shot on my B camera, my Lumix bridge FZ2000, which I was carrying as my G9 is about 2~3 times as heavy and I was trying to limit the weight on my sciatica.

I was pleased to get some okay video but felt I should return with the A camera on a sunnier day and get some better quality results. Within a week I was able to do this but have not yet sat down at the dreaded screen to edit the results.

water rail pt 1

soundtrack: Like We Were Dreaming All This Time by Neighborhood Libraries

Next up the 17th Feb and that goldcrest. Never an easy bird to capture as they are constantly hopping about at hundreds of miles per hour. Also they are tiny. Challenging, but on this occasion, rewarding.

lucky mid-air shot

rare to get such a clear shot at eye level

as they often hunt high up in trees

one of my better efforts

soundtrack: Sonoran by MJ Cole

honey bee, botanics

at the rock garden

While I was at the Chinese Pond I was approached by a couple of Indian chaps. They were really friendly and polite and asked the names of some of the bird species I was photographing. They were particularly taken with a male blackbird. I'm guessing they don't have many pure black bird species in their part of India, as the moorhen also appeared very exotic to them. Fascinating to find our commonplace species so exotic! I always try to look at the usual suspects with such a fresh eye, even though I'll often fail to raise the camera in the presence of pigeons, magpies and crows because they are so familiar, so common. However the more we can appreciate the commonplace, the richer our lives will be. 

lovely to see a female blackcap near the pond

this redwing was well disguised, snoozing in a tree

crow gondolier at the Willow Pond

Eristalis tenax - drone fly
on the walk along Warriston Gardens

same

chaffinch

blue tit

handsome treecreeper

blue tit

LTT

wren

great tit

LTT

pair of LTTs

turkey tail bracket fungus

I let the council know their newsletter box in Warriston was being used as a poo-bag bin. I think it would have been accidental rather than malevolent as it was directly below the dog waste sign. They have since removed it, I suspect with a view to returning it with better signage.

still a few curlews at Goldenacre playing fields

Winter Aconite

this great tit at the tunnel seems to recognise me and flies
very close when I arrive (almost always with food!)

blue tit

Wall screw-moss - Tortula moralis
on the wall at Powderhall catching the late afternoon sunlight

wren waterside

no sign of the water rail this time

songthrush - St Marks

goosander (f)

Dan, Dan the Water Rail Man!

this was fast becoming the daily walk
Botanics and water rail