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: May Roundup

Hello and welcome to our monthly Nature Roundup. May is a magnificent month to head outdoors and enjoy wildlife...

National Nature

This week is be nice to nettles week. No one likes being stung but you can appreciate nettles when you know they support over 40 species of insect and are one of the most important native species we have! Don't mow them, get to know them (I came up with that strapline myself... you may have guessed).

Speaking of invertebrates, Buglife launched a brand new crayfish website this week with two sections, crayfish for professionals or crayfish for everyone. 

Swifts are back this month, you may have seen them whizzing through the air, they look a bit like polystyrene gliders but they don't crash. Swifts need our help. They are birds of Conservation Concern and are now on the amber list after their numbers declined dramatically this last 10 years. But we don't know why. Help swifts by reporting your sitings on the RSPB website. 

It's Scottish Biodiversity week, find out more from Scottish Natural Heritage 

Next week it's National Vegetarian Week, here are some healthy recipes recommended by Tracy Griffen.

Local Nature 

In Lochend Park, baby birds abound, including Signets, Moorhen chicks, and these goslings. Enjoy then while you can, the swans are intent on Loch domination. The Friends of Lochend Park plan to celebrate the completion of new viewing platform on the 28th of May between 11am and 2pm. Unlike the trams, it would seem this project is set to be delivered on time.

Next week you're in for a treat.... it's Edinburgh Biodiversity Week. Events include evening nature walks, large red damsel fly surveying, badger watching and bumblebee spotting. There's a buzz about the great activities happening this weeked at The Royal Botanic Gardens too including FREE mask making and seed planting for children.

While in the Botanics you may spot a camera or too. Sue Mckichan has written about the sparrowhawk nest monitoring project. Since then there's been an evil crow caught on camera attacking the nest, did the sparrowhawk family survive? Find out in this harrowing STV news report.

Enjoy Edinburgh nature on foot next week during Walk Edinburgh Week. Here's a list of all the walks on offer from Activity Edinburgh. You can also be able to download a free audio podcast guide for a "radical roam" around Arthurs Seat from the Activcity site too.

Walking makes me hungry and with it being National Vegetarian Week why not find out what's growing on in your local allotment? If you like to see your seasonal vegetables warm and fuzzy, Mary Hutchison recommends knitting them. If you don't have an allotment, have no fear.  There's plenty of food growing wild on the Edinburgh Bike tracks. Use the  innertube map to locate the tracks and listen to our April Nature’s Calendar podcast and find which plants are best to eat. 

While on the subject of our last podcast, Earth Calling and Scottish Badgers have started a Badger Teaching programme aimed at teaching children about Badgers and the potential hazards that Badgers face.  In our last podcast, Gus from Earth Calling talked about being hit in the face by a bat. Alan at the Broughton Spurtle said to tell Gus he's not lived until he's been hit in the face by a badger!

We're all a bit fed up with the Edinburgh road works but in the midst of adversity, there lies opportunity. Bernie Reddington writes that the 'traffic free shore was blissful' whilst it lasted and he enjoyed the peace and birds noises. Read about it on the greenerleith social.

Why not lend a hand to local nature by joining the Spring Clean of the Hawthornvale Path on 28th May? 

Hot picks from the Gallery

Here are a few of my favourite photos this month. 

She's no feral pigeon. It's in the way she tilts her head, the way she glides. She's a lady. She's Little Grebe From Anthony Robson 

He's brilliant! He'd beat a frog tadpole hands down if they were both at a Star Wars fancy dress party. He's a Smooth newt tadpole from Neil Phillips 

Wow, he's so beautiful and intricate, I love the way the little feathers radiate from his eyes. He's Larry Legs From Emy J Skylark

That's all folks

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.

Read our Nature's Calendar April Roundup here.

Image credits:

White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) © Mike Drew/Anglian Water

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.

 

Nature Calendar: March

Welcome to the first edition of our brand new monthly podcast series, Nature’s Calendar. We went for a wander in Warriston Cemetery to bring you the best of Leith’s nature in March. What was lurking in the bushes? What clues did nature leave behind? Listen and find out:

 

What have you seen out and about in March? Please share your nature stories, photos, audio and films in the comments below. 

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

Read about this podcast on the Earth Calling website. It was also featured in the Edinburgh Guardian and the Scottish Roundup of four seasons in one blog (we're at end of winter).

Thanks to the nature experts Angus Egan and Laura Weston and to Jazz Canary for stepping in last minute to help with sound.

Leith Birds: The Heron

Wandering along the Water of Leith a few weeks ago, we saw birds that we couldn't identify (no sniggering up the back). We're delighted that Juliet Wilson has offered to write a series of blog posts about birds you might see around the Water of Leith. Here's the first one:

The grey heron is unmistakeable and often seen along the whole length of the Water of Leith. It’s a big, long legged bird with a long dagger shaped bill. It can often be seen standing motionless in the river, as it waits for fish to swim by. If you’re lucky you may see it walking stiff legged through the water, looking out for fish. You may even see it spear the water and come up again with a fish in its beak! Some restaurants along the Water of Leith are known to sometimes feed the herons.

Juvenile herons are darker and more uniformly grey than the adults.

If you want to take up bird photography, the grey heron is the ideal first subject as it is so large and tends to stand still a lot!

Edinburgh Zoo has some free flying night herons, which may occasionally turn up on the river. The night heron is a smaller, short legged heron.

You can read more about the grey heron on the RSPB website:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyheron/index.aspx

You can read about the night heron on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_heron

Juliet Wilson is a poet, reviewer and adult education tutor with an interest in making crafts from re-used materials. You can find out more about her work here and here. Photo credit: Bob Bryson