Come Rain or Shine

I get stir crazy if I'm stuck indoors for too long....... and the weather this January and February has meant I haven't got out in the countryside quite as often as I would have liked.
The last weekend in February was cold, wet and windy and by the time it got to Sunday afternoon I had had enough and decided I had to go out to preserve my sanity. I jumped in my car and had a tour around my local patch in West Lothian in the hope that some wildlife was still around despite the horrible weather.
I did manage to see a cormorant swimming along the River Almond just behind Edinburgh Airport, it was waterproof and totally oblivious to the wind and rain. I filmed it on my camcorder but it wasn't very spectacular so I won't bore you with it.
I then moved on to Humbie Pond just before Winchburgh and although there was plenty of birds there (swans, mallards, coots, herons, etc.) they were so far away that I could not get a decent photo of them. In fact I only managed to get my camera soaked.
A little further along the road I stopped at a regular haunt where I usually see a variety of wildlife, but this time nothing to report apart from wet trees and muddy fields:

Wet & Windy West Lothian

Wet & Muddy Fields

I was beginning to think I was wasting my time as I drove along the puddle-ridden back roads that run behind Newton village............then just as I turned a corner a red-legged partridge ran across the road in front of me and took shelter beneath a hedge at the side of the road. I pulled on to the verge, grabbed my trusty camcorder, wound down the passenger window and started to film:

Stationary cars make great bird hides as the birds don't seem to recognise them as a threat, but as soon as you step outside the car and they see a little silhouetto of a man ........... Scaramouche! .......... they are off.
With the partridge in the bag (so to speak) and buoyed by my success I drove on but I am afraid my luck had run out. All I managed to find and photograph after that was a wet tree and some miserable looking ponies in a field:

Wet & Knarled Oak

Very Damp Ponies

I didn't even bother to get out of the car it was so wet and miserable............. I just drove home..........glad I wasn't a poor pony out in a field.

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The next weekend was the first weekend in March and officially the start of Spring and the weather could not have been more different. It was dry, sunny, relatively warm and there was no wind.
Although I had a lot on that weekend I did manage to get out to the countryside around West Lothian for a short while one afternoon.
This time Humbie Pond was basking in late afternoon sunshine (the birds were still too far away to photograph):

Humbie Pond

Round the corner the roads had dried up a bit and the views were a little better:

Sunny West Lothian



Not so Muddy Fields

There was no partridge to see this time but I did manage to bag one of it's cousins............the not-so-intelligent pheasant:

Pheasant in Ploughed Field

 The knarled oak still looked knarled but now basked in sunshine:

Knarled Oak and Blue Skies

The damp ponies were not so damp and looked a lot less miserable and I even got out the car to take their photo:

Happier Ponies

It was such a nice afternoon I took a trip to one of my favourite woodlands, a small SWT reserve called  'Pepper Wood' to see if Spring had indeed sprung.

Pepper Wood (on the right)

Here there were certainly signs of a windy winter with many small trees and branches blown down. One of the things I like about Pepper Wood is that the SWT maintain it with a light touch and don't feel the need to clear away all the fallen branches which provides not only good habitats for wildlife but also some spectacular natural sculptures:

Mossy Log

Giant Stick Insect

Blunt-nosed Serpent

I had a look around for signs of Spring and there was certainly some evidence that it was on it's way.
Birds like robins and blue tits were flitting all over the place defending territory and chasing rivals away. A clear sign that they were gearing up for the breeding season.
Snowdrops were already well in bloom and daffodils were almost ready to burst into life:

Snowdrops in Bloom (with green moustaches)

Daffodils fit to Burst

 One of my least favourite plants in Pepper Wood also had a head start, the dreaded butterbur:

Butterbur Sprouting

Butterbur Carpet

This can carpet large areas of the woodland and can grow over a metre high with large leaves which deprive all other plants of the sunlight they need to grow.
Some other early blooms were the gorse bushes, often overlooked or even despised for their spikiness, but their flowers are lovely:

Gorse Bloom

In the late Spring these gorse bushes give off an intoxicating smell of coconut, but they are definitely jaggy.
So that was about all from my little trip to Pepper Wood and I concluded that if Spring had not already sprung it will not be long until it does.
I'll leave you with a little photo of blue skies as seen from the woodland:

Blue Skies over Pepper Wood

 

So remember whether it is rain or shine the wildlife is still out there, you just have to go out and find it

Take Care,

Teddy Edward