two in the bush

As Spring had morphed back into Winter we decided to swap the usual Gullane run (exposed beaches and chilly sea breezes) for the sheltered trails of Cammo again. Nick came along too. We drove to Cramond and, narrowly avoiding the jumble sale in the kirk there, parked up as if for parkrun. But had considerably more fun than has ever been had at 9.30am.

First up coffee and cake at Cramond Falls Cafe. The quality of the eats and drinks compensates for the brusque manner of the service. The younger women at the counter are helpful but the others have an air that, well I did wonder if it was just us caught them at a bad moment when in before. But today we were shifted from the table we had chosen to another purely at the whim of the owner(?) as she imagined we were blocking the way through, of non-existent customers with dogs who might need to squeeze past. It's also really quite expensive (Cramond prices!) given the unsmiling service. And were there any alternative beyond the ice cream van at the estuary, we might seek it out. The cake was superb though. And the coffee set us all off, chattering away like we weren't already in total blether mode.

There is a shrub in full blossomy bloom just outside the cafe
which I have failed to do justice 2 weeks in a row.

the sun was catching the weir upriver

We stopped at the field of Shetland Ponies again. Although they weren't about (or were indoors) the hens came out to see what I had in the poly bag I was rustling. 

no wonder they swim well with flippers like those

After Mary took us the wrong way round the back of the field (no sign of the white blackbird) and not noticing, we corrected our route and continued up the other side of the river and into the Cammo Estate. Our plan had been to return to the site of the friendly robin (near the "canal" / curling pond) and try to coax it to handfeed on some mealworms I had brought. The chances of it being where we last left it were pretty small and the chances of it flying to a hand even smaller.

Since myself and Mary had cameras, the worms (dried and pretty much empty shells of mealworms) were given to Nick, after Mary (once again) had spotted our little pal (in no time). And unbelievably it flew straight over to Nick and sat on his outstretched fingers. I fluffed the first 2 or 3 photos, then settled down and took a few more, trying to arrange the reflections of the background water to give an attractive backdrop. I was so busy taking close up shots I totally missed getting Nick and his big grin in, but Mary got that and so I have nicked her photo, below.

photo Mary

There is a robin in the Chinese garden in the Botanics who will take bread out your hand while almost hovering but not landing on your fingers like this. This one wins the prize for happily sitting for a moment or 2, surveying the goodies, eating one or 2 then taking one for later and flying off with it. I was thrilled such an unlikely plan paid off first time. 

There were quite a few other birds flitting about the trees nearby and we found it difficult to leave as they continually returned to the horizontal trunk onto which Nick had put some worms. Although the day was bright I failed to get any decent pics of anything bar the robin who posed considerably  closer than anyone else. There was a nuthatch zipping about but keeping it's distance. And loads of tits: blue, great and coal. And a chaffinch or 2. And in the distance a woodpecker knocking on a tree. After a million bad photos, almost all blurry or with half a bird leaving the frame, we continued our run. 

nuthatch

 

the fields seemed to be sown with a reddish tartan crop

We got a bit of a hail shower while picking up the third side of the airport circuit
then dropping down to the Almond.

crows over Nether Lennie

As a final tweet, I mean treat, there were a couple of dippers on the Almond. They tended to be over the other side away from the pedestrians, and that is my excuse for the quality of photos. There was also quite a lot of birdsong coming from the trees but it's almost impossible to either spot the culprits or get a photo of them, so I kept my eyes on the river for dippers (and kingfishers such was the way our luck was going today.) There was also a wren on the far bank, hopping about.

dipper and wren in same photo
(if you look VERY carefully)

you can often tell a dipper's preferred perch
as it will have been tagged with a white poop

that blossoming bush again

I was so delighted with all the bird action we had had I wasn't going to bother with the gulls at the estuary but Nick went over to the ice cream van for a bottle of water. So while he was there I got out the remaining bread and chucked it gullward. The wind did not lend itself to the usual flying pattern the gulls adopt and they were a bit half-hearted about it today. I got Nick to deliver the bread which freed me up to take photos. The gulls lack of enthusiasm was appreciated by the mallards who gathered on the sand below collecting anything the gulls missed.

a splendid 7.9miles
Big thanks to Mr Robin for being a star.
(maybe next time we'll get you some live mealworms)