best part of the day: graveyard shifts

24th and 25th Jan

Sun was shining on Sunday and Monday - may as well run to Warriston and hang about taking photos of birds. I had planned to do a longer run but my heart was more into birding at Warriston and taking photos. As I get to know where to look for what birds the quality of photo improves although I am far from delighted at most of the results. Mary bought a relatively inexpensive Lumix Bridge camera recently and the results from it are at least as good if not better than my high end compact. My sights are now set on a slightly higher end Lumix Bridge camera, which gets excellent reviews. Meanwhile I am out and about haunting the graveyard at Warriston, chatting up the robins and squirrels.

Returning frequently to a place you not only see the same birds but I begin to recognise the dogwalkers (or rather their dogs) and the occasional lurker. This guy above has been there 3 days in a row. I'd put him into the lurker category only he smokes a pipe, which is far too quirky to possibly belong to someone looking for interactions. You'd pick him out a line up immediately - yes officer number 5, the only dude smoking a pipe - and so he is possibly in a category of his own. Discussing this with Nick, he proposed the guy might be visiting a grave of a deceased loved one. Holy shit I'd completely forgotten that might be a possibility and immediately felt guilty. And yet, I've seen him aimlessly wandering and reading gravestones, rather than always visiting the same place. I think he maybe just has a wander and some fresh air (mixed with pipe smoke) and likes the ambience at Warriston. I do. I'd like it even more if there were fewer folk there but hey, that is just being selfish.

grey wagtail at the muddy tunnel
we'll come back to this later

treecreeper

It defo helps to get to know what lives where. You spend less time checking EVERY tree and more time where the good stuff happens. I was forming a map in my head (which I've drawn out below) of what goes on where, and when I met a regular the following day his sightings confirmed mine. The treecreepers and nuthatches are most prevalent in the tall trees a row or 2 up from the main avenue crossing the place. Near to number 6 on the map below. Redwings in a gang of about 10 are about this area as well though they also travel around the trees directly North of this. Where you may be lucky enough to see a woodpecker high in said trees flipping off bark.

nuthatch

there are other birdwatchers esp on the Northern boundary

still frosty on the bits the sun hasn't reached

redwing

great spotted woodpecker

I threw a couple of small bits of bread to this wee guy who was quite shy and stayed in the undergrowth most of the time. The following day when I went near the same place he jumped out and gave me such a welcome. I couldn't help but feel he remembered me. I gave him some bread and he dashed off.

Up near number 6 on the map while watching redwings etc I saw this chap which I was pretty sure was a goldcrest. I spent a few minutes taking loads of pics but he kept hopping behind branches and rarely facing in my direction. I wasn't at all sure I had got a photo of his head to identify him. However one image (out of about 40 pics) had the proof. Great to see them in this place, but not as prevalent as most of the other residents. Although being so tiny they are harder to spot. I have also seen pics of siskins taken here but as yet haven't recognised/spotted any.

no shortage of grey squirrels

bullfinch

As I wander around here I mostly ignore the headstones. Occasionally the more elaborate or bizarre ones catch my eye. Or the ones with carvings or portraits which appeal to my sculptors eye. Not that I've done any sculpture in 30 years. I noticed the one above partly because of the portrait and the almost art nouveau lettering. Somewhere between Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha although the date of his demise is way too early to have been influenced by those artists, who hadn't reached their zeniths by then. I was intrigued the Poet in question, Alexander Smith has quite a large wiki-entry. And was a part of the Spasmodic School! I kid you not. Link here. And all that before his untimely death aged 37! I did wonder whether the letters - in relief - were carved by removing all the other stone - no easy task; or maybe created using some sort of moulded process.

What sort of moulding process can you possibly mean? I hear you ask. (Haha! as if?) Well interesting you should bring it up but it recently came to my attention (thanks Nick!) the work of Mrs Eleanor Coade (1733~1821) wiki here that this rather smart lady invented (or refined) a process of Lithodipyra (firing stone twice) or Coade Stone for making mouldings or decorative pieces for gardens in what looks very like stone. And weathers similarly if not better. Originally the statue of Hygeia in St Bernards Well (by WoL near stockeroo) was made from Coadestone. However after it was vandalised (not just a contemporary phenomenon then?) was replaced more than a century later with one carved from Carrara marble by David Watson Stevenson. How many local worthies could turn their hand to that these days? If you want to see some Coade work look no further than those 3 pillars on Porty Prom. Link Here.

now if only the birds would pose so patiently

I was getting really frustrated by the Long Tailed Tits. They chirrup merrily in gangs of about 5 or 6 flying from bush to tree and never sitting still for a second. Making photos almost impossible. The above was the best of all my recent efforts and doesn't even look like an LTT. It was fluffing up its feathers and doing a bit of grooming. And possibly taking the michael. Within 24hrs I had some satisfaction but this was frankly not the standard to which I aspired. I would stamp around in the cold muttering "new camera, new camera...."

However I was pleased to see woodpeckers on both days. I hadn't seen one much before at Warriston though hoped there were some about. Once you get an idea of where they like to fly you keep an eye out for them and then suddenly you see them loads more. This one was a female I think and the following day a male turned up. Happily the males have a red splash on the backs of their heads to ease identification. Both have similar habits, (banging out a tattoo on old dead wood) but neither were doing much of that here.

Warriston is selling itself as a green area full of wildlife
rather than exclusively as a cemetery.

So here is the map I drew up and a rough guide to what I've found so far.

1/ Main and only official entrance/exit

2/ Alternative entrance stepping over a low wall from the cyclepath near Tescos

3/ Ivy covered area next to WoL full of rooks, robins and squirrels

4/ North end featuring high trees and occasional finches and smaller tree dwellers

5/ The Buzzard is sometimes in trees between 4 and 5. Also Redwings.

6/ The high trees in the centre of the top half are often busy with treecreepers and nuthatches.

7/ The East Gate. Doesn't open but you can squeeze through one end. Grade 1 scramble.

8/ Wrens and robins and LTTs. Occasional nuthatch and rooks. More brambly.

9/ Tunnel linking both areas either side of cyclpath. Muddy and wet with Grey Wagtail

10/ Cyclepath from St Marks towards Tescos, Canonmills.

11/ Another unofficial entrance, 2 clambers over fence and wall Grade 1 / 2 scramble.

If you are entering by the cyclepath wall step-over go quietly and cautiously right from the get-go as last 2 times a wren popped out just at the riverside wall said hello right in my face then disappeared into the undergrowth, delighting and infuriating me equally. Also a blackbird in the ivy-leafy undergrowth and AT LAST an LTT that sat still-ish for long enough to get a few pics. They are almost formless fluffy balls of light pink froth with a tiny beak and avoid the auto focus because of this. However due to this one not flying off and being right in front of me I got several photos pretty much in focus. I should have only posted the third but hey the lack of photos compared to the many sightings mean I'm putting all three up here and you'll just have to deal with it! They are super cute.

I wish I could fly, right up to the sky...

chaffinch, plenty about

I meant to head North into the main cemetery proper but got distracted by the excellent light and a robin who was very pally. Then Janice and Karen appeared and we chatted for a bit before they headed off. Karen later let me know they saw lots of birds including the buzzard and a grey wagtail. I asked was the latter at the tunnel and was told it was. I have passed one there or near the small stream that gutters under the tunnel and exits muddily towards the WoL. It is usually hopping about in the mud and gloom so hasn't yet been respectably photographed. However today as I approached the tunnel there were folk coming from several directions and the GW flew up into the Rhoddies for the best photo so far. RESULT! It's not gonna make the cover of the RSPB magazine but you should have seen the others for comparison! (New camera, new camera...)

the friendly robin from sector 8 who rushed out to greet me

While I was near the friendly Robin another dude with a long lens camera came by. I had already walked passed him but we hadn't spoken. We got to speaking and he actually recognised me from hanging out with Andrew and Ken in the Botanics. I hadn't remembered him from then but had been "liking" loads of his photos the night before on the facebook group "Friends of Warriston Cemetery." He would seem to be the only other regular bird photo poster although I've only been a member for a few days so haven't scoped out all the "competition". Alan has a Sony bridge camera, THE Sony bridge camera (after years of carrying full sized DSLRs and bags of lenses about) so we got talking about those for a while. It is twice the price of the Panasonic and the only other bridge camera with reviews better than the Lumix I'll be getting. We also exchanged info on what birds tended to be where and I found I'd roughed out my species map fairly accurately. He also does butterflies (and has been visiting Warriston since April) so I was really keen to hear about the Red Admirals and Orange Tips aplenty. Although only a single Ringlet! Can't remember now if he mentioned common blues; I can imagine I was blethering more than listening. Anyway, lots of excitements for Spring through Summer at a suitably nearby location. Counting the days!

male woodpecker

in-house monument cleaning service

East gate.

not good enough wren pic!

Here is some art that made itself. The only inscription left (other than the word family) is on the stone at the bottom that says aged 8 years. I think this is a powerful piece evoking inconsolable grief, although not exactly intentional.

on a lighter note, fairies play in the sunlight

There were lots of gnats or mosquitoes flying in the sunlight. Next it will be bees and hoverflies and after that... well I don't need to tell you!

wtf?
apparently a fishing industry person (not darth vader)

With the sun going down the bird activities calm down from about 2.30pm. I was leaving about 3.15 having done a couple of hours there and decided I'd just have a quick look round sector 3 near the river as the last of the sunlight was lighting it in a most attractive manner. There were squirrels and rooks and a robin. I threw a couple of pieces of bread to the rooks (always more cautious than the robins) and turned around to see a squirrel patiently waiting to see if there would be luckies thrown its way. There would be. And then the robin appeared and sat very close by. There was an annoying stick near its perch that obscured the birds face so I went forward slowly and broke it off. (In butterfly photography parlance, gardening.) I worried that I might have scared the little chap off entirely but he was back in 2 mins and I got some photos without the offending twig. The robin was well rewarded for his modelling and I shook out the last of the small bag of bread, nuts and seed-bribery I was carrying. The robin was quite fussy about what he ate and the rooks would have waited till I'd left. My money was on the squirrels getting the lions' share. Excellent fun.