best part of the day: warriston catch up

22nd~29th Jan

Four visits during late January. It does look slightly obsessive to go somewhere so many times in a relatively short space of time. (And more to follow.) Maybe I felt if I got out the house I was burning calories doing something of value. And I could pretend it was almost as good as run training. I do enjoy run training. I just find it easier to walk along to Warriston with a camera, although getting there while the sun is actually shining is another story. Many grey days and many grey photos. I should really have the strength to bin all but the 20 best and not waste your time. But I took them, I tweaked them and I posted them, so you can look at them. Or not. I don't mind. Someone asked do I not get bored taking the same picture again and again? Fuck you! I should have said. 😁 No, rather, it is all part of the process: going to the place, seeing my little pals - (they really respond to my presence, hopping about excitedly before I even get the food out) and taking their photos. Saying hello. Forest bathing, tree hugging, communing with nature. Whatever you call it, enjoying the outdoors. Coming across stuff in the world rather than watching a screen. Coming home and tweaking the photos. Honing skills from stalking shy birds to taking better photos. You can see the difference when the sun is shining - the focus is sharper, the colours more coloury, and the birds more cheerful. Well I am. Feel free to flip past these. They are all the same.

bullfinches m & f

This sort of thing makes me want to bring back corporal punishment. I noticed this painting. I liked it. I took a photo and held it up to admire on this blog. Next time I go past it has been vandalised by someone glorifying skag. I hope their next needle is a dirty one. It's not as if they are championing a right to self expression; they are just taking a piss on someone else's chips, out of badness and possibly self pity. I hope they get a fatal dose of skag next trip to the dealers. The world would be richer for their absence.

The blackbirds have been looking really great recently. I have a feeling they have their best outfits on to attract the opposite sex. The RSPB site say they nest built from early March. I go through different phases and the blackbirds are high on my current "well look at them" list. When the sun strikes their glossy fur (Mary said look at the fur on that one recently) they make me want to get the paints out. All the warm greys and blue browns on the females are glorious. And thrush-like markings coming through on the breast. And there are several (5+) that come to the spot near the tunnel where we have been putting out food on 2 stones and a tree stump. There is good cover in nearby trees which fill up with blackbirds, chaffinchers and tits (great, blue and coal). Then in ones and twos they flit down, take a beakful and dive off into the undergrowth.

We have been doing this so much recently they start cheeping and peeping before we even get the food out. They swoop down before there is any on the plinths and really give us quite the welcome. It is also the best time to hold out a hand with bready croutons to tempt the robins. After they have had a few titbits they will sit and watch you from right by your shoulder but lack the words to say no thanks I'm full. But before you put the first food out they hop back and forth in giddy anticipation with wee wing flaps as if to say hurry hurry I'm so hungry I could eat worms!

all the colours of the blackboard!

take note of this grey wagtail (the yeller one)
particularly note the beautiful tail (more later)

We have also been noticing all the bathing and splashing about in the small stream that runs under the tunnel towards the Water of Leith. It is particularly poor light but the chaffinches and great tits love to wash there and as soon as one gets going it will encourage others (often different species) to join in. The downside is there is a near continual pack of dogwalkers and their hounds pass through the tunnel, chasing off the bathing beauties. Some will wait if they see us taking photos until the coast is clear; others are looking at phones and will plod by unaware of anything.

I had a dude just a day or 2 ago profoundly apologise for his 2 doggies, which came over to me with wet sticks in their mouths and in seconds had daubed my trousers with the watery ends, leaving impressively dark marks which looked like mud up and down my calves. He must have said sorry, really sorry about 10 times while collecting his mutts and beating a hasty retreat. They meant no harm and when it dried out, my trousers weren't caked in mud and dog slobber as I initially feared. As usual I muttered no problem with just a soupçon of jaundice in case he felt it really was not a problem, while he retreated supremely penitent. I got the amused feeling it wasn't the first time.

It is one thing seeing a treecreeper and another to get a decent photo. They hop continuously, often choose trees the same colour as their plumage and are very small. They also only climb upwards meaning they are continually receding. They might fly onto the next tree at eye level, but by the time you stealthily ninja over to that one, they are 20 feet up and hop hop hopping further away.

coal tit

long tailed tit - another in the same category as the treecreeper
- small, fast and rarely stops for a moment

Mary and I were up in the North section, which is more like a traditional cemetery - neater lawn and regular, upright stones - and not like the riverside section - all ivy, knocked over headstones and dense undergrowth. Suddenly there was an explosion of small birds. Like someone had fired a cannon full of finches over our heads. We then saw the sparrowhawk. It took a couple more wingbeats cutting sharp lines and tight angles through the air and landed on a branch, possibly a bit angry, having failed to snag a feathery snack. It saw us watching and taking a million full zoom photos, in the compromised light, then flew away in disgust. Nothing like having your failures recorded.

I think this is a male - females have a browner jacket.

it circled overhead for a while then disappeared

redwing - shy and hides up trees like a coward

nice to see some snowdrops

song thrush

one of several riverside robins who battle
for territorial rights at the tunnel feeding spot

back to the same places on the 27th
- good to see more sunshine

mrs. hopalong - always keen to see us, and comes to
where we put out food, eats a lot and then hurries off

this wren is often around these parts

today it stopped, concentrated, then pooped

daffs coming out in the secret garden

bullfinch by the tunnel

one of the very orange billed blackbirds

blue tit

We stopped to speak to the owner of these 2. She had lost a glove last time I saw her, a blue one, and still hadn't found it. I said neither had we and Mary suggested it might have been taken off for nesting material. She liked to think that that might be the case and that it might have been put to some use.

not much going on in the secret garden

We did get speaking to Paul and his entourage of 4 greyhounds or lurchers. They were very gentle and said hello quietly. That one speaking to Mary shook its head and a flob of gob (10p size) flew out its mouth and landed on my camera. It got the lens hood but narrowly missed the lens. I always keep the lens hood on to protect from back-swinging branches, brambles and projectiles. I also always carry kitchen roll which I used to wipe off the dog slobber. Much as I enjoy well behaved dogs I don't think I could have one in the house. Not because we live in a pristine home, far from it, mainly because we can't let it get any worse.

honestly

LTT

the crypts

three finches - chaff, bull and gold

another sighting of the goldcrest

squirrel keeps its distance

blackbird tries to photobomb squirrel

pair of bullfinches

Once you get your eye in it is easier to recognise the goldcrest hunting bugs in the ivy. This was away from the tunnel area (which is the best spot for spotting goldcrest.) This was further along the riverside section. Their size gives them away, along with a constant hopping. Mostly upside down underneath leaves looking for bugs. Which makes them very tricky to get a decent photo of, since they don't stand still on branches contemplating the world like robins. The 2 photos below suggest this one did exactly that however it was only for a nano-second and the other 50 photos I took are rubbish by comparison.

unfortunate water bottle lodging

A = climb in at St Mark's Bridge (Powderhall) (requires some skills)
B = East end Riverside section
C = West end of Riverside section
D = Tunnel. Where cyclepath goes over underpass tunnel
E = owls, blackcaps and other myths
F = the O Area: circular mound with fallen storm damage tree
G = the crypts/catacombs
H = the East Gate (no entry/exit since bar was replaced)
K = East side, previously good for wrens and robins, less so now
M = step over wall; popular unofficial entrance on Tesco cyclepath

28th Jan back again! Although many of the pics look like it was a bit overcast some of the wider shots show it was possibly brighter than most of the days I go there. The light rarely hits the stone platforms we use to put food out, and the photos of birds there look unlit. Maybe we should take lighting equipment?

blackbird with different shaped head
which was being chased off by a couple of the usual crew

look sunshine!

This is one of the riverside robins. Not as aggressive as Hitler and happy to sit while I put the camera right in his face, or Mary stands right beside him chatting away. He will occasionally come to a hand when hungry but mostly waits until food goes down on nearby stones. Mary was the first to hand feed him. He appears in the video towards the bottom of the page taking bread from Mary's hand, although he was too lazy to fly over and waited until Mary's hand was near enough before leaning over and taking a bit.

mrs. hopalong

one of the several riverside squirrels
will take the birds' food from the 1859 stone if they don't

the 1859 stone

the crypts

another well camouflaged treecreeper

this unfortunate squirrel seemed to have bare patches of missing fur

dunnock

when we popped by the secret garden the balding squirrel had already

beaten us to it. It serves as a warning to all: never shave your squirrel!

someone had put a number of seeds in this secret hideyhole
I suspected A&U but they denied all knowledge.

blue tit

Hitler and son (or wife)

Mary bonding with Hitler

the riverside robin again

the riverside robin

29th - can't keep away!

more bad goldcrest pics

I bumped into Andrew and Unda on this occasion which cheered up a day of abysmal light. I was taking photos of the birds but knew there was little point as it was grey and sludgy and nothing would come out. I went a wander on my own out the North side and they went in search of starvin' marvin mouse at the 1859 stone. I had slightly better luck than them when I bumped into a kestrel, perhaps the male that appeared here a year or 2 ago sitting on top of obelisk stones or high crosses. Then it disappeared - must have gone to kestrel school - because it now sees humans and heads off just at the outer range of a bad photo. I followed it to a couple of perches but it saw me coming and was off without a decent image.