best part of the day: view from the treetops

Sunday 28 March 2021

view from the treetops

I'm so tall!

13/03/21

Another trip to Warriston, again the new camera doing the honours. I now consider the photos I used to take with the compact of substandard quality and how did I ever manage? Actually is it very easy to take shite photos with the new camera, but in general it makes taking better photos much easier and a total joy. In the past if I took photos in poor lighting or from beyond a certain distance they would look okay on the screen in situ, but once home they would be noisy or just dull on the computer. There is a far higher hit rate with the new camera. And you can get decent pics from a greater distance away. The main downside is weight and size, but it seems to survive travelling in my backpack without, so far, the shoogling doing any damage.

On the 13th March I went along to the cemetery again and it seems another mixed bag. I can't remember much specifically but I would have been hanging around the crypts looking for early emergers. Not vampires, but butterflies, overwintering in the vaults and appearing now the sun was striking the stone facing for several hours each day. The butterflies usually return about mid-March so I would have been keeping an eye on the flowers near the crypts, but alas, no signs of them so far.

What I did see was a goldcrest. Often, the trees a couple of rows North of the crypts can be popular with the rarer birds. Treecreepers, goldcrests, nuthatches and even woodpeckers. I had been getting so involved with the wrens and robins South of the East Gate I'd been neglecting this area and today enjoyed revisiting those trees, squinting up into the high branches trying to identify small things far away and take photos of them. Sometimes I wasn't sure of what I was pointing the camera at until later.

Goldcrests are small and fast moving, continually hopping about looking to pick off insects and BUTTERFLY EGGS from the twigs and branches. The bastards! They do not make it easy to get decent photos and you have to get that streak of yellow on their heads as otherwise they are a bit dull in colour. I took dozens of photos and not one was satisfactory! All good practice though, and keeps you on your toes following something not much larger than a butterfly around at a distance and trying to anticipate where it will stop next for a nanosecond before flying off.

similar game with a treecreeper

siskin

I was standing still and listening for the tweeting of gangs of finches. I'd hear their chatter and wander over to what otherwise appeared to be an empty tree. Way up the top there would be a gang of goldfinches hopping about eating the small buds and shoots of emerging leaves. And what are those greeny yellow birds bickering with the finches? Ohhh! Something new! I thought they were maybe siskins as I'd seen someone post photos of siskins, but hadn't paid sufficient attention. I got chatting online with Warriston regular Alan who suggested they might be greenfinches but when I showed him pics he confirmed siskins. I was pleased to identify a new species I'd not knowingly seen before although felt there was plenty room for better photos if they ever came down the tree about 30 feet.

the view of an "empty" tree full of tiny birds

siskin female (I think) not so yellowy

goldfinch

Another thing I'd been failing to see was ladybirds. I'd been hunting for them ever since Alan had pointed out some to me a while back, snuggled into some ornate stonecarving. And yet I'd completely failed to see any every time I remembered to check the headstones, particularly those with Celtic or elaborate carving. Today I found a couple and was very pleased with my eagle-eyed vision. I think that is the problem; my distance vision is pretty good, but for screens, books and anything small, closer than arms length I really need reading glasses.

closer

closer still

ahh there they are

Most trips to Warriston I'll go past the secret garden and put some food on the bird tables. Almost immediately the female blackbird (with the ring) pops out and eats the bread. She seems to have got used to me and takes her time in a non flighty way. I presume she lives on the ivy-covered wall right next door. The ivy has recently been chopped and is now disconnected near the ground so that may all be about to change. A large portion had blown or fallen off the wall last time I was there.

redwing

woodpigeons

I then had a wee mooch around the riverside area. You go under the tunnel and it has a slightly wilder feel of being less well ordered. There are a couple of friendly robins and someone puts out food in a few spots for them and the nuthatches and great tits and squirrels along the riverside path. There was another casualty there recently in the strong winds as yet another tree swooned across the river. All three of the recent trees to fall over had been marked for cutting down. Partly I think because they were developing a lean, the roots being not very well supported by the riverside mud which has had a real soaking this Winter. It is a bit of a coincidence (or is it?) that all 3 seem to have jumped before they were pushed.