mostly squirrels

 

11th Nov.
After the weekly torture of parkrun Mary and I went along for an afternoon at the Botanics, catching a quick Warriston visit on the way home. Parkrun was fairly awful. Still well over 21minutes; a minute slower than before I went down with covid. I should train more or complain less.

We noticed some wag had put a Hearts jersey over the St Mark's Gormley. It is too close to Easter Road to get away with that for long and it was changed to a Hibs vest in a day or 2. It is interesting to note it looks more naked (or at least exposed) for wearing an item of clothing.

the WoL was quite high 
still over the concrete raised pavement opposite Warriston

Mary taking a photo of a ladybird on the railing

Chinese Pond - no kingfishers

We had forgotten the Botanics would be filled with all the plastic and metal apparatus of the Christmas Light Show. Which looks great at night but rather like the place is littered with junk during the daytime. It limits movement although they keep the place open, for which we should be grateful. We saw very few birds and nothing of note. Lots of squirrels though. And some woman wittering on about pine martins predating greys over reds and how we should get the pine martins to eat all the greys so the reds can thrive. Mary and I rolling eyes and taking photos nevertheless. 

Now that photo above - I didn't notice it at the time but a flying ladybird (there were lots about in the recent sunny days) was approaching the squirrel's neck. So, if had it landed centre front (with carapace open) and the squirrel lowered its front paws for a second, we could have had a squirrel wearing a ladybird bow tie. I think we could all try harder next time but it's difficult to organise these things!

light show stuff

I prefer the more natural things hanging in the trees.

glorious light on autumnal trees

rock (star) garden

In one area next to the rock garden there was a squadron of gnats dancing in a sunbeam the way they do. I like to photograph them as they fly with legs out and look like fairies. Tricky trying to focus on tiny flying insects as the camera has the tendency to focus on the background foliage.

That was about that in the Botanics. We hopped over the wall into Warriston on the way home but it was a similar story. Mostly squirrels. With magpies trying to cheer us up by doing silly walks.

hoodie / carrion crow hybrid I think