c'mon goose!

 

14th and 15th October.

I was so disappointed with myself when we got home after our walk on Saturday and I found the majority of the photos were sub-optimal. Shit, in fact. How had that happened? Well, the evening prior (see last blog) I had been shooting in low light and turned the shutter speed to just 1/80th of a second. Although there was plenty of light in Holyrood the following day I did not check or adjust the shutter-speed which was a little too slow to record the graylag geese without motion blur. Damn schoolboy error! And the geese were fantastic! We had come across them near St Margaret's Loch and for a small bribe of bread they came over and virtually sat in our laps. I was so delighted I forgot to check the settings and wasn't even looking through the viewfinder. I was in goose heaven and clearly not paying attention. Almost entirely poor photos and very annoying. Just one acceptable photo of a superb admiral we came across sunbathing round the boundary. 

distracting graylags

Next day (15th) and the sun was out again. I'm not sure if Mary was just being kind or matching her needs to mine but she suggested a repeat of the previous day - up to Crow Hill summit and back - and via the geese if they were still there. As stated elsewhere I am not running yet (due to covid) so felt it beneficial to go for a walk up the hill and burn calories even if there were no geese. There is usually something worth the hike. (I'm guessing the wheatear has migrated as it wasn't seen there on any of the last few visits.) Okay let's go!

weather better than expected

stray baby

This baby was making a break for it. The mother who looked not long out her teens was probably too busy sparking up to bother retrieving it. We giggled over childish jokes and went up the hill. I nearly reneged on the deal when Mary suggested we leave the geese till after we had done the summit. I felt the call of unfinished business. Though it was more than likely the geese would be gone, or not playing ball. I bit the bullet, pretended to be a grown up, and pushed up the hill. I could feel my covid lungs were pleased I had decided to leave my parkrun return till next weekend, or later.

top of the crags

Mary remarked on Arthur's Seat having a pearl necklace. Sure enough we could see the helicopter had dropped off a hundred bags of large stones on Pipers Walk. No doubt they will be placed along a path that doesn't really require them, turning it from a soft forgiving dirt trail into a toe tripping, tooth chipping danger that will last a thousand years but not be smooth enough for the first 200. I have mixed feelings about the similar stepped path up the Gutted Haddie. It is a good time trial (always was) and the tourists will take a thousand years to wear down the rocks. But again they are currently sharp edged and unsympathetic to shins, faces and hands if you catch a toe and trip on the rocks.

The Gutted Haddie was always more prone to erosion, being steeper, so maybe it is justified to have a hundred tons of sharp-edged stones there, but Pipers Walk is mostly free of tourists and doesn't have the through-traffic to justify an extensive rock garden. Another bit of Holyrood mismanagement from HES who closed the Radical Road and Hutton's Section. There is an online survey you can fill in here to give them feedback, and maybe ask them why they have closed the Radical Road for the first time in the park's history when rockfall doesn't seem any worse now, than any other time. And why they can't just put up signs saying "risk of rock fall, proceed at your own discretion." Instead of miles of ugly security fencing stopping access to Hutton's Section which definitely won't get any rockfall until the Seat next erupts.

Arthur's Seat summit and Crow Hill

nope we never do that one for obvious reasons

ministry of silly crows

There were a few jackdaws about but nothing else. I noticed a woman with a sketch book making drawings of scenery and the jackdaws. Hats off to anyone who would sit long enough in Baltic winds to do a sketch, especially of birds who are not known for holding still while you sketch them.

brave!

the Dry Dam

this wee dog was running about meeting and greeting!

I took this photo portrait format rather than landscape to get the great leaf colours in as well as Mary. It felt unusual to turn the camera 90' and it made me realise I never take portrait shots in favour of landscape. I have got out of the habit as landscape images better fit on the monitor I use, and iPad, and blog. I saw a vertical portrait monitor in a shop on Leith Walk the other day and thought the mobile phone users will be forcing the portrait format on us, and I am grateful I will be long gone by the time it challenges landscape devices in tv production and cinema screens. Actually cinemas will be phased out by then (and libraries.) People will be too fat and lazy to go to cinemas or fit in single seats!

Going round the edge of St Margaret's Loch looking for geese Mary exclaimed "mice!" We were on the dirt path between the water and the road and sure enough there were a couple of extra-large mice (rats!) out in the sunshine hunting for left over bird food. The trouble was (being Sunday) there was a nearly constant stream of people using the path. The rats were accustomed to the passing traffic and would disappear, then give it thirty seconds, before popping back out when the coast was clear. Mary and I stood still and waited for them to come back out. I put a little of the goose bread out as encouragement. 

The nearest rat was cautious at first. If we made any movements it would turn round and quickly dive into the cover of long grass and rocks. If we stood still it would give us a long look and then slowly edge back out onto the path to pick up bits of foodstuff. I was so proud when it picked up a bit of my homemade bread and seemed to enjoy it. I regard rats not as vermin but as wildlife, with just as much right to exist and thrive as the geese, ducks and prettier wildlife we traditionally encourage. I actually regarded this encounter as the highlight of the day. It is far rarer to photograph a mouse or rat, and I find them much more attractive and compelling than say the swans who I have little interest in and rarely even bother to photograph. They (the swans) are just too commonplace and ubiquitous!

I realise I may be in the minority here. And I was quite pleasantly surprised by the reactions of the passers-by. They would see we were pointing our cameras at the loch side and then see the rat as it scurried off. Nobody did what I was anticipating and screamed and raised their petticoats, as the woman in Tom and Jerry cartoons does. A few showed interest and curiosity to encounter a seldom-seen rodent at close quarters. I understand nobody wants to meet them in their attic or even garden shed, but this pair seemed in very good health and looked rather lovely - like squirrels with hairless tails? - eating bread held in cute little hands, in the sunshine!

I put this video up on facebook and nobody made any disparaging comments

looks like a clanger!

I have said it here before but rats suffer from bad publicity, mainly because of their success. They are clever and can adapt to situations including making a living from human excesses and waste. So they are drawn into our environment. If they were as rare as pinemartins or otters we might prize them more highly. But running along the alley behind a restaurant or in a dark attic space does not endear them to the general public. I understand that, but nevertheless almost always enjoy a ratty encounter.

beautiful fur coat

There were also a couple of tufted ducks (males) half sleeping on the water. They would open an eye every 10 seconds to maybe check if I was wading into the loch and about to snatch them. (Mostly I wasn't.) We tried to take photos when their yellow eyes were open and it wasn't easy - as Mary said, it is like trying to time a photo of a lighthouse as the light blinks momentarily in your direction.

As we rounded the top end of the loch we saw the geese! Hurray! About half a dozen were standing around aimlessly. I double checked the camera settings and got out the bread. I didn't put out much. Earlier I had cut off ONE slice (from a homemade loaf) and chopped that into 20 rows horizontally and 15 vertically. (I shared this with the rat and the geese and still took some home.) The resulting tiny squares of wholemeal seeded bread mean the geese get a small treat without putting a ton of nasty supermarket bread around the pond (encouraging vermin 😉). If in doubt, there are small leaflets near the pond advising best practice for feeding the ducks, swans and geese. Basically don't dump a ton of sliced white bread on the edge of the pond.

The geese came over and showed no fear. They come so close it is almost problematic to try to get a decent distance back from them to put them squarely in the frame. And they are moving constantly so not quite as easy a target as they might initially appear to be. I understood why I had messed up the previous day's photos. Just because they are practically sitting in your lap does not make for easy or good photos. We sat and lay on the ground to get shots from their perspective.

I found the answer was to put out some food and then change into camera mode and concentrate on photos until they ran out of food and then put out a little more, and so on. It helped that the area this was going on, had a picturesque and un-busy background. The geese were mostly very cooperative. Although when you get really close up, their toothy beaks and expressionless faces look quite weird. When they brushed past hands they did not feel soft and fluffy but more like a hard rugby ball with feathers stuck on. And you realise they are essentially long distance flying machines that have to be sleek, aerodynamic and well muscled with tightly packed feathers for insulation. And not just comedy characters with orange beaks and galoshes.

After all that time sitting and lying on damp grass it was time to get home and process the photos. I was delighted to get a second chance to meet the greylags and make a better job of taking photos of them. They are charming and unusually friendly for birds; or maybe just easily bribed. They are relatively gentle about taking bread from your hand. The swans will just grab and stab your hands with their beaks but the greylags were more careful than that, and discerned which bit was fingers and which bread! I have long admired their muted but attractive plumage. A painting I did of them 40 years ago hung in my mother's living room 2/3rds of my life. Sadly I used gouache rather than acrylic and it slowly faded, orange feet and beaks no longer. Great to renew acquaintance with them and get some decent images. Right! Home for lunch!