March Blog

Well many of you will know we are experiencing extreme bad snow weather known as ‘The Beast From The East’. I was due to go Birding this weekend to Inverleith Pond but I made the safe decision to postpone it and rearranged it for next month, with all the bad snow around I hope you remember to top up your feeders for your garden birds as they will really need it in this weather, I do hope it goes soon so I can go Birding next week but looking outside it does look nice to look at but I urge you all to stay safe.

At the beginning of February I returned to my local patch Cammo for the first time this year, it was a beautiful sunny day it felt like Spring but it was still cold. But the snowdrops were out and the birds were singing though many were still hiding though I did see a few Woodpigeons, Blackbirds & Jackdaws. I think the highlight was to hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker up in the trees I did stop to look up to see if I could see it but sadly I didn’t hear it but it was a lovely day.

February is a special month for me because it’s the month I started Birding, this year marked my 16th anniversary and to celebrate I decided to do a ’16th Anniversary Tour’. I started the tour by visiting The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick since I’ve been going there from the start, it was a bitterly cold day but still a beautiful day. Sadly I didn’t see many birds apart from a few Gulls,Oystercatchers & Redshanks.

The second part of my tour I visited Musselburgh Lagoons but it was the same as North Berwick bitterly cold but a nice day. I ventured into the part were there are bird hides, I went to one hide and the place was full of thousands of Oystercatchers, Gulls & Wigeons it was a amazing sight. The hides don’t have roofs so I didn’t stay too long but stayed long enough to see what was there it’s a great place.

Finally the last day of the tour came and it was the day of my 16th anniversary, I visited The Botanic Gardens because it was the place I visited on the 16th February 2002 when I started Birding and it became my first local patch. It was nice to revisit on my 16th Anniversary walking round the park looking at Robins, Mallards, Pigeons & Moorhens. There used to be a part in the Gardens were there was a little hut that over looked a small pond that used to be full of birds but sadly the pond has been empty for a few years but this year I noticed the hut had been demolished which was quite sad but I think it will get rebuilt. Anyway it was a great day at The Botanics and look forward coming back for my 17th anniversary next year.