best part of the day: dalmeny delights

01-11-26 This story starts the previous evening, 31-10-26 when Mary and I went for a walk along the prom at Silverknowes and Cramond. I would do a separate blog but it was a disappointing episode, particularly for images, and doesn't merit its own entry.

We were anticipating a sunset something like the one the afternoon before and it never really happened. Mary has just reminded me that I susbsequently spent most of the time complaining about reality not matching the forecast and that everything was rubbish etc etc. Such good company! I cheered up slightly as the fresh air worked its magic and the sky did a half-hearted sunset.

A couple of things were worth noting though: we both had a lot of fun using our street lenses rather than wildlife zooms. And I was reminded of the excellent black-headed gulls who will handfeed up close at the Almond estuary. Both these joys inspired the following day's trip to Dalmeny which was one of the best days this year for photos.

Cramond Island

street lens which made for wider images of the scenery

and remember these chaps!

they were a bit nonplussed I only had nuts and seeds
in my pack and not the usual pieces of bread

nearly a sunset.

I realised it has been far too long since the last Dalmeny delights. I used to catch a train West regularly (to run home,) and the autumn colours there were the perfect use of what looked to be a sunny day. I held back from catching too early a train as it is not a long day out and the best stuff is early on.

I left the flat with plenty time to get up to Waverley. As I approached Leith Walk a bus pulled away from the stop. Having been doing a bit more running recently I mentally accepted the challenge and broke into a run while the bus had to contend with the traffic lights. Last time I raced the bus up Leith Walk to the next stop I was less in shape and climbing the stairs to the upper deck into the toxic atmosphere of hairspray and deoderant, I nearly blacked out. This time I felt in much better shape.

I arrived in plenty time to get the ticket (£6 - bargain) and a coffee from Pret. They nearly fudged my order (soy filter, £1.20 - another bargain!) and I had to ask 5 mins later could they double check as my train was pulling into the platform. I hadn't drunk coffee in a month or two and it was mighty stimulating. And more than partly responsible for 22gb of 1500 images and video, which I only just managed to hone down to the 140+ here.

I got off the train around 12.20 and headed down the dirt trail that goes directly underneath the rail bridge to S Queensferry. Within half a mile I came across this speckled wood sunbathing on autumnal leaves and flying about at eye level. It was definitely recently emerged and in immaculate condition. I wondered if it has mistaken the recent warm sunny spell for Spring and emerged 4months ahead of schedule. I hoped it wasn't the only one and that it would find sufficient speckled company to breed.

The bright weather made for quality photos and I took dozens. At the time I hoped it was likely the first of many butterflies today, since the weather was ideal, however this (spoiler alert) turned out to be the only one all day. But an excellent one - nobody has recorded any speckleds for several weeks on the online groups. They seemed to go from ubiquitous to AWOL early October. My last was 24th Sept after which they disappeared along with painted ladies and small torts leaving just admirals and the occasional comma. This one was a fantastic start to a day full of sunny images.

even though I had the 12~60 lens on rather than the 100~400
the speckled sat very nicely for photos and let me get up close

last butterfly of the year!?

It was a while since I'd run underneath the rail bridge. There were plenty tourists taking photos and I tried to imagine seeing it through their eyes. It really is a tremendous engineering marvel and a visually world class icon. The other two more recent versions are just distractions. This massive vermillion monster is absolutely breath-taking and I'd stop every 4 minutes to look back and take more photos from the new perspective. The red of the bridge against the blue of the sky was perfection. Or was it just the coffee tipping me over the edge. I didn't care, I was having a brilliant time. I was also enjoying running despite my new back pack which is larger so I inevitably fill it with more clothes, birdfood and camera gear.

even with 95% missing
you'd recognise this structure in a second

really enjoying the wide street lens

As anticipated the trees were doing spectacular autumn colours. I'd stop regularly to photo leaves noticing it was far easier to run with the small street lens than the large wildlife lens. Everything was coffee-flavoured fantastic!

lots of fungi about too

fly

Although there were an amount of flies sitting on sunlit leaves there was a noticeable drop in the numbers of hoverflies and bumble bees.

Phaonia refiventris

from underneath

looking skyward

lots of fallen leaves carpeting the ground

There is a path that leads down to the beach I like to take. It gives nice views back towards the bridges before climbing back up to the almost 90' corner that then goes along towards Cramond.

across to Fife

favourite place

geese overhead

looking towards Leith and the large yellow turbine supports

Just here is an isolated (Fishery) cottage that always seemed like a fantastic retreat. Near enough to feel close to civilisation but well seperate from the nearest humanity. If I won the lottery...

It was used in the Dept Q storyline but as a part of the plot set on the fictional island of Mhor. Instantly recognisable. As was Lysander House, another favourite building in East Lothian near Dirleton. Hope they get a third season and continue the excellent series, employing a large Scottish cast and crew.

Trying to capture the light through the trees was challenging as the bright sun made for high contrast and mostly dark photos. Often photos of brightly autumnal trees would look dull or much less vibrant than they looked to my coffee-charged eyes.

inchmickery
(aka battleship potemkin)

cycling through an autumnal tunnel

Ozzie

Dalmeny House with Ozzie

I ventured onto the beach again at this point to enjoy and photograph the cockles and plants along the shoreline where that stream comes down from near the the big house. Again a delight to use the wide angle lens as the larger zoom struggles to capture the scenery here as well. I spent some time taking shots of the teasels from all sides, sunlit and backlit. Also I was surprised there were no admirals on the flowering gorse - one of the few plants with lots of flowers currently. A good spot for small coppers in the Summer.

oyster catcher

not quite capturing the trees as I was seeing them

looking back towards Barnbougle Castle

Within a couple of hundred yards of the Almond you are forced to travel a mile inland across farmers fields, upstream to the Cramond Brig which allows you to cross the Almond then travel back down to the coast at Cramond. As I climbed the track out the woods the sun was directly ahead between the trees. I tried to run much of the next section as there wasn't much to photo other than the planes coming in low to land at the airport a few fields away.

The one downside of the street lens is when you see (for instance) pheasants in the field nearby. The above shot was as close as I got without changing lenses. The birds were quite skittish and off to hide in the long grass when they saw me watching them. Normally the long lens would have got some closer details. However I was enjoying the lighter, wider street lens so much I didn't even consider swapping until much later in the day.

and it was good enough to capture certain birds overhead

more flies

crossing the Cramond Brig

I always enjoy the mini shetlands at Dowies Mill
although they weren't standing anywhere useful for photos
(I will be back shortly though - see next blog when it arrives!)

again tricky to capture the magic happening

a very successful rebuild of the Salvesen Steps

and today photo-ed with a suitable lens

While I was watching out for dippers and kingfishers on the Almond, I was also pushing on to get to Cramond before the light died. I had an appointment with the black-headed gulls at the mouth of the Almond. Sure enough as soon as I got out the bag o' bread they let out a call and took off as one flock to come over and see what I was selling. Earlier that morning I had chopped a couple of slices of homemade seeded wholemeal bread into tiny squares. I held it out and they swooped round in clockwise circuits as if they had done all this many times before. Which of course we had.

I started by slightly overexposing the scene. However after a few shots I turned the exposure down a bit as it is easier to lighten a photo or video in post. It is impossible to retrieve any blown out area. I tried to keep an eye on shutterspeed - needs to be fast to freeze the birds in flight. Mostly 1/3200 or faster, and f/10 to keep a large group of moving birds in focus. I was using the 12~60 street lens and shot from 14mm to 45mm moving it all the time to frame the scene which was almost impossible as it changed constantly in the blink of an eye.

I have done this many times before. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the tide and the wind direction. Works best in Winter when the birds are hungry. Usually the wind is going downstream so they approach the runway from downstream to hover on the slight updraft before doing a clockwise circuit. So nobody bumps into each other, and they are all going the same way. Today it worked pretty well, although it is easier if someone else is throwing the bread as I need at least one hand to operate and adjust the camera settings, another to throw the bread and a third to hold the bag o' bread.

Happily, after I'd been there for a short while, two or three women and a grandchild or similar turned up with a bag of sliced white. Oh well, swings and roundabouts. Like myself they'd done this before and were having a great old time, hollering as the gulls swooped past their heads. I went over smiling and said You've stolen my gulls! They were starting to apologetise when I said it was no problem and that it was easier to operate the camera without worrying about the bread.

I have just counted and I took 410 photos and video, mostly stills, of the gulls flying. Better to err on the side of too many because most were hit-and-hope. There's not enough time to carefully plan and compose images. I did a fair amount of straightening horizons and adjusting the exposure and deleting dozens, hundreds even, in post. I have probably left too many in but I have a real affection for these birds, mainly due to their beauty and nimble and quick reactions and the fact they bounce off my hand with their damp webbed feet, and are quite careful when taking bread to be gentle. (Unlike for instance swans and geese who aren't bothered if a finger comes off when they take food from your hand.)

BTW I know bread isn't the best option for gulls. The night before when I went past I only had seeds and nuts and thought they'd be fine with that but after a quick look and an exploratory peanut or 2 they lost interest and left that for the crows. Nobody has told them bread is bad for them and they have a huge enthusiasm for it. As I've said before it is wholemeal homebaked by me, and full of seeds, so about as healthy as any bread is. And I only give them small amounts, cutting it into small pieces so nobody goes off with half a slice of supermarket white, which looked to be the case with the ladies I met. But I wasn't about to spoil their fun. And from what the gulls tell me it is a treat and they never say no.

youtube video
soundtrack: Midnight in Harlem by Tedeschi Trucks Band

I was pleased to have planned seeing the gulls round about the golden hour and that it all pretty much came together. The sun was going down quickly and I thought that would be the end of it. I took a photo of the ice cream van beside the estuary and turned Eastward wondering where to catch a bus. I was slightly tempted to maybe run home - I think it is around 6 miles from there - but knew I'd lose interest once the sun went down and there are a couple of pretty dull miles along the front and it would start hurting. A vague plan formed to run up to Marine Drive then Silverknowes Rd past the golf course to Silverknowes Parkway where the number 16 bus lurks at the terminal. That seemed like a decent compromise.

However along the prom in one of the larger tidal ponds I saw a white bird and a gull. I thought the white job looked interesting and sure enough it was a little egret. While fairly common at Aberlday these days this relative newcomer was somewhat out of place along the busy prom where families shrieked and cycled and threw sticks for dogs. And yet here was an egret doing some late afternoon fishing. I hopped over the famous low wall and scrambled down the rocky beach, careful to not rush it and scare off this photogenic model.

It saw me coming - of course it did - there was a large human wearing a back pack picking its way over an empty beach almost directly towards it! It got out the water and stood to one side before going back into the tidal pond and resuming fishing, once I crouched down and became immobile.

amazing light

It also didn't let the couple (and kid) and push chair over the other side of the pond put it off fishing. I realised it was catching a fish every 3 minutes. Mostly just tiddlers, but enough regular input to make it worthwhile ignoring passing traffic and stationary paparazzi. I changed lens to the 100~400 (800 eq full frame) and suddenly the bird filled the viewfinder. I had a magical 20minutes taking photos and video before the sun staggered and fell behind the trees.

not bothered

little egret video
soundtrack: Tryphena - Ambient Rework by Pianika

other birds

First thing I did off the beach was to go over and wipe my shoes in the long grass. I had been kneeling on wet sand and my newish shoes were covered, upper and soles. I got a certain amount off but they weren't looking as pretty as an hour earlier. Hoka Mafate Xs, my current favourite shoe and very padded for old people who want to minimise impact and feel super-comfy all day. I should probably do a full review but there's not much to say other than they're really comfy and a good colour (duck egg blue / v light turquoise) and too expensive to buy at full price. And I washed them when I got home and took the insoles out to dry as they got soaked on the beach.

Last 5 photos were taken on the bus. When I got to Silverknowes Parkway the number 16 was sitting snoozing at the terminal and I legged it pronto to get on before it pulled away. I sat upstairs at the front as the whole upper deck started empty. It is quite a jolly route through Granton before turning along Gt Junkie St and then up Leith Walk where I jump off 50 yards from my flat. Terrific day out, probably fell asleep later watching telly, what a state.