purplerabbits

Yesterday I walked eight and three quarter miles according to Gmap pedometer, which thanks to lilitufire is the new thing I didn't know I needed (there ought to be a word for that - is there?) I got up at 5.30 (AM), packed a bag with waterproofs and a nice flask of Early Grey tea [that was a typo, but I'm leaving it in as appropriate] and walked down the canal, along which I saw many things including a heron flying over, to Meggatland (which is, actually, full of magpies), as well as my first sighting of a blackcap. Then I crossed the bridge and visited Craiglockhart pond (home to tufted ducks, baaaby moorhens and another, or possibly the same, heron) which had been my original destination.

Had a nice cup of tea and then went up and over Easter Craiglockhart Hill to Glenlockhart Road, stopping at the top for tea and bunnies. After a diverting time trying to cut through a waterlogged golf course (which however yielded a very clear view of a kestrel hunting) I ended up reaching Greenbank Drive and heading down to Comiston Road (where I briefly stopped for breakfast foods, it now being nearly nine) before getting into The Hermitage of Braid which fortunately had both a public convenience (phew) and an open Visitors Centre with a map and a reference library with a bird book (and a grey wagtail cavorting in front of the centre - very pretty, almost hovering with its tail down and fanned out).

I ate my breakfast on a bench in the wood and hiked on up the hill to the 'blue' route (fortunately I found a decent stick to lean on and had a pocketknife to trim the end) which took me round Blackford hill clockwise to Blackford Pond. At this point it proceeded to chuck it down and I nearly caught a bus for home, but by the time I got to the stop I'd just missed one and the rain was easing off, so I headed back to the blue route to go up the hill to the Observatory. It was dampish, but I had the last of the tea on the hill and heard many Meadow Pipits and saw one, which I'm counting as a first, since they're shy buggers.

Then I came down the hill to KB, and was going to catch the bus home. It felt like I'd walked ten miles (it was actually 6.4 according to this route here.

But I saw a bus. And it said Crammond. So I got it. Good thing I had my map and my other map, eh? (I carry the A-Z and also the OS Explorer since the A-Z doesn't show paths and the Explorer doesn't show road names).

The bus doesn't go right into Crammond Village, but the helpful bus driver helped me when I overshot and pointed the right way. I explored a very pretty church, with very pretty goldcrests (another first) and a less-interesting-than-I'd-expected Roman Fort (just some foundations on the ground and a sign or two), saw a pied wagtail and a garden warbler that I could almost certainly identify and pottered through a wood past a ruin to the Forth. It was grey, and I was too early for low tide (and too tired to walk to the island, but I did see shelducks in the mouth of the river Almond (another first). I had a great lunch (mussels and chips and a very acceptable John Smith's wheat beer) at the Crammond Inn then walked up the Almond, having concluded that I wasn't going to see a whole lot of estuary birds *pout* (the only things feeding in the low tide mud were jackdaws and lots of mallards). Further up, though, I did see a dipper in the raging torrent that the river is at the moment, only my second sighting.

I left the river at Peggy's Mill Road 'cos I was suddenly very tired and had to be home in the evening for Beltane stuffs. Still I was out all day walked a fair lot, more if you count hills, and my knee isn't agony today, so yay! And the complete species count for the day was 36 - which is my highest so far, though not as much as almost any more experienced birder would have got in the same circumstances, I'm betting. Species:
feral pigeon, wood pigeon
lesser black backed gull, herring gull, black headed gull
swift, housemartin
heron, moorhen, coot, dipper
mallard, shelduck, tufted duck, swan
magpie, carrion crow, jackdaw
house sparrow, tree sparrow, dunnock
pied wagtail, grey wagtail
bluetit, long-tailed tit
greenfinch, chaffinch
blackbird, song thrush, robin
blackcap, garden warbler, goldcrest
kestrel, wren, meadow pipit

You will note (at least a couple of you night) that these are sorted only roughly by species. Since I memorise my day lists as I go along I reserve the right to keep the sifts with the house martins and the dunnock with the sparrows etc and I'm sure no-one else cares even a bit...


ETA I forgot to count the last half mile from the bus stop, so actually a total of 9.25. Go me!