best part of the day: Dalmeny happy returns

Sunday 24th Oct

There was a good forecast for Sunday so I planned to jump on a train to Dalmeny and run home, or round the airport route and then catch a bus home. All weather and mud dependent. I checked train times the night before and found the trains were being replaced by buses (strike action?) which instead of 16 minutes would take 47 minutes. I thought about alternatives but the West wind convinced me it had to be Dalmeny. Oh well. Pack an MP3 player and listen to audiobooks or music. Man it was sloooooooooow. Especially the lovely detour to Edinburgh Gateway. The gate must have been closed - we stopped for ages and then were late to Dalmeny.

I was so excited by the sunshine that I was taking photos out the window of the bus along Princes St. Boots the castle, then fatty James Young Simpson who lies in my favourite cemetery, but sits at the end of the gardens. Then the next gargantuan hotel and concrete bunker currently being built in Haymarket. Odds on Edinburgh's newest eyesore.

James Young Simpson, liked to gas

I took this pic of the holloween trick-or-treat pumpkin fields, now that we have been entirely americanized and don't have any Scottish traditions left. Isn't it great Holloween now lasts about a fortnight? More time to buy plastic junk to fling in the sea afterwards.

I got off the bus at Dalmeny station and ran seaward under the rails of the best bridge in the world. I tried to avoid the usual pitfalls of taking a hundred rail bridge photos. I didn't get my big camera out until a mile or 2 along the coast, swapping it for the compact I was carrying until then, as I knew it would tempt me to walk rather than run. Sure enough there were many walked miles though I can actually run while carrying the large and bulky bridge camera. I have fallen twice while running with it but so far managed not to break it. There were no falls today.

I always like a mooch around here where a small burn runs out to the beach. It has special vibes. There was no wildlife though, except for a family of pheasants who waited until I was very close by, then exploded out the long grass making me jump and say short abrupt words beginning with FUCK!

long tailed tit

Just beyond, and back on the trail there was a lot of peeping coming from the trees. I saw a gang of LTTs flitting through the canopy but they moved too fast and too high to get anything decent. Just this silhouette. I was much better pleased by this nuthatch which did not hang about but was caught way upstairs on the trunk of this conifer. Steam was now coming out my ears at the number of birds I aimed at and missed so this and the goldcrest were a godsend and by no means easy. More just luck and having the camera pointing in the right vicinity when they landed. I think I was standing there about 10 minutes so 3 photos is not a good hit rate! Could easily have been zero pics though, the way they were jumping about.

nuthatch

gold crest

Inchmickery

Cramond Island

wren

Coming down to the bridge over the Almond there is a massive garden full of mature trees on the left. There was a robin, a wren and various garden birds hopping about. Without actually trespassing I took several pics, before crossing over and following the Almond down to Cramond.

There were at least 4 dippers before the Salvesen Steps.
So it took me about an hour to get down past that section.

I watched this one swimming and fishing for caddis fly larvae. They are brilliant swimmers and throw themselves fearlessly into a fast flowing muddy current. Then pop out onto a slippy green rock and never lose their footing while bopping about. This one eventually stopped fishing and after a shake out sat on a rock singing. There didn't appear to be any other dippers about so I felt he/she might have been serenading me. Or was I just getting hypothermic? I shot loads of video and stills. The light was only just good enough, though a long way short of ideal.

also several grey wagtails along the river

these two were either doing a turf war or romance - not sure which

every 10 mins they would fly up in each others faces

they didn't give much warning so getting decent photos was tricky

lots of colourful berries about

although late in year for butterflies it was well above average temps
so I was checking likely ivy bushes for late season red admirals (but only hoverflies)

I saw this squirrel climb a riverside tree with what looked like a hat or a tiny mouse. I have seen squirrels eat mushrooms before but didn't recognise what sort this was, if it was a mushroom, and not just a Sunday hat. In the same shrubs (beside that weird falls cafe) was a little shy robin. I disturbed it while I was following the squirrel and it sat indoors, and couldn't be tempted out with seeds. I did manage to get some through-the-leaves shots and it sat happily while I pushed through the foliage and struggled to focus on it.

hide and flippin' seek

distant yawn!

Also very pleased to see these goosanders (3 females) across the other side of the river. They stayed there too, and watched me with suspicion. They can often be lured over with flung bread but I think the sunlight was better on the far side and my zoom just bridged the gap - though the quality was not great. I was cursing when one yawned a couple of times. I always try to get photos with their mouths open as they have spectacular spiky teeth (for holding slippery fish) along their beaks. Too far away to get that kind of detail on these photos.

I had planned to interact with the black headed gulls at Cramond - they are spectacular fliers and will put on a good show for some bread. However this family from the 1970s (I filtered them for stealing my birds!) had already booked them, and were throwing slices of finest supermarket loaf.

About this point along Silverknowes I headed inland to the cyclepath. I put away the big camera got the compact back out and decided to focus on running. I tried to put in a sub 7m/m mile around 12 or 13miles and was sweating profusely in the sunshine. I took a diversion through Warriston but there wasn't much happening. It was enough to get the total mileage up to 15+ so I headed home.