purplerabbits

I went out the house for the first time since new year today. So my bird list for the year so far consists of: feral pigeon, wood pigeon, coot, moorhen, mute swan, mallard, black headed gull, carrion crow, magpie, robin, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, house sparrow, dunnock, blue tit, great tit and long tailed tit. Also someone using skis as a serious form of locomotion. I thought I was bored of snow, but I'm not.

I managed to go out with camera but no binoculars today and managed to see:
Swifts (yay swifts are back!) and at least one house martin
Blackbirds, Song thrush
Blue tit
Chaffinch, goldfinch
Dunnock
House sparrow
Jackdaw, carrion crow and magpie
Starlings
Feral pigeons, wood pigeons, and my first ever collared dove seen in Edinburgh
Mallard
Mute swan
Moorhen
Black-headed gull, lesser black backed gull

Which must mean that I'm better at seeing things with my eyes

Today I decided I had to get out looking for brids and prepared for a bread-and-butter day after the excitement of last weekend. Idid a reasonable walk round Colinton Dell and saw:

Blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit
Robin, blackbird
Starling
Wren
Dunnock
Carrion crow, jackdaw, magpie
Wood pigeon, feral pigeon
Black headed gull, herring gull
Mallard, gooseander (both of whom helped me dispose of half a loaf of homemade bread)

My first dipper of the year
And squrrels and a bunny and - roe deer! - which I have never seen in Edinburgh before. So yay!

So, going for long walks, getting up early, eating nice food in good company and seeing many birds and places I haven't been before helps decrease depression - who knew :-) I bet it didn't do any harm that I drank less than usual and watched less TV, too (though Being Human was OK.)

Some pictures are on Flickr - I particularly like the reflected black-headed gulls and the cooperative goldeneye. Though I also seem to be breaking into industrial art with Longannet power station and Grangemouth...

Today we visited Vane Farm and Ravenscraig park in Kirkcaldy - selected cos it was marked by a giant blue bird on the map. We didn't see a giant blue bird but we did see loads of ducks from the shore, including long-tailed ducks which are a first for me.

( we also saw )Which makes it my highest scoring day at 43, I think
And a seal and some squiggles.

Which was fun

Yesterday I went on a boat and I saw puffins and baaaby peregrines and kittiwakes and razorbills and shags and guillimots and gannets and cormorants and a island that looks like a ship on purpose and a grey seal and some common seals and fulmers and stuff.

Work sucks big time

Today's bunny seems very apposite.

But puffins.

Also on the weekend I saw a totally unexpected red-legged partridge in someone's back garden next to the canal at Craiglockart, which was odd, but cool, but odd.

Any day which contains me saying "thank-you" out loud to wildlife has to be a good day. Today it was provoked by my first skylark of the year - out by the ash lagoons at Musselburgh.

Also two new ducks - Wigeon and a definite Velvet scoter. Sadly my pictures were shit today, cos it was so windy I could barely hold myself steady never mind the camera, but there is a recognisable shelduck and black-backed gull to add to the species collection.

( full list )

Meadows Yard Local Nature Reserve is a small site off Fillyside Road near Seafield. The Number 12 bus goes there, so I went up today. It is quite tiny but very cute with a wee pond and some bird boxes which tits were prospecting but not using yet I think. It was full of singing gold- and green- and chaffinches today, plus blackbirds, bluetits, dunnock. PLUS a few bunnies right out in the open and a FOX. Which I turned a corner and almost walked into. Twice. He seemed right at home there and very red in the sunlight.

Then I went across to the shore and walked right along the sea front to Portobello - seeing Oystercatchers, Redshank, bar-tailed godwit, Eider duck and four flavours of gull, plus a lot of starlings. I know starlings aren't doing so well some places, but Portobello has plenty in case anyone else runs out.

Plus there was an easily identified stone. Just the one. Which was cool in a very odd way.

I caught the train to Linlothgow yesterday and walked round the loch. It was loverly sun and a hell of a lot of birds including two new ducks - scaup and pochard plus a few great crested grebes, not doing a lot yet, and goldeneye displaying.

Full list

blue tit, great tit
chaffinch, green finch
robins (numerous - singing their lungs out), blackbird
crow, jackdaw, rook and magpie
feral pigeon and wood pigeon
kestrel (seen hovering from the train) and buzzards circling
pied wagtail
wren
dunnock
many noisy house sparrows
common, herring, black-headed and lesser-black-backed gull (just one of that last)
mute swan
greylag and white geese
mallard, including some crosses
tufted duck, pochard, goldeneye, scaup
coot, moorhen
great crested grebe
cormorants, many, on Cormorant island and on the other crannog island that is not called cormorant island
probably a distant heron

I also saw bunnies at the loch and a fox from the train, which was a bonus.

It's spring out there - apparently. Or at least ducks are fighting, tits are singing, swans look like they're sizing up nesting sites and snowdrops and crocuses are out. Today I wander down the canal to Craiglockart pond and saw: ( Read more... )
Which seems a lot, but they're all out and about and the trees are still bare which makes it easier.

Here is my official picture of Spring personified, but sadly the batteries ran out before the goosanders.

Also I heard *one* chaffinch sing - which may be a thing that only happens on one day before they all start...

Also squirrels and snowdrops and croci and stuff.