steaming

 

I felt today went well although it didn't really produce the results I went out in search of, but there was enough on the SD card when I got home, to feel it was a worthwhile adventure. A relatively early start on the 4th Nov and I was feeling fit enough to cycle to Cammo rather than put myself at the mercy of 2 buses and an hour of Audiobook to the West side of Edinburgh. The cycle is 15minutes quicker (no literature) although it took an extra 5minutes when I stopped at Dowies Mill Lane to photo the mini shetlands as they were stood in the middle of their patch steaming in the warm sunlight. Very picturesque!

steaming ponies

Too much of a faff to get the camera out, I shot this video on my new iPhone. (A refurbished job bought online which despite my hatred of mobile phones and their dominance in our lives, I am warming to more than I would care to admit.)(It works so much better than the prehistoric version I had before which had a dodgy battery and several significant apps that had ceased to function.) And probably takes much better photos being 8 versions more modern than the previous incarnation. I had to load the above video directly from the iPhone into Blogger rather than import it to my PC and upload it from there, as every stage degrades the video quality as it goes through passport control.

I have been making a few reluctant tech upgrades recently in order not to get left behind modern life as it rapidly timetravels into the future. I received an email from running app Strava saying my device would cease to work with Strava, on November the 4th, today. Quite how they knew I am not sure. "We noticed you are living in the 1950s and are the weakest link, goodbye!"

I've already had to swap my primary Strava device from iPhone to iPad and headed this new disaster off by shifting back to my new iPhone. Ever feel the technology in your life is not your assistant, but in fact your boss?

A while ago my sister was upgrading her iPad and selling her old one. Mary bought it, planning to use it as a holiday device considerably smaller and lighter than her laptop, however she abandoned that plan because Apple make you bow down and worship their platform and if you jump ship from Android tablets you really need to fully commit to the Apple regime which includes emails and online shopping and jump in with both feet rather than paddle in the shallows for a couple of weeks en vacances. Mary decided against climbing the Apple tree.

considerable investment in the future
having greatly enjoyed the last Logitech keyboard case I had to get another

unlike myself, they are magnificent for typing

My iPad, the one which Strava was about to out-sprint, also came from my sister - presumably updated by the one Mary bought, which was now looking for a new home. I hadn't bothered with the update until now because the keyboard case* on my old one was better than the rudimentary cover Anne had sent the new one in. (*Logitech slim folio, around the three figure mark.) And the new model was a couple of centimetres larger than the old so wouldn't fit the old keyboard case. It sat gathering dust until strava let me know I needed to update.

With a heavy heart I found the cheapest place to buy a new Logitech Slim Folio and managed to find one reduced from £106 to about £65 or I should say €77 because it is a Spanish qwerty keyboard rather than a UK qwerty one. I enquired online if there was much difference, and apart from the lack of pound sign, the extra Spanish ñ and the upside down question mark there is no deal-breaking reason not to get the Spanish keyboard version. (You had me at £41 cheaper!) I now feel more European and we'll find out in January** whether the new keyboard, ¿he speak in Spanish accent, no?

**Buried the lead.

BTW the Spanish Ñ is pronounced eñe; well it would be. (That'll put an Oroñoco Flow in your earworm.) The little wavy hat the N wears is called a tilde or virgulilla (¡ay, no!) and is a diacritic or glyph, indicating a change of pronounciation or semantic meaning. I feel I am now more than ready to rejoin the EU.

While all that chat was going on I had cycled via the Ferry Road adjacent cyclepath turning right at Blackhall and crossing the road at D-mains, past my old school and down past JK Rowling's pad to the steaming ponies before crossing the dual carriageway at Cammo and into the estate. Whew! 

just an occasional robin came to say hello

The light at the first bird table next to the canal was atrocious. I put out a little food but there was not the usual immediate appearance of garden birds and nuthatches so I began to pack up and leave. Just as I was doing that a jay skulked through. They are exquisitely adept at putting branches between their perch and the camera, making photo-opportunities rare. This one was far more obliging than usual and with myself retreating a few metres to give it room, it actually descended to the tree trunk on which I placed some nuts and seeds. While it was great to have a partial encounter with the jay I felt the lack of light and garden birds might improve as the sun rose, so opted to check out the walled garden and maybe return later.

jay

this is a more typical jay experience

crepidotus spec?

quite a few dogwalkers for a Wednesday

Just as I was leaving the jay came down to the feeding area and had a few nuts off the tree trunk. It was cautious, being within 6m of where I was stood (and the light was very murky) which didn't make for the best photos. 

map of walk around cammo

The arrow circle is the bird feeding area beside the canal. Across the canal is the second area (usually more productive for jays) and the other area south of those spots where the red line accrues is the walled garden. I pushed my bike from venue to venue, sometimes riding it on the dirt trails.

Initially I was disappointed to find the two borders of flowers in the walled garden were long past their best. (The asters and rudbeckias (and catmint) are good for hovers and butterflies.) There was an occasional straggler bloom but they were all in shade and I doubted any self-respecting butterfly would bother. It was quite sunny though and there was a real warmth in the sunshine. To confirm this the honey bees at one of the hives were buzzing about, though the others in the shade were not.

blackbird

I slowly became aware there were a number of shy birds taking berries from high in the trees. Mostly members of the thrush family, the unfortunately named Turdidae. At least 4 of the 6 common UK members were present although all were behaving very shyly: blackbird, redwing, song thrush and mistle thrush.

Brussels Airlines Airbus A320

redwing

song thrush

mistle thrush

The order of photos suggests I then went to waterside, venue two. I would have been hoping for nuthatches and jays, the main 2 reasons to hike across town to Cammo, although nuthatches are seen in a few more local places if not with the same regularity. Although today they failed to turn up at all. It made me wonder whether they were still finding plenty food on the trees and elsewhere. They have always been a consistent species here and I was surprised by their total absence. First time here seeing none. 

After a while feeding only a magpie and a squirrel I was tired of standing in the gloom. A jay had come by (likely the same one I fed earlier) but it stayed high in the trees and did not come close enough to photograph. Perhaps it had cleared the rest of the nuts at venue one and was no longer hungry.

I decided to return to the sunshine of the orchard in the walled garden, intent on getting some pics. The place had seemed comparatively busy with birds and I hoped to get some better redwing shots. The apple tree leaves were in direct sunlight attracting flies, although only the most basic of bluebottle type houseflies. As I swung the camera up to photograph one, my eye was drawn to the twitch of a butterfly wing. YES! A red admiral was sunbathing right beside where I was standing. I immediately went into ninja mode and moved super slowly, retreating then getting a decent line on the best thing I'd seen today. 

fantastic! a bit tattered and worn but what a sight!
November the 4th - last butterfly of 2026

As you can imagine I took far more photos and video than necessary. Although it was moving so little that after the first couple of shots there wasn't much more to do or see. I did not want to disturb this, its last chance to feed and gather strength for the Winter before it goes into semi-hibernation, so left it to itself. Although I was so chuffed to see it I'd double back every ten minutes and take another photo. It stayed in the same tree for quite some time.

the grass was soaking and I was glad to have worn goretex shoes

oak leaves in sunshine

the (recently restored) wall of the walled garden

Regulars will know I am a big fan (an addict really) of sunny weather. I am in the same circle of the Venn diagram as butterflies and my camera which is Loves the Sun, (doesn't work so well under the gloomy cloud-covered sky that is 97% of the time in Sotland). A prime example of this is the above shot of the beehives. The textures and warm colours are so attractive that I nearly made this photo the wallpaper background of my "new" iPad. Despite any clear subject. Just lovely textures in warm colours. Same with the shot above of bricks. When the skies are blue you can point the camera at nearly anything and get better results. And the wildlife comes out more on those days too.

Instead I used the more minimal, less distracting flower shot taken a few weeks ago in sunny Castle Fraser walled garden. You can see it about 40 photos above, actually on my iPad. Doesn't even have a butterfly on it. However the light and crisp detail and harmonious colours make it a very happy photo to see every time I open my iPad.

joyful iPad background flower

in situ as wallpaper

I was going to post a link to this flower photo but do people ever really click on links here? I felt it was worth posting the image itself again. It is not the best photo I have ever taken but it is an excellent wallpaper for putting icons on top of.

bike relaxing against an apple tree

quite a few wasps about, not many hoverflies

back to the admiral again

mahonia (always good for late flowers)

sun bringing out the vibrant colours

had a wee wander outside the walled garden

Mycena spec.

I returned to venue one as there was slightly better light but no sign of any interesting birds. All the food I'd put out earlier was gone. Reckon the squirrels, pigeons and magpies had seen to that. I put out some more but there was nothing to keep me and I had a notion to go down the nearby Almond walkway to Cramond.

makes me proud
although as far as I'm aware, unrelated

The best thing I saw on the Almond was this dipper which was very close to the riverside down which I was walking and cycling. Happily I saw it before it saw me and I very carefully (parked my bike and) approached at glacial pace and then kept mostly behind a tree. The golden reflections came out well in the slo-mo video, although the dipper did not hang about long before flying off miles upstream.

lumpy bracket fungus

great tit

I always stop for a photo at the weir

British Airways Airbus 320

double dippers

these two were not hanging about for a photoshoot sadly

One of the reasons I was in a hurry to get to Cramond was another shot at filming the black-headed gulls. They can be handfed with a finger of bread and will fly close by for photos. The light was good but the wind direction was not that agreeable and although I got some decent shots and backlit video it made me realise you can only work with what is there and make the best of it.

I changed from the 100~400mm lens to the 12~60mm which is better for fast moving stuff close by. I was reluctant to hang about too long as I hoped to see the little egret further along the foreshore and get some sunny images of it. So I said goodbye to the gulls and cycled along, hoping the tide was similar to the last occasion and the egret's pond was equally full of fishy-dishy.

today's best video clips

soundtrack: As You Grow by Pianika

couple of dabchicks in the estuary

they did not stay long,
first one dived then the other did and neither seemed to ever resurface!

crows posing nicely

what a fine mechanism
covering 18miles with ease

To my delight I saw the egret was at the same spot as before. The sun was lighting it perfectly, and I couldn't believe my good fortune. In order not to chase it off I moved slowly taking my bike down the ramp just beyond where the bird was fishing. I padlocked it near the pond and got the camera out. (100~400 back on.) Just as I made the final approach the sun went behind a large purple-grey cloud. The beautiful reflections went out. The scene went drab grey.

I said quite a few bad words. End of story. It was waste of time sitting low on the wet rock taking video. I missed the ideal conditions by about 90seconds. If I'd turned up 10mins earlier that would have been magical, but it was now shit. I stayed a while watching but there was no way the sun was coming out from behind the large bank of cloud which now covered half the sky to the South. These pics are stills from the dull video I shot. Not worth editing and putting to a soundtrack.

The same 2 birds were here last time. While they are not super close friends the gull was intrigued by the egret pulling fish out the water and you could see it trying to work out how best to emulate the skillful fishing, however it lacked the lightening fast stabbing motion available to the egret. Nor did the egret feel it necessary to share any of the small fish it caught with the gull. The gull didn't make a fuss.

I watched it catch this quite big shrimp and swallow it. Then it moved its throat about quite a bit, obviously trying to dislodge the shrimp, which I imagined was hanging on with little pincers somewhere at the top of the long neck. After a while the egret coughed the shrimp back up and (as above and below) shook it about a bit more, repositioned it, and without waiting for it to die, swallowed it whole again. This time it finished the journey.

It was a bit of a downbeat ending to an otherwise very enjoyable day out, despite many of the anticipated scenarios not materialising. But you can only work with what turns up. The cycle back along the prom and cyclepath was uneventful but I was reminded yet again of the joys of riding a bike compared to sitting on a slow bus through town.

from East to West (and back) - about 8.5miles in either direction

another mostly good day out with several real treats