Lochend Park - teeming with bird life

Everyone together - awwww. 

This short video clip of goslings in Lochend Park was shot at the weekend, but the baby geese are not the only bird life to be seen there. 

There's a whole load more photos on the Friends of Lochend Park Facebook page including this one of a little grebe. 

And of course, if you are interested in finding out more about some of the other Spring birds you might see around Leith, check out this recent guest post by Elaine O'Mahony.

Nature's Calendar: June

Wellies on, it’s time to get wet for the the June edition of our Nature’s Calendar Podcast . Meet a Leith Leech, discover who’s making a tunnel from tiny rocks and go fishing with us in the Water of Leith.

If you have iTunes installed on your computer you can subscribe to our audio as a podcast by clicking here. 

Thanks to our nature experts from Earth Calling. 

Nature’s Calendar: April Roundup

Following on from our April Nature’s Calendar podcast, here’s a roundup of some of the best of nature this month. 

National Nature

Butterflies are back! Natural Scotland recommended this handy Butterfly conservation guide to identifying them.

If you go down to the woods today be sure of a blue suprise! BBC springwatch tells us how to find our nearest bluebell woods (plus there’s a great slideshow if you want to imagine you’re there right now).  

If you hear a cuckoo, nightingale or turtle dove in the woods, enjoy it. Sadly spring may lose these sounds in the future, according to the Guardian. 

Look out, flies are about pretending to be bees! Crafty Green Poet Juliet Wilson recommends reading all about 'bee mimic flies' on the Natural Histroy Museam, London website.

There's a week left to hunt for a pond (and some newts) in the Great Easter Newt hunt, running from 22nd Apr to 2nd May.

And while you’re outside, Lily Horseman brings us a step by step guide to build a fabby fire popcorn maker from two old sives and some wire.   

If you want a taster of nature from the comfort of your armchair, you could try remote viewing? Seabirds are getting jiggy with it on the islands of the Firth of Forth at the Scottish Seabird Centre. 

The puffin burrow camera at RSPB Sumburgh Head is back but the puffins have disappeared, can you spot them?

Speaking of disappearing, Wildlife Whisperer TV Simon King keeps telling me a posing hedgehog is live on Cam 1…. and I keep missing it. Tell me if you see it (I’ll have remote hedgehog envy). 

Finally there are some fantastic articles on UK and Eire Natural History Bloggers this month (including our blog).   

Edinburgh Nature

If you feel like going for a walk and want some company, Informed Edinburgh have published a list of Edinburgh Walking groups.

Or how about a bikeride to Cammo this Saturday with GreenerLeith? If you want to plan your own off road bikeride you could use the London underground style innertube map.

Earlier this month we reported on Himalayan Balsam and Japanese knotweed in our podcast.  Alex Stuart has now written more about these invasive plants on the Goldenacre Path.  

There are lots of great nature related events happening listed on STV Local.

There’s a daily nature photo blog from Anthony Robson at Wild Edinburgh that’s well worth checking out.

Lastly, I’ve enjoyed some of the sightings you’ve been tweeting about on twitter. I’ve put together some of my favourite comments with storify:

If you have anything you would like to see included in the monthly Nature Roundup please add it to the comments below of get in touch with me via twitter.

Nature's Calendar: April

Welcome to the April edition of our nature’s calendar podcast, bringing you the best of nature here in Leith. This month’s we’re on the Edinburgh bike tracks, click play below to be hit in the face by a bat, race a badger on a bike and eat the plants and trees you find along the way. While you're listening why not hit play on the photos slide show at the top to see the bike tracks in April?

 

If you have iTunes installed on your computer you can subscribe to our audio as a podcast by clicking here. 

For a simplified map of the Edinburgh bike tracks and this months podcast starting location (where the red and yellow lines cross) you can download the London underground style innertube map here.

Exciting News 

May’s podcast will be on (and in) the Water of Leith and a third member of the Earth Calling team will join us with a camera! Michael Iseard will film and edit future podcasts to bring you even more of Leith’s nature on film. This my last nature’s calendar podcast production, I’ll still be in it but handing over to Michael for future technical expertise. 

One downside, I can no longer rock straight out of bed on a Saturday morning and make a pod, I will endeavour to make an effort to at least brush my hair for future episodes on camera (or I could wear a hat as outdoor types often do?). 

Please Help

The Woodland Trust enjoyed our April edition and have requested we report our sightings to help them monitor climate change in the UK. To do a spot of Phenology (the science of recording natural regularly occurring events) please log on their great Nature's Calendar site.

Do let us know what you think of these podcast and what you’ve been seeing out and about this month too.

Find the rest of our Greener Leith Nature's Calendar series here 

Big thanks to our nature experts Angus Egan and Laura Weston from Earth Calling.

 

Introducing Nature’s Calendar

It’s almost spring, a time for cleaning, new life and audio awakenings. This weekend we record the first of our monthly nature’s calendar podcast. We aim to bring you the best of nature's monthly splendor out and about in Leith.

The Nature's Calendar Team

Our wildlife experts are is Angus Egan (pictured left) and Laura Weston (pictured middle) from Earth Calling, Lothian's leading provider of inspirational, hands-on environmental education. Angus is passionate about connecting people to nature and he once persuaded me (pictured right) to put a slug on my face, yuk! I’ll be asking Angus questions, enjoying nature in my local neighbourhood and avoiding slugs.  

We need your help

Did you photograph a flower flaunting its flora? Is there something beautiful in your local park that should be shared? Here's a photo Earth Calling took last week of a shoot piercing through the dead leaves. From the Water of Leith to Warriston Graveyard, we want you to film it, record it, photograph it, write about it, sing about it and please, share it this March. Ask questions too, we’ll do our best to answer them, either here or during the podcast. 

We’re looking for a theme tune too, something short and sweet. Are you creative, musical and good with a microphone? Here’s my attempt, if you don’t help you’ll be stuck listening to my whistling all year:

Speaking of creative and good with a microphone, acclaimed Scottish Journalist Tom Allan heard about this project and recorded this great audio of the birds coming in to roost:

I hope that's convinced you it’s time to dust the cobwebs off your bike and bring out the binoculars. We weren’t meant to be birds in cages. Enjoy the peace connecting with nature brings and go outside. 

Image Credit: Earth Calling

Podcasting from the last wilderness in Scotland

Emily Dodd, our local podcasting volunteer, is about to embark on a six day adventure into the wilds of Scotland somewhere near Glenfinnan, on a leadership course organised by the Sirius Environmental Leadership Foundation. 

Each year, the foundation works with a selection of 18-30 year olds who have a commitment to positive change for the environment. Their aim is to help develop leaders for the future who "truly understand the crucial need for a balance between humans and nature in order to ensure a sustainable future."

In her application to take part in the course, she pledged to help us put together a podcast focussing on environmental issues here in Leith, and so Greener Leith is delighted to have been able to make a small donation towards the fee she needs to pay to go.

If she has a mobile phone signal, and if she can keep her battery charged, and if she can avoid killing her phone by not falling out of her canoe, or freezing it in the snow that's forecast - she's going to try to phone in audio updates to her audioboo account at: http://audioboo.fm/auntyemily

She might also manage some tweets to. You can follow her at: http://www.twitter.com/auntyemily

She's also taking a video camera, and subject to the same caveats above aims to try to keep a video diary, which, if all goes well, we'll post onto our blog on her return.

In the meantime, you can hear her introduction to the whole thing below. As she recorded it from her mobile phone the quality isn't quite as good as usual.

We've got a dedicated page for our audio reports. You can easily find all of our latest Greener Leith audio here: http://www.greenerleith.org/audio/

UPDATE: Read the story of Emily's wilderness journey here.

Bawsinch bike ride

We're pleased to announce our next We Love Leith bike ride will be on Saturday August the 28th. Our last, "Gormley hunt" bike ride was so much fun, we've been looking around for other 'themed' rides. So, we're delighted to confirm that our next ride will see us take in a guided tour of the Bawsinch and Duddingston Nature Reserve.

We Love Leith August Bike Ride

Plan your trips with EveryTrail Mobile Travel Guides

We'll be going into the part of the reserve that is not normally open to the public, so it's a great opportunity to see inside one of the more secluded parts of the city. The reserve includes the only remaining natural fresh water loch in Edinburgh, and is home to a wide variety of native trees, otters, herons and other wading birds. Although the route is quite similar to our May ride, we've decided to go via Portobello this time.

In total the route is just short of 10 miles in total. The route, whereever possible is on traffic free, or low traffic paths, although some of the route is on slightly busier roads. We welcome cyclists of all abilities and families, provided everyone wears a helmet and that children under 16 have an adult to keep track of them. You should also note that the ride will sometimes be on gravelly surfaces, so a hybrid, tourer or mountain bike may be better than a road bike for this ride.

Please note, that it may be advisable to wear slightly more robust footwear than you would normally wear for cycling, as it may get a bit muddy in the nature reserve. You should also bring a packed lunch, a lock for your bike and clothing appropriate for the weather. 

August Family Bike Challenge

The Bike Station are running a new cycle challenge in August, that aims to build on the success of their Workplace challenge that got loads of people cycling in Edinburgh for the first time earlier this year. This time, they're running a Friends and Family cycle challenge. Here's what they say on their website:

From Monday 2^nd to Sunday 22^nd August 2010, the Friends and Family Cycle Challenge wants everyone to get involved, cycling wherever you want and at anytime you want over the three-week Challenge.  There are chances to win some fantastic prizes, including haircuts at a top Edinburgh salon, class passes for Bristo Yoga School, mountain biking day out from MB7, a family meal at Henderson’s and some stylish panniers!

Once registered on the website, individuals can log any cycle trip for 10 minutes or more and they will be entered into the daily prize draw.  The more times they cycle, the more chance they have of winning irrespective of the distance.

The Friends and Family Cycle Challenge is part of A better way to work, a project by the Bike Station, which aims to encourage people to leave the car at home and use more sustainable means of transport, and is in collaboration with the CTC Challenge for Change.

Esther Halcrow, Challenge Co-ordinator said: "The plan is simple – as well as getting more people registered for the Challenge, we’re asking the people we already have cycling to encourage their friends and family to get involved. We’re looking to encourage at least 400 people, who haven’t been on a bike in the last year, to try cycling. It’s a great form of exercise to do with friends and family, and more importantly, it’s fun!”

You can register yourself now at www.edinburghcyclechallenge.org.uk and start logging trips. There are Gold Screen Dominion Cinema tickets for new cyclists who register and for those who encourage a new cyclist to register!

For more information, including prizes, please visit the website www.edinburghcyclechallenge.org.uk or contact Esther Halcrow on 0131 667 3558.

As part of the Challenge, the Bike Station plan to hold a unique mass cycling event in Holyrood Park on the 22nd of August, so keep the day free. We'll post more information on the event as soons as we've got it.

The following weekend, we'll be restarting our own We Love Leith monthly bike rides, with an exclusive, free guided tour of the Bawsinch Nature reserve. So keep the 28th of August free if you'd like to join us for that ride and we'll release more details of the route later in the month.