Abercorn to Blackness

All this wet weather is having a devastating effect on wildlife and many breeding birds are suffering badly. Ground nesting birds are either having their nests flooded or their eggs/chicks chilled and many are failing to raise young this year. Those that nest in holes on the banks of rivers such as Sand Martins and Kingfishers are finding their nests completely submerged with no hope for the chicks.
I have hardly seen any butterflies this year so they must also be suffering.
Some wildlife, especially some plants seem to be managing in particular Foxgloves. I've never seen so many Foxgloves out in the countryside and they seem to be even taller than normal with some over two metres high (that's six and a half feet in old money).
We were out for a walk on a rare dry day along the cycle pathway that leads from Abercorn (just west of South Queensferry) to Blackness and saw hundreds of Foxgloves:

Moira refused to stand beside the Foxgloves as a height comparison as she would have to climb up a banking and battle through the undergrowth.
The colours were so varied as well, there was Pink Foxgloves, White Foxgloves............

 ........and even Pink & White Foxgloves

Another plant which seemed to be doing very well were the Ox-eye Daisies, there was a massive bank of them on the slopes near the path, it's really quite a pretty plant when you see it close up and is about ten times the size of the daisy you get in your garden (probably nearer 20 times)

There was also a strange plant which I did not recognise, most likely an escapee from nearby Hopetoun House. So if any you gardeners/horticulturists out there can tell me what it is then that would be great (I had it down as a Triffid)

The birds were all being very secretive and hiding in the bushes and trees so I have no photos of them I'm afraid. I did manage to capture a Bumble Bee on a Spear Thistle but that was the only flying object I got, and it wasn't even flying at the time.

Once we crossed the Midhope burn the path ran alongside the River Forth, so we popped down to the beach to see what was about. They have started working on the main supports for the new Forth Bridge and we could see the large caisson in position, which they sit on the river bed and then pump out the water inside so they can start to pour the concrete foundations for the main support. Don't know what the large floating crane was doing though.

Talking about large cranes, we could also see the huge crane they shipped over from China to Rosyth to help build the new aircraft carriers. I think there is a U-tube video of this thing squeezing under the Forth Bridges when they delivered it.

So there is a lot of activity on the Forth at the moment, we still have sleepy little villages though like Limekilns and Charleston below on the Fife side:

And the historic Blackness Castle on the West Lothian side:

I won't bore you with too much history but Blackness Castle was built in the 15th Century and was more of a fortress (and also a prison) and Linlithgow Palace was the royal residence.

These previous photos were taken from the beach alongside the Abercorn to Blackness cycle/walkway and to prove I was on a beach here is a photo of some shells (very artistic):

After spending some time on the beach we headed back to Abercorn, stopping to spend a little time at the lovely little church they have there. Parts of it date back to the 12th Century but it is built on the grounds of a much older monastery, so it's not a new place.









I really love the church bell which is linked to a blue nylon rope so you can ring it from the outside, that beats any door chime I've seen before.

The church graveyard has some scary gravestones and I wouldn't like to spend a night there, the one below is covered in skulls!!

Ah! they knew how to make them back in the 18th Century, this next one even has a skull and cross-bones. I wonder if he was a pirate, maybe from Carriden near Bo'ness just a few miles up river.....

"Pirates of the Carriden".................that has a familiar ring to it??

I'll leave you with my favourite gravestone in Abercorn Church where it seems the stonemason refused to change his font size to match the column width:







Sorry if that was a bit morbid, no more gravestones.

Take ca

re Tedd

y Edwa

rd.



Go Forth From Pettycur

I was fortunate enough to be able to spend an hour at Pettycur Harbour recently and even though the weather was changeable it was very enjoyable.
From the harbour wall you can see right along the Forth Estuary, from the Forth Bridges upstream to North Berwick Law downstream. Directly south across the River Forth from the Pettycur you can see the Edinburgh skyline with Leith in the foreground and Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh Castle in the background.
Here is some photos I took from Pettycur between the heavy showers of rain:

The Edinburgh Skyline from Pettycur



Edinburgh Castle



Salisbury Crags

Gulls on the rocks (with North Berwick Law in the Background)



The Forth Bridges (with Inchcolm Island in foreground)

 It is suprising to think that Edinburgh Castle sits on a long extinct volcanic fault line, and that line of volcanic features stretches out to the east and includes Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Seat, North Berwick Law and the Bass Rock, all of which have their place in the history of Scotland.

• The Bass Rock is the world's largest single rock Gannet colony, with over 150,000 Gannets nesting there each year
• Arthur's Seat was a hill fort over 2,000 years ago
• Hutton (a famous geologist) used the rocks at Salisbury Crags to demonstrate that the earth was older than 6,000 years, much to the annoyance of some 17th century bible bashers
• Edinburgh Castle is an old building on a rock.

There are some interesting island in the Firth of Forth as well, many of them called 'inch' which is Scot's for island (derived from the Gaelic 'innes').

• Inchcolm Island (which you can see in the foreground of the Forth Bridges photo above) has a ruined abbey and WW2 fortifications on it which is very popular as a wedding venue. You can get boat trips to it from South Queensferry and it is well worth a visit (just watch out for the hundreds of breeding gulls............poo alert!!)
• Inchkeith Island is straight out in front of you at Pettycur and has a lighthouse on it as well as some WW2 fortifications.
• Inchmickery is my favourite island and it is full of WW2 fortifications, so much so it looks like a battleship from the correct angle (see what you think below). Apparantly this was deliberate so that from the air it would deter German bombing raids targeting the Rail Bridge and the naval bases at Rosyth and Port Edgar.



Inchkeith Island



Inchmickery (Battleship) Island

 Enough of the history and geology.......... here is some snaps of birds and scenery I took between showers of heavy rain (don't you just love the Scottish summer??)


Eider Drake Flying



Lesser Black-backed Gull (you should see its big brother!)



Passing Sandwich Terns



Pettycur Harbour



Love this shed roof and chimney



View from car park



Wee cock sparra coming home



Static Heaven



Train with a view

I hope you enjoyed Pettycur Harbour as much as I did, well worth a visit if you have a spare hour or so...........maybe I could get a job with the Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board??

cheers

Teddy Edward

Scottish Borders Trip

In early June a bunch of us (me, Moira, Mary, Florence, Danny & Charlie) had a weekend trip to Peebles and we explored a few places around the Scottish Borders. Sounds like the Famous Five but there was six of us and no dog.
The weather was very changeable with lots of rain followed by some sunshine, followed by more rain i.e. typical Scottish summer weather. This meant that the rivers and burns were very high and very fast flowing as you can see in the picture below of Charlie beside the Cuddy Burn

Anyway the weather did not stop us from getting out and about we just had to wear sunglasses, hats and anoraks. This weather was ideal for growing plants and it made all the countryside seem green and lush. Peebles was looking particularly splendid in the sunshine and I managed to capture the following photo between showers of rain.

We visited the botanic gardens at Dawyck when we were down there and managed to get round the garden walk without getting too wet but we did have to shelter under some of their magnificent trees when a heavy shower of rain came along. Here is a photo of a magnicent tree and another of Moira sheltering under a small shrub (she was pretending to be a fairy, elf, gnome or something like that)

The gardens at Dawyck are very beautiful and well worth a visit if you are ever down in that neck of the woods, here are some photos of flowers, views, etc. from our visit to Dawyck. Don't ask me what the flowers are called as I haven't got a clue! I'm OK with wild flowers but not the cultivated ones.

Waterfall at Dawyck



Blooming lovely



Pretty in Pink



View through the trees

 Of course these gardens were not just pleasing to the eye but they were also great habitats for wildlife and the place was buzzing with birds and insects. My particular favourite was a little, bright green, orb-web spider which seemed to prefer to crawl about on my trouser leg rather than in the shrubbery where it should be. Who says spiders are not cute?

The next day we went for a walk along the banks of the river Tweed and the weather stayed dry so we saw quite a few different birds including Oyster Catcher, Grey Wagtail, Goosander, Pied Wagtail, Heron, Buzzard, Mallard and Carrion Crow.

We also enjoyed the masses of wildflowers that were out along the track beside the river and although they are not as big and colourful as the cultivated plants at Dawyck I think they are just as beautiful (and I know some of their common names!) Hope you enjoy the photos I took of the wildflowers

Teddy Edward

Comfrey



Hawthorn, Crosswort & Germander Speedwell



White Campion



White Campion Close-up

Garden Wildlife

After my last blog a few people commented it was great that I could get out in the countryside and take a few photos of the wildlife. This time I thought I'd post a few photos of my back garden just to prove that you don't have to go far to find wildlife.
I have a nest box in my back garden, it has been there for at least ten years and most years I have had blue tits nesting in it. This year is no exception and at the moment the adult blue tits are busy dashing back and forward to collect caterpillars to feed their chicks. They must be in and out the nest box at least two or three times a minute so I took the opportunity to set my camera up on a tripod and snap them going in and out.
The first set of photos shows the squeeze they have getting in and out of the nest box as the hole is only about an inch (25mm) diameter. Although they could open the hole up the deliberately keep it small so that predators cannot get in to eat their chicks.



Blue Tit Posing



Popping In



Almost In



Popping Out



Almost Out



Nearly There



And Off We Go!

I also have quite a few native wildflowers in my garden including Primrose, Bluebell, Bird's-Foot Trefoil, Hemp Agrimony and Common Spotted Orchid and it is a very small garden. Not all of them are in flower at the moment but the Bluebells and Primroses are as you can see in the following photos.
Does anybody know why some Bluebells are blue and some are white? I don't have the answer I was just wondering if anybody knew? Both my white and my blue Bluebells came from the same native plant stock?? One of life's little mysteries....

Teddy Edward


Primrose & Spider (sounds like an American cop duo)



Blue Bluebells



White Bluebells (or is it Whitebells?)