treading water

 

The doldrums of January and treading water. The occasional sunny day or sunny moment has me rushing out the door with my camera despite nature being thin on the ground. And yet if I stay home and roam around the internet looking for things to be sarcastic about, it doesn't feel any further towards a day well spent. Various chores (tax return, passport application) sit waiting to be done but I don't have the mental stamina to tackle them just yet despite looming deadlines. Much better to get out and about and see what's what. 

something about this rings a bell
although I'd never use such a badly designed logo or characterless font

So on the 13th there was some unexpected brightness outdoors and I hurried along to Warriston. Surely there'd be something going on there? Yes and no. The photos were mostly ho-hum and I nearly binned them but thought I'll put them next to another day and between the 2, there's enough material to pad out a blog. Otherwise I would have to do my tax return.

I had a quick look at the ladybird gravestones
mostly harlequins apart from this 10-spot nestling amongst them

a new fence along the top of the crypts

I saw this elevated robin from a way off 
and wondered how close I could get before it flew off

about here

blackbird in the sunlight

this squirrel was targetting the topmost buds in this tree
risking a long drop for the snacks. Are lower buds less tasty?

brief interaction with a woodpecker - they do seem to be more prevalent
at this time of year according to past accounts and fb memories

distant redwing

flowering viburnum

curlews at Goldenacre

how many chimneys am I holding up?

Okay, moving onto the 15th Jan. I saw the forecast was going to be mixed sunshine for the 15th but maybe not enough to justify a trip somewhere further afield by train. I had the idea I wasn't seeing the kingfisher at the modern art gallery bridge because I was lazy and not getting up there early enough in the day. I resolved to fix this, but my resolve at this time of year is lacklustre at best. It was past 11am when I got off the tram to find the Roseburn to Dean Village section of the Water of Leith mostly in gloomy, cold darkness. A little after 11.30 it began to receive the warm glow of sunshine as that orange ball climbed over the far trees, but it was too little, too late. Did I mention there was no kingfisher? I felt a bit stupid about the whole episode and instead of walking the quarter mile repeatedly, waiting for the kingfisher, the grey wagtail or the fox to appear, I walked downstream with the happy thought fuck you all.

a solitary heron looking as cheerful as I felt

Leaning over the gallery bridge I spotted this broken branch with a delightful selection of Jelly Ear Fungus. I reckon this photo is one of the best I've taken in a while but I appreciate it is a niche subject and it narrowly missed the number one spot at the top of this page, in favour of a comedy LTT.

more fungus

so cold they were standing to attention

In the Dean Village there was a load of peeping coming from a tree where the great tit below was making a racket. It drew my attention to the blue tit (above) in the same tree which made a much nicer photo and sat quietly waiting for his pal.

From the Dean village there were no further photos taken until Inverleith Park. Which tells a story in itself. There were lots of folk at the popular spots by the bridges still, which suggests Edinburgh is now a 12months a year tourist destination. This does not fill my heart with joy but mostly they aren't that bad either. Unless one is in an irretrievably bad mood for about 3 months.

Actually Hygea was looking worth a picture, catching the sunlight nicely (in St Bernard's Well) but as tourists were already standing around taking photos I didn't care to mingle and kept walking.

turfted duck (m)

I had planned to go to the Botanics, despite recent fruitless visits. However I detoured along to Inverleith Park because there are usually some ducks on the pond and I had a small freezer bag of bread I'd taken out a few days ago that must be getting towards mouldy and needed to be disposed of to a good cause. The ducks were very pleased about this and I managed to quietly get it out to the tufties without attracting too many of the black-headed gulls over, who tend to behave in a noisy, boistrous and controlling fashion and pretty much everyone else gets hacked off and leaves.

feral pigeon

tufted duck (f)

black-headed gull, winter plumage

I like the moment (as here) when black-headed gulls begin 
to get their Summer plumage back

About half the pond was still frozen. The birds didn't seem to mind and lots of the gulls chose to stand around on the icy bits. There were Tufted ducks, mallards, moorhens, several Canada geese, tons of gulls and not much else. The tufted ducks behaved very well for the camera, enjoying paddling over for bread which brought them close enough for photos.

One reason for going past the Botanics was to keep an eye on the Springtime rhodies (Rhododendron Praevernum) which were in bud but not quite open yet. They have twice been the site of the first butterfly of the year in recent years but as I said, not quiet there yet. They tend to be white or pink flowering unlike the red one above. Not sure what sort that was.

this squirrel was not trading his prize for the peanuts I was offering

Ken who I saw at the Botanics

Nice to bump into Ken. I noticed his trouser knees were damp and he confessed he'd been kneeling on the grass getting photos of a nuthatch, which is a nice find. He walked me back to where he'd seen it (behind the willow pond near the new paths there) and although I didn't see it there was a treecreeper and a gang of LTTs to point the camera at. Ken went off to check the Chinese pond and I headed towards Warriston. May as well do a quick once around and see if anything stirs.

treecreeper

as seen in the video below
this one was super-fast hopping about and tricky to photo

long-tailed tit

boing!

new bulbs pushing through

There was not a huge amount of stuff at Warriston. The sun was still out and I enjoyed the walk but it was a struggle to find much worth a photo. Nice to see bulbs pushing through. The daffodils will be out soon and then the hoverflies and then the butterflies. I had seen folk posting snowdrop photos and reminded myself to check the snowdrop patches here (over by Little Nancy and the other stone angel.)

great tit by the stream

I went down to the tunnel and thought I might have seen Cap'n Fishy leaving before I got there. Sure enough there were pigeons and stock doves eating birdfood off the tree trunk near the stream. I put some more out by the stream and wandered around looking to the tree tops for birds of prey, owls and woodpeckers. (Not a sausage.)

a trio of stock doves

Sure enough over by Little Nancy the snowdrops were recently out. I got my knees damps getting down to take low angle shots of the flowers in sunlight. I had to use the flip-out screen to see the view, with the camera nearly resting on the ground. But it made for slightly better photos than just standing. You get more of a feeling of being in beside them.

orange ladybirds

Ken had checked the gorse flowers for hoverflies (in the Botanics) but couldn't find any. None in Warriston either yet although it has been quite mild lately so expect some soon. I came across the occasional bluebottle type blow fly sitting lazily on a tree or gravestone but no other insects of note.

viburnum

On the way across St Mark's there were a couple of stock doves. This one had a limp. I was under the impression it had been cured by regular feeding, but I may have been mixing up individuals. Ol' Limpy here looked no less healthy than his friend though, and was more bold about coming closer for the last of the post-sell-by-date bread and sunflower hearts.

some video clips

soundtrack: Healing pt2 by Ben Sollee, Time for Three

7.5miles in just under 4hrs