(Some photos in this post include black fabric as a background to force my camera to focus on the bulbs rather than the distant vegetation, which doesn’t lead to the most elegant photos, but elegance isn’t the point here!)

Since first finding young larch cones, I’ve kept an eye out to try and find them at their earliest stage of development and this is what I found on 11 March this year:

The photo below from March 2019 shows the next stage in development

and on 25 March this year, the young cones looked like some sort of unusual flower, though they’re not technically flowers

by 7 April, the colour is definitely less bright and the shape is changing

these changes were even more pronounced by 17 April

though not all the cones develop at the same rate, below are some other, younger cones, also on 17 April

the colour has darkened even more by 20 April

on 4 May

here they are on 13 May

the ‘petals’ have almost disappeared by 20 May

and by 26 May most of them are definitely looking like cones rather than flowers

by 9 June, they’re definitely young cones.

At the same time there are some mature cones on the same tree

Over the next few months, I’ll follow the cones to maturity, and hopefully will have photos to share later in the year outlining the second half of their development.

**

If you’re heading into the Scottish Highlands, be aware of ticks! Here is an excellent article from the Walk Highlands website, much of the information will be relevant for other areas of the world where ticks can be found.

Green Care for You (22 June - 5 July): a fortnight of activities to help unpaid carers enjoy the benefits of gardening and nature. Register here to receive a simple nature or gardening activity by email every two days.

This was our first visit to Oban for many years, and we hoped to see Black Guillemots, which we remembered as nesting in the town harbour. This year, these wonderful birds didn’t seem to be nesting in the harbour, but they were nesting in the stonework of the promenade. We got some excellent views!

We took a ferry to the island of Lismore. Luckily it didn’t actually rain much while we were on the boat, which meant we could fully appreciate the atmospheric low mists hanging over the coast and islands.

Over on Lismore, we were delighted to see a couple of Spotted Flycatchers. These lovely birds are becoming increasingly rare and it was wonderful to see them, particularly to watch them chasing and catching flies.

The west coast of Scotland is renowned for its temperate rainforest, beautiful woodland full of mosses and lichens. Glasdrum Wood is particularly renowned for its Chequered Skipper butterflies, which are very rare in the UK. Given the dull and damp weather, we thought the closest we would get to this insect was the information board near the start of the signposted walk

However, we soon noticed that a mere metre away from the information board was a lovely butterfly, that turned out to be a Chequered Skipper! Not only that, but it sat there for a few photos, totally contradicting its reputation for always being on the move.

The moral of the story is of course, that wet weather doesn’t mean you won’t see some wonderful wildlife. Just remember to wear the right clothes! On any trip in Scotland that means having waterproofs and clothing for hot weather, you really never know. We’ve both got sunhats that are also fairly shower-proof, as long as the rain isn’t too heavy!

Also, remember to use midge repellent and to check for ticks. Midges are annoying, but ticks can transmit serious diseases. Sue Kusch recently shared some good information about tick awareness:

For the Love of Nature with Sue Kusch

Tick Information Resources

Hello friends…

Read more

23 days ago · 10 likes · 12 comments · Sue Kusch

There is more information about ticks in Scotland here, and you can find the NHS guidance about Lyme Disease ( the main disease transmitted by ticks) here.

Do you see the swifts are here again?
They swoop so low and soar so high
I think there may be more than ten -
do you see the swifts are here again?
We know it’s summer round here when
our favourite bird comes gliding by
You see the swifts are here! Again
they sweep so low and soar so high!

**

I also, again several years ago, created this haiga (illustrated haiku) celebrating the Swifts

above
the old theatre -
swifts tumble

**

We’re lucky enough to live in an area of Edinburgh where there are several active swift nests sites. Sadly, numbers of these amazing birds have been severely declining across the UK over the past several years (a decline of 65% since 1995), due largely to a lack of nest sites and reducing populations of insects (their main food source). (See this 2020 article on the Bird Guides website for some thoughts on the factors behind the decline of the swift).

I drink tea while watching the swifts

I wanted to send this post out a couple of weeks ago, as I saw the first Swift of the year on Tuesday 12 May at 10am, flying over the roofs opposite our flat. However, the last two posts have been time sensitive regarding external information so they got priority!

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve regularly seen a group of six swifts above our street, though they’re no longer present in the same numbers they were when we first moved to this flat 26 years ago (that’s over quarter of a century ago!).

We put up two nest boxes on our front wall a few years ago (we persuaded the roofing contractor to fit them when our last roofing work was carried out). I haven’t seen the swifts going into the nest boxes, though they have flown close over the past couple of years. Hopefully this year may be the year that they decide to use the nest-boxes....

You can find out more about how and where to fit nestboxes for Swifts in this article from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). In January, Scotland introduced a legal requirement that should see nesting bricks for Swifts included in new buildings (read more on the RSPB website here). Campaigns are still underway to make this a legal requirement in the other parts of the UK.

I enjoyed this video from the RSPB about how we can help swifts. I’ve played it at quite a high volume with the windows open, hoping that the calls of the swifts on the soundtrack would attract the local swifts to our nest boxes. Another great video from the RSPB is this one, which shows the route of one swift as it flies from its breeding grounds in the UK across Europe and around Africa and back here for the next breeding season, a journey during which it will not land at all! I particularly like this video as it looks as though this swift passed directly over the village where I lived in Malawi for two years!

There’s also a short article on how you can help Swifts here on the Guardian website.

Swift Awareness Week (27 June - 5 July)

Swift Awareness Week events are run by independent local groups that make up the Swifts Local Network, and RSPB local groups. Find out more on the RSPB website here.

Other Wildlife Observations

At the weekend we walked along the River Esk at Musselburgh and onto the John Muir Walkway alongside the Firth of Forth to the bird hides at the Lagoons. This area is a great place for waders in the winter months, but it’s always a lovely walk. Highlights from Saturday included Eider ducklings, we counted a total of 17 ducklings, here are a few of them (the River Esk is quite polluted as you can tell in this photo):

We also saw several damselflies, including this mating pair (and second competing male) of Common Blue Damselflies

Finding Solutions to the Conflict between Farming and Wildlife

This is an excellent article from Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh’s Agro-ecology Project. You can read it here. I posted about Lauriston Farm back in July 2024

Bees are vital pollinators, not only of many food crops but also of the wildflowers that so many of us enjoy. So, protecting bees can help reduce poverty and hunger, as well as preserve biodiversity.

When many people think of bees as pollinators, they think of Honey Bees. However, there are many other species of bees (and indeed other insects and even some mammals) that are pollinators. Honey Bees are actually domesticated and though they face problems, from disease to pollution, they shouldn’t be the focus of nature conservation, which should instead be looking at preserving native bumblebees, solitary bees and other insects.

There are several bumblebees that you are likely to see in the UK, including the Red Tailed Bumblebee (though its tail os often more orange than red, as in the photo below)

Bumblebees are social nesters, just as are honey bees. Early in Spring you may see large bumblebees flying low. These are Queens looking for somewhere to start a nest. The smaller bumblebees emerge later in the year and include workers and drones.

Not all bees are sociable though. Many bees (around 250 species in the UK) are solitary bees. Actually this can be confusing, as, although solitary bees make individual nesting chambers and don’t nest in hives, often quite a few solitary bees will make their nesting chambers close together.

My favourite solitary bee is the Hairy Footed Flower Bee, and I’ve been very happy to see several of these this year. The male and female of this species look quite different from each other, here’s a male:

and here’s a female:

Though the prize for the best name for a solitary bee has to be the Chocolate Mining Bee, which, sadly, does not mine chocolate! During the COVID lockdown, we found a local colony of Chocolate Mining Bees.

As time went on, we realised there was a bit of a drama going on. A species of nomad cuckoo bee appeared in the area, probably Marshem's Nomad bees (Nomada marshamella).

As their name implies, these bees are nest parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other solitary bees, in this case, the Chocolate Mining Bees. The photo below shows both species flying into the same hole

Then to complicate things even further, a Dark Edged Bee-fly turned up, a parasitic fly that lays its eggs in the nests of solitary bees.

Which just goes to show that the world of bees is much more complicated than hives of Honey Bees busily making honey for us to enjoy.

The best way to help bees and other pollinators is to plant pollinator friendly plants in your garden if you have one. The UK’s Wildlife Trusts have a brief guide on how to set up a ‘nectar café’ for pollinators.

Interesting Article

I enjoyed this article on the Bioneers website: Making the Invisible Visible: Photographing Native Bees with Krystle Hickman.

Vote for your Favourite Butterfly!

It’s hard to choose a favourite I know, but Butterfly Conservation is asking people in the UK to vote for their favourite butterfly!

30 Days Wild

There’s still time to sign up for the Wildlife Trusts’ annual 30 Days Wild, which takes place across June, offering lots of ideas for how to get closer to nature.

Scottish Wildlife Trust Words of the Wild Competition

Submissions can be in English, Scots or Scottish Gaelic up to 1,000 words long and written in any form: poem, letter, short story, essay, song lyrics – whichever works best to tell a story on the theme of Changing Seasons, closing date 12 July. https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/wordsofthewild/competition/

Green Bridges

Can ‘green bridges’ help animals cross the UK’s motorways in safety? Excellent article on the Guardian newspaper website.

Wild Art Exhibition

Running at The Scottish Gallery until the end of May, Wild is a wonderful exhibition of artwork by Sheila Anderson-Hardy, who is based in the Scottish Borders. You can view the works on the gallery’s website here, but if you’re in Edinburgh, do pop along to the gallery and see them in person. Also, there are some lovely artworks by other artists in the lower level of the gallery, including wonderful seascapes by Dawnne McGeachy. The gallery has a small garden at the back, which is open to the public in good weather.

Scotland is a small country with a lot of coast! According to the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government, Scotland’s coastline has been estimated to be 18,743 km in length along the high water line, while the area of Scotland’s seas has been estimated to be 462,315 km² . Currently 233 Marine Protected Areas - sites for nature conservation - cover 228,118 km² or 37% of the continental shelf area around Scotland. (For more statistics about the seas around Scotland see this page).

The seas around Scotland, in common with oceans across the world, currently face huge threats from the climate crisis, pollution, invasive species and unsustainable fishing practices. In the past few years, seabird colonies around Scotland (and around the world) have been badly hit by bird flu, which has decimated some populations.

Later this month (21st - 25th May), the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick is holding its sixth Marine Fest, offering a packed programme including walks, talks, beach cleans and dolphin watching expeditions. You can see the full programme here. The festival aims to engage people’s interest in the wonderful wildlife to be found in the seas around Scotland, increase awareness of the threats facing the oceans and to encourage people to get involved in conservation activities.

Overlapping with Marine Fest is the Rock Pool Challenge National Bioblitz (23 - 31 may), which encourages people across the UK to check out their local rock pools and record the wildlife they find. The challenge focuses on non-native invasive species as these are often under-recorded and some of them are increasingly problematic for the native species.

Rhett Ayers Butler recently shared this interesting post about philanthropic funding for marine science and ocean conservation:

Nature briefs by Rhett Ayers Butler

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain

For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base…

Read more

a month ago · 9 likes · Rhett Ayers Butler

Seascape in the Guardian newspaper

The Guardian publishes occasional articles on the state of oceans around the world in its Seascape series.

What Happened in the Scottish Parliamentary Elections?

You can find the results of the recent Scottish elections in several places, Ballot Box Scotland has some nice graphics here. Headline facts include: the Scottish National Party (SNP) remain the largest party but do not have a majority of MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament). The Scottish Green Party made large gains and now have 15 MSPs, while at the other end of the political spectrum, the far-right Reform UK now have 17 MSPs as do Scottish Labour, who lost a lot of seats. The Scottish Conservative Party also lost a lot of seats, while the Scottish Liberal Democrats increased their number of MSPs.

Want to Learn More about Plants in the UK?

If you’ve ever wanted to learn plant identification but didn’t know where to begin, the 100 Plants in 2026 Challenge is an ideal starting point.

The First Swift has arrived in Edinburgh

I always watch eagerly for the first Swifts to appear above our Edinburgh streets. This year our first arrived at 10am, yesterday (12 May).

At the weekend we visited Dalkeith Country Park, which we always like to visit at this time of year, mostly as there is a wonderful display of bluebells.

This trip we found some of the usual paths weren’t accessible so we took a different route round the park and were very glad we did.

We came across these farm buildings, which were obviously home to Swallows, judging on the number that were flying around, seeming ly oblivious to all the electricity pylons (though there are no Swallows in the photo)

Then in a field nearby we saw this (all the photos below were taken by my partner):

Two Hares chasing each other! We rarely see Hares and this was a delight! We watched them for a long time and they disappeared, but then one reappeared and ran across a field closer to us before disappearing under a wire fence. Then the other Hare took the same route but at a much slower pace, seemingly posing for the camera

Until this one too found the gap in the fence

and disappeared from view.

Growing Climate Confidence

The Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) recently launched their Growing Climate Confidence website, to help charities and community groups understand more about the climate crisis and find out what they can do to mitigate their own impact.

Wildlife in Cemeteries

Having carried out wildlife surveys in Edinburgh’s cemeteries, I’m always interested to read about wildlife in cemeteries around the world. Here’s an interesting article on Grist, about bees in cemeteries.

Part of the gathering included a workshop. I chose the workshop Reimagining Our Local Spaces for Nature & Community facilitated by Gill Hatcher of Scottish Wildlife Trust. The workshop started in the art centre’s impressive garden

(You can see more photos of the garden in a recent post on my Crafty Green Poet blog.)

We then visited a small green area in the shopping centre that is still being re-developed to the front of the community hub building

Apart from the artwork, this area is pretty much overlooked, people throw their rubbish there and sit on the stone wall around it, but no-one seems to notice the greenspace itself, which includes a fair range of plants as well as the obvious and dominant dandelions. Our task for the rest of the workshop was to split into smaller groups to imagine we lived in the nighbourhood and to think how this neglected green space could be developed by the local community as an appealing, biodiverse space that would offer benefits to local residents. We came up with a lot of ideas, which hopefully will be shared by the art centre, who are likely to actually be working with the local community in the future to make this greenspace into an appealing, biodiverse mini-garden.

The ideas from the group I was in included: make a survey of the plants and invertebrates in the space; survey the soil to get an idea of what else might grow there; install benches on top of the stone wall; put litter bins next to the site (as you can see in the photo above there’s a Greggs bakers on one side, there’s a dental surgery on the other side) and possibly plant a small tree in the centre, if the soil would support it. We agreed that the artwork is important and any changes to the site would need to not obscure the artwork. We also discussed ways of getting the local community involved; including asking the dentists to hand out questionnaires to waiting patients (we all agreed that might be a nice way of distracting people from thinking about toothache or their forthcoming filling!).

North Edinburgh Arts has relatively recently moved into their current building, but they have in various incarnations been a core part of the local community since the 1980s when Muirhouse Festival Activities Centre was established. So the organisation is very rooted in the local area and they will take very much a community-led approach to whatever they do with this little patch of ground. I look forward to seeing the result!

Gill also shared some of the excellent resources available from Scottish Wildlife Trust. The trust’s Nextdoor Nature Pioneers Programme offers an online, self-lead course for people who want to get involved in setting up and facilitating conservation projects in their local area; this is backed up by a whole range of Resources to help you in your local conservation project; while the Community Action section of the trust’s website highlights examples of successful community-led conservation across Scotland and there are a variety of online talks to watch.

Part of the event was devoted to allowing people to share events and resources. A staff member from Edinburgh Botanic Gardens outlined some of the courses offered there. You can browse all their opportunities here.

Information leaflets were also available from Edinburgh Nature Network’s Thriving Nature Network, a council run project that aims to: protect and enhance our green spaces, so that they benefit people today and in the long term.

Last week’s post was published on Earth Day, below are a couple of excellent Earth Day round-ups from other Substacks that came out too late for me to share in my last post; first from Katharine at Talking Climate:

Talking Climate

1 billion people celebrating Earth Day

Earth Day is one of the few moments each year when people from all around the world celebrate our shared home. This week, as I was pulling these stories together—from restoring land to cleaning up our oceans—I noticed something unexpected. Not about any one topic, but rather what connects them all. See if you can spot it too 😉…

Read more

2 months ago · 86 likes · 5 comments · Katharine Hayhoe

and one from Amanda at Earth Hope:

Earth Hope🌎

What progress we achieve when every day is Earth Day

Read more

2 months ago · 50 likes · 19 comments · Amanda Royal

Every year, 22 April is celebrated as Earth Day, a day for everyone to join together to look after the earth we share. The Earth Hub on the Earth Day website offers a selection of ways to mark this day, from fact sheets to quizzes, along with toolkits and ideas for action. There are also lots of blog posts and stories to read, including a good piece about poetry and nature.

I think the idea behind the Earth Day website is a little like my idea behind this Substack and my other online presences - bringing together different aspects of life to celebrate, conserve and learn about nature, and to find creative approaches to spreading the word about nature and environmental issues. (Though I’m well aware that the content of this Substack is much more Green than Crafty or Poetry!).

Of course, every day should be Earth Day, we should always try to be aware of how we can better look after nature and our local environment. Like many of these official days to highlight issues, Earth Day is really just an excuse to get people interested and writing about the topic. Which is a start, but only a start.

This Earth Day, for example, you could start:

a) learning about the wildlife around you; as I outlined in a post last June

b) volunteering with a local conservation organisation - opportunities are available from recording wildlife to picking litter to planting trees, I shared some ideas in this post from last June:

finding creative approaches to spread the word about nature and environmental issues, I wrote about that in the post below:

Reading is a great way to learn about nature and environmental issues. Tomorrow is World Book Day, an opportunity to celebrate the power of books! Like many people interested in nature, I have learned a lot of what I know about plants and animals from the excellent selection of nature related books that are out there - including field guides and nature based memoirs. I wrote about books about nature and environmental issues in this post (which was also for World Book Day, but using a different date from a different source)

Bird of the Week

At the weekend we had a lovely walk round Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens, enjoying the rhododendrons and azaleas that are currently in full bloom. We were delighted to see this Nuthatch (thanks to my partner for the photo). When I first moved to Edinburgh, Nuthatches weren’t around, they’ve since moved up here from England and are always lovely to see.

Climate Stories from the Pacific

Hear stories from people across the Pacific living with the impacts of the climate crisis – from Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands to Fiji, Samoa, and beyond.

News from Norway

I love this Norwegian idea of the interspecific council, where people imagine themselves as other species and give their opinions about looking after the environment. Article on the Guardian website.

robins sing - 
scarlet elf caps 
in the moss

People who know me from elsewhere than this Substack, probably know that my favourite form of poetry is the haiku. International Haiku Day is happening in a few days, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to write a little about haiku today.

A lot of people outside Japan probably have a quite simplistic view of haiku, seeing it as a form of short poetry with five syllables on the first line, seven syllables on the second line and five syllables on the third line. However, haiku is so much more than that (I’ve taught courses on haiku, one of which is a full day and the other which is five weeks, neither of which feels long enough to fully do justice to this lovely poetic form).

A very concise (and to me, very pleasing) definition of what a haiku is comes from the website of The Haiku Foundation: “Traditional Japanese haiku include a “season word,” and they often try to convey a connection between Nature and human nature. They are often divided into two asymmetrical parts that do not make a complete sentence. They typically use simple language and present images with little or no commentary.”

English language haiku do not need to be 17 syllables in length, as Japanese sounds are very different from English language syllables. A general guideline is that a haiku in English should be 17 syllables or fewer. The other elements are far more important than trying to stick to a precise number of syllables, many people would say that the most important aspect of haiku is the ‘a-ha!’ moment, when two seemingly unconnected images play against each other to reveal a deeper truth. This certainly to me seems like a more worthwhile poetic aim rather than counting syllables, though there are publications out there that will only accept haiku in the 5-7-5 format, if that’s what you prefer.

Green tea helps me write haiku

Writing haiku and focussing on the seasonal content is a great way of slowing down and paying attention to the seasonal changes you see around you in nature. It can also reveal information about our changing climate too, particularly if you’ve been writing haiku for a few years, you may notice that the seasonal markers are appearing at different times of the year. Maybe your winter haiku used to be full of snow and now there’s much less snow to write about. My haiku at the start of this post is more seasonal than you might think if you’re not familiar with Scarlet Elfcaps - these are fungi that appear in late winter and stay around until early Spring, so a suitably seasonal haiku for April.

Haiku are meant to capture moments, rather than being too carefully crafted (though I don’t see anything wrong with a bit of light editing). Nature is the focus, if the focus of a haiku-like poem is the human world, then it becomes a senryu - which lack the seasonal reference, are more likely to be strictly 5-7-5 and are often humorous. However, in our ever changing world, where many people are not as close to nature in their everyday lives as they used to be, the difference between haiku and senryu is blurring and you may nowadays come across short poems which aren’t clearly either haiku or senryu.

Many haiku poets (known as haijin in Japanese) spend their writing life trying to perfect their haiku. In fact, I’m not sure how you know when you’re good enough to be considered a true haijin! Writing haiku is always an enjoyable and relaxing pastime, whether or not you get published or hailed as a haijin.

I’ve shared a few haiku resources below - so please browse them if you’re interested to find out more about this poetic form and maybe even start writing your own.

Haiku Resources

The Haiku Foundation.

The British Haiku Society.

National Haiku Writing Month (February).

A-ha Poetry.

I’ve Been Published!

I’m delighted to have a haiku in the latest issue of Sense and Sensibility, an excellent monthly haiku journal - you can read the latest issue here.

I also recently found out that one of my collages has been included in the University of the West of England, Bristol book art exhibition 'The Mountains are Calling'. You can read about the exhibition here and see the artworks on Instagram here. (I'm not on Instagram so I can only see a few of the pictures and mine might not be included yet, but will be there by the end of July). If you're in Bristol you can also see all the artworks on display until the end of July at Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol.

Bird Corner

We walked along Edinburgh’s Water of Leith at the weekend and were very pleased to see two Grey Herons fishing very close to each other near where the river passes close to the Gallery of Modern Art. Here’s one of them:

rushing river -
the stillness
of the grey heron

**
previously published in Haiku Corner 41 of the Japan Society UK.  

International Puffin Day

Yesterday was International Puffin Day, a chance to celebrate these charismatic seabirds! The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) chose yesterday to launch its Save our Seabirds campaign. Maja from Beaks and Bones shared a fascinating article about Puffins and their beaks, which you can read below

Beaks & Bones

Puffin bills glow under UV light

Hello, I’m Maja, a biologist, nature artist, and science communicator based in Antwerp, Belgium. In this newsletter, I share fascinating research stories about birds. Subscribe for free to receive new posts about twice a month…

Read more

2 months ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Maja Mielke

In Scotland, we’re going to the polls on Thursday 7 May to elect new MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament). Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom and the Scottish Parliament deals with issues that have been devolved from the UK’s Government at Westminster. You can read about how the Scottish Parliament works on their website here and you can find out more about the coming election here. You can read more about the work of MSPs here.

One of the most important issues of our time is the environment, including nature and climate change (which are really two separate but very much overlapping issues). Yet very often these issues seem to be overlooked in much election campaigning, even for the Scottish Green Party (the party’s three headline issues on its homepage as I write this are: Stand up to Trump; Abolish the Monarchy and Scottish Independence). Obviously there are many non-environmental issues that any mainstream political party should campaign on, but if even a Green Party doesn’t foreground nature and climate change what does that say about general political attitudes to this issue? (Edited to add, the Scottish Green Party published its manifesto on 15 April, which very much does prioritise environmental issues, as well as having serious policies on many other issues, you can read their manifesto here. Links to the manifestos of all the parties standing in the Scottish Parliamentary election are being added as they’re published to the Common Green website, you can find them here).

However, what I want to share today is how you can help nature with your vote.

1. The first thing is to make sure that you’re registered to vote!

2. Then think about what you want to see from your political representatives - political priorities for the environment include: protecting rare species and landscapes; nature-friendly farming and looking after our oceans. We also need politicians to set targets, but targets need to be backed up with action, which sometimes seems to be forgotten by politicians who proudly set out targets which they then clearly fail to deliver on. We also need enough funds to be invested in nature and climate action, which is a real challenge in a political environment where there never seems to be enough money for any of the competing claims on governmental funding.

3. Once you’ve thought about what your priorities would be then you can contact your candidates directly (you can find out who’s standing in your constituency for the forthcoming Scottish election here). Or you can go along to a local hustings, (which should be advertised in your local area) and ask all the attending candidates their views on the issues that concern you. Your local candidates may turn up on your doorstep to ask for your vote, which offers a great opportunity to ask them their views on the issues that matter to you. You can also contact party leaders to demand positive climate solutions, via this campaign from Friends of the Earth Scotland.

4. When you’ve spoken to your candidates or read about their views, and taking tactical voting1 into account, you can then decide who to vote for.

5. Vote.

6. Optional extra, stay up all night on polling day and watch the results come in.

Coffee would help me stay awake!

The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has an excellent resource for the coming Scottish elections (which, although specifically about Scotland, will have some general relevance for people voting in elections elsewhere).

Scottish Wildlife Trust is also running a Take Nature Seriously campaign, which includes plenty of information on the various political aspects of environmental protection. You can read about it here.

Once your new representives start work, then you can keep in touch with them to prompt them on the issues that matter to you. Many environmental (and other) charities run campaigns that ask you to contact your political representatives. These kind of campaigns can be very successful.

Bird of the Week

I’ve been submitting my lists of birds I’ve seen in various places for the Birds in Greenspaces project. The only birds that have posed for the camera though were these Mallards in Edinburgh’s Figgate Park on Easter Monday. The male was diligently keeping an eye out, while the female ate her fill.

What I’ve Been Reading

I really enjoyed James Rebanks’ The Place of Tides in which he spends a season with a woman whose family have looked after Eider ducks for generations, sustainably harvesting their down to make eiderdown duvets.

I’ve written before about some ways in which we can help nature, and I’ve included links to some of these articles towards the bottom of this post. Today, I want to mostly highlight a couple of projects that are going on in the UK over the next few months. One is a new project, while the other has been going for a few years but returns this year with a new theme.

The British Trust for Ornithology always offers a lot of opportunities to get involved in researching and looking after birds, some of which require specialised knowledge such as surveying wetland birds or ringing birds. Others though, such as the Garden Birdwatch, are open to anyone who’s interested in birds. This year there’s a new project that will appeal to everyone who likes birds. This is the Birds in Greenspaces Project, which asks you to record the birds you see in your local greenspaces over the summer, ideally visiting each greenspace at least once a month between 1 April and 30 June. You can complete your surveys either using the mobile app or by filling in an online form. You need to have a BTO account and you can choose your favourite greenspaces from a map. I’ve chosen a few greenspaces, including a couple of cemeteries, a couple of local parks, Colinton and Craiglockart Dells alongside the Water of Leith, and Corstorphine Hill. I’m hoping that I will be able to visit all the sites often enough over the summer to make my input worthwhile!

The other project I want to share is an established annual project that is focussing on a new topic this year. This year’s Wild About Gardens campaign from The Royal Horticultural Society and The Wildlife Trusts is highlighting moths, those too often misunderstood cousins of butterflies. The campaign will be sharing ideas on choosing plants that attract moths and making a plea for more relaxed attitudes to caterpillars eating your garden plants. They have produced a guide to gardening for moths, which you can download here.

Citizen science is a great way to contribute towards conservation science, while spending more time in nature and improving or developing identification skills. For a very comprehensive listing of nature related citizen science projects running this year in the UK, see the post below from Zabby at the Nature Notice Board Newsletter

The Nature Notice Board Newsletter

Citizen Science Projects to Take Part in This Year

Happy New Year! Are you looking for ways to learn more about nature or do your bit for the environment this year? Why not take part in a citizen science project? Not only will you be helping gather important data that will help build a better picture of the state of nature, but you’ll be helping your own mental heal…

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6 months ago · 22 likes · 9 comments · Zabby

Whether you take part in a specific project or just make a point of recording the wildlife you see around you, wildlife recording is an important way of helping conservation, as I wrote about in this post from the early days of this Substack

I also wrote a fairly general post about helping nature last year

Words for Wildlife - Preparing for the coming Scottish Elections

Scotland goes to the polls on 7 May to elect a new Scottish Parliament. We need a parliament that truly values nature. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has put together a guide on how to talk to your candidates in these elections. I’ll write more about this in a week or so, but in the meantime, you can find the information here.

Bird Corner

One of the things I love about this time of year is hearing all the birdsong and noticing the migrant birds coming in. Chiffchaffs have been around for a couple of weeks now and earlier this week I heard my first Blackcap!

What I’ve Been Reading

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley, the self styled Natural Navigator. An excellent guide on how to look at how trees grow and how the environment affects individual trees from the roots to the leaves. We learn how to look at trees in a whole new way and how to recognise, for example, signs that the trees are growing in poor soil or that they've been affected by high winds.

Nature Writing Event

I’ve been asked to share the details of this reasonably priced creative writing workshop with tutor Liz Niven. It will take place on 19 April at Ellisland Farm, a former home of Robert Burns very close to where we like to stay on our regular holidays in Dumfries and Galloway. Find out more and book here.

A Coffee Break is always nice!

with role-play elements (I surprised myself by singing part of a Vera Lynn song as part of one of the role plays).

The training didn’t touch on nature as such, beyond the possibility of using photos of beaches to get people reminiscing about their childhood holidays. However, I did get to thinking about the relationship of nature, reminiscence and happiness.

Many of my favourite early memories feature nature: playing on sandy beaches; exploring rock pools; walking through nature; spending time in the garden, watching birds and on one memorable occasion seeing my first ever dragonflies! (I never saw dragonflies in that garden again!) Similarly, a lot of my significant memories from my adult life include nature: watching the birds outside my bedroom window when I lived in student halls; taking a group of students to watch the courtship displays of a colony of weaver birds by Lake Malawi when I was teaching in Malawi; seeing my first otter off the coast of Orkney (and since then seeing otters regularly in Edinburgh).

I think it’s probably the same for anyone who loves nature; think back over your life and many significant memories will be focused on nature. (Feel free to share in the comments section!)

Many research projects have demonstrated the importance of nature to our mental well-being. This article is just one of many specifically looking at the benefits of time in nature to people living in care homes. This may be time spent gardening, taking gentle strolls through greenspaces or simply watching birds at a feeder from the window of the bedroom or lounge. Time spent in nature offers rich sensory experiences, helping to keep our minds active and engaged. Nature-based activities can also provide a sense of purpose and accomplishment, not to mention the chance to socialise with other people.

Nature Corner

At the weekend we had a lovely walk round Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat, hoping to see both Hairy Footed Flower Bees and Common Toads. And we were not disappointed, we saw around 20 male Hairy Footed Flower Bees and, in Dunsapie Loch, more Common Toads than I have ever seen in one place. The photo below shows just one of the many pairs that were mating that day. There was also a lot of toadspawn (and frogspawn) in the loch.

Regular readers may notice that a recent post about non-native daffodils having been planted in amongst Ramsons along the riverside has been removed. Although I did not accuse the trust that looks after the river of planting the bulbs, I had suggested that they might have done, given their enthusiasm for planting bulbs along other sections of the river. The trust has asked me to remove the post, after assuring me that they didn't plant the bulbs.

Interesting Article on the impact of Data Centres

Data centres are causing an energy crisis in parts of the US, with 13 states on the brink of rolling blackouts due to data centre energy pressure on the grid. Do we want the same in Scotland? Read this article from the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland for the case against hyperscale data centres.

Every year, 14 March is the International Day of Action for Rivers, giving us an opportunity to think about how much we owe to rivers.

I have a close connection to one of Edinburgh’s rivers, the Water of Leith, as I patrol the river most weeks, recording wildlife, sometimes picking litter and reporting on issues such as sewage spills.

I wrote more about the Water of Leith in September 2024

The Water of Leith runs from the Pentland Hills into Edinburgh and then eventually joins the River Forth at Leith. In the Dells, the water often looks brown due to the peat brought down from the hills. Further downstream, the brown colour is likely not solely due to peat from the hills.

Sewage was dumped into UK waterways at least 585,000 times in 2024, which is quite frankly shocking.

The recent Channel 4 docu-drama Dirty Business (which if you’re in the UK, you can catch up on here) investigates the current appalling state of rivers in the UK. Using information gathered over the past decade, the series shares the stories of whistleblowers and people whose lives have been devastated by illness caused by coming into contact with sewage contaminated water. You can read about the real people behind the series in this article on the Guardian website.

If the state of our waters horrifies you as much as it horrifies me, please consider signing this petition to end the sewage pollution scandal.

Sewage isn’t the only pollution in our rivers. There’s also run-off of agricultural chemicals and individuals aren’t free of blame either. Many people inappropriately dispose of household items down the drains. Unblocktober is a campaign (taking part throughout the month of October) which encourages people to become mire thoughtful about how they dispose of waste. I wrote about the campaign in October 2024

We all deserve clean, healthy rivers that support a range of wildlife and that offer appealing places to visit and enjoy. You can help by:

supporting camaigning charities such as River Action and Surfers Against Sewage;

joining a local group to look after your local river, such as the Water of Leith Conservation Trust in Edinburgh.

Bird Corner

On Saturday, we visited Musselburgh, and walked along part of the John Muir Walkway along the Firth of Forth. We were delighted to see many birds, but the most wonderful was hearing the first Skylarks of the year. One was, as you would expect, singing high up in the sky. Another was sitting in the grass, singing!

Snow Bear (short film)

This is a beautiful hand drawn animated film about a polar bear looking for a friend. Watch it here.

I love reading a wide variety of books, novels, short stories, poetry and non-fiction. I enjoy non-fiction about all types of things from astronomy to zoology, via history and music, but I have a particular interest in reading about nature and environmental issues. My current read is Freida Hughes’ memoir about George, a magpie she rescued when she found him as an abandoned and injured fledgling.

Once I’ve finished this book, I’ll review it - as I review most of the nature / environmental themed books I read - on Good Reads and on my original Crafty Green Poet blog (you can read my past reviews here.) When I write reviews, if I’ve bought the book myself, I tend to be quite minimalistic, the intention being to get people interested in the books, rather than to give a professional style review. Of course, I write longer reviews for the books that I’m sent for review!

I like to buy books from second hand shops, it’s a good way of supporting charity and I love the serendipity of the books I find in second hand shops. This is my latest find:

Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweepers: The Weird and Wonderful Names of Butterflies and Months by Peter Marren, first outlines the history of how butterflies and moths were named and then offers a reference section showcasing some of the wonderful names.

I also buy new books, though, as I like to support small independent publishers and new writers!

I’m very interested in two relatively new sub-genres of speculative literature - solarpunk and throughtopian literature, which are possibly two names for the same type of hopeful futuristic science fiction. Solarpunk1 poses a fascinating question: What would a world that had seriously tackled climate change look like? Thrutopian2 literature crafts grounded, plausible and inspiring route maps from a recognisable present towards a future we’d be proud to leave behind. Both these subgenres contain plenty of conflict to keep the story interesting, but posit futures where people are creating more sustainable futures.

As well as being a great way of learning about the world, reading is enjoyable and offers a range of benefits for your mental health, according to this article from Mental Health First Aid England. I certainly find it very relaxing to sit down with a cup of tea and a good book.

I'd love a cuppa!

Sign Up for the Hedgehog Walk!

If you’re in the UK, you can join in the Hedgehog Walk – a fun and family-friendly fundraising challenge! Between 30 March and 30 April families, schools, clubs and learning groups across the UK will be walking 3km and raise vital funds for nature. Why 3k? Because that's the distance a hedgehog can walk in an evening! Find out more and sign up here.

Bird News

At the weekend we were delighted to see two interesting crows in Edinburgh. One of them is in the photo below.

I’ve not named the crow, as I’m not entirely sure whether this is actually a Hooded Crow (which is rare in the east of Scotland, though prevalent in the west of the country and in continental Europe) or a hybrid between a Hooded Crow and a Carrion Crow. I think the dark patch under the tail indicates a Hooded Crow / Carrion Crow hybrid. Still a very interesting bird to see in a patch of crocuses in suburban Edinburgh. The other crow was more obviously a hybrid Hooded Crow / Carrion Crow. (Hooded Crow and Carrion Crow were until recently considered to be subspecies but have now been declared as separate species.)

These days life so often seems to be full of complexity, moving services to digital provision is (I think) supposed to make things easier, but a lot of people find it difficult to navigate online forms or the endless loops you sometimes find yourself in on computerised phone systems when you just, simply, want to make a doctor’s appointment or set up a direct debit. Not to mention, social media and the ever-present news cycle where things seem to be spiralling into chaos more every day.

Simplify Your Life Day therefore offers a chance to look after yourself - press pause on all the noise, take a step back and breathe.

Some ideas for how to simplify your life include: declutter; cut down on the time you spend on social media; spend more time in nature; make time for a tea break.

I'd like a tea break!

There are lots of other ideas on the Simplify Your Life Day page. If you have any top tips for simplifying your life, feel free to share them in the comments.

One way you may choose to simplify your life is to turn to nature for treatments for some of your health issues. Many conditions are definitely best treated by regular medicine, but nature does provide useful cures for some conditions. However, natural medicines don’t work for every individual or every condition and are not without their side effects! Best discuss with your doctor before using herbal remedies. That said, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants are the theme for this year’s United Nations’ World Wildlife Day, (also 3 March) which focuses not only on the uses of these plants but their conservation.

Farming and Conservation Working Hand in Hand

I enjoyed this short video about conservation grazing at the RSPB’s Mersehead Reserve, one of my favourite places in Dumfries and Galloway and also featuring my favourite breed of cattle, the Belted Galloway.

Invasive Species Awareness

23 - 27 February is this year National Invasive Species Awareness Week (NISAW) in the USA (and internationally in that sneaky way US based initiatives often become global). Invasive species can be a real issue for natural environments and their conservation, farming, aquaculture and can cause problems beyond those areas. One day I may write about this in more detail on this Substack, but at the moment, I’ll just direct you to the NISAW website.

Zabby recently wrote a good article on the Nature Notice Board that shares a nuanced view of Ring-necked Parakeets, a species that has relatively recently become established in London (Is it invasive? Read the article and see what you think!)

The Nature Notice Board Newsletter

Parakeets Sound Like Home

I grew up in South East London in the 90s, which means I’ve never known a London without ring-necked parakeets. Some people really do seem to hate these chatty green birds, but personally I adore them…

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4 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Zabby

Bird Corner

On Saturday, we had a lovely walk at Cramond, at point where the River Almond joins the River Forth. The tide was well out, which meant that all the waders, Curlews, Oystercatchers and the like, were too far out to properly catch on camera. This Carrion Crow did pose for us, however, my partner getting the better photo.

Also see my blog post from March 2013. Other years we’ve been less lucky. Looking out for them on Saturday 14 February seemed like a perfect Valentine’s Day trip for a pair of nature lovers like us. Linlithgow is a ten minute train journey from Edinburgh and the walk right round the Loch is something like 2 1/2 miles in total, so it’s a great day out. The first birds you see are a mix of water birds including Tufted Ducks (here’s a male)

Coots (this one’s probably a male annoyed at something, though the display could be part of their courtship)

and Mute Swans (including this male who, like the Coot, is either annoyed or displaying to a potential mate or rival). The gull in front of the swan is a Black Headed Gull in winter plumage.

We didn’t expect to see Great Crested Grebes before we got to the reed bed, which is usually the place to get the best views of them.

No Great Crested Grebes here, though a Grey Heron was posing nicely round the corner

We walked further and saw a couple of Great Crested Grebes out on the loch, but showing no obvious intention of dancing. Then we met someone who asked if we were looking for the Slavonian Grebes (Readers from Canada and the US will know these as Horned Grebes)? We hadn’t even known that Slavonian Grebes were around (though when we got home I found sightings had been made of them over the past few days and shared in various Facebook groups) so we kept an eye out for this rare, smaller cousin of the Great Crested Grebe. We were delighted to find a pair, in their winter plumage, very close to the edge of the loch. They were fishing happily and seemed to be very successful, bringing up a fish from almost every dive. We spent a very enjoyable few minutes watching them, they’re very appealing birds.

This unexpected, serendipitous, sighting more than made up for not seeing the Great Crested Grebes dancing.

It's chilly, a hot drink would be nice!

Another of our bird sightings made me think about a different type of serendipity in birding. We met several friendly Robins, one of which sang for us

The European Robin is a very common (and much loved) bird in the UK. So much so that some people maybe take it for granted a little. Not so birders in Montreal who recently have seen Canada’s first ever European Robin. Similarly, the third ever European Robin sighted in Beijing a few years ago drew crowds of over 100, which may have bemused the bird! Just proving that one country’s common bird is another country’s exciting rarity.

Time to Vote for Your Favourite Tree!

If you’re in Europe, it’s time to vote in the European Tree of the Year contest. You can read more about the finalists in the contest and vote here.

The Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill.

The Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill was passed at the end of January, paving the way for a binding Natural Environment (Scotland) Act to bring in high‑level, statutory targets to mprove biodiversity and regenerate Scotland’s natural environment. You can read more about it in this article from The Scottish Wildlife Trust.

My interest in dinosaurs was reawakened when, years ago now, I took two weeks off from my regular job to work on the Dinosaur Dig activity at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. It was great fun but very hard work and certainly not a holiday!

Recently, I’ve read two excellent books about dinosaurs. Dino Gangs: Dr Philip J Currie's New Science of Dinosaurs by Josh Young, a book accompanying the Dino Gangs TV series and possibly aimed at Young Adults, looks at science that explores the social life of dinosaurs while The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte outlines the history of dinosaurs from the earliest small examples to current day birds with a bit of a focus on Tyrannosaurus Rex. I’ve reviewed both these books on my regular blog here.

It’s important to understand the history of life on earth and I think it’s great that youngsters are so fascinated by extinct dinosaurs. However, it’s even more important to be engaged by the living world we see around us today, including the modern day dinosaurs we know as birds.

I’ve been interested in birds for as long as I’ve been interested in their extinct ancestors. Birds are present in most habitats, including cities, and are often brightly coloured and many of them sing beautiful songs. So they offer an easy way for people to start getting interested in nature.

Notes on Modern Day Dinosaurs

At the weekend we walked along Edinburgh’s Water of Leith and saw a gathering of Mallards and Goosanders. We didn’t take photos at the time, partly because we were so interested in watching all the interactions between the birds! Here’s a photo of a male Goosander taken a few years back.

Worth Watching

Small Blue - the film. This beautifully made and interesting film highlights the incredible work being done for the Small Blue Butterfly along Scotland’s north coast. The fact that this species is very rare probably explains that the butterfly itself barely appears on screen.

Wetlands are defined as land areas that are saturated or flooded with water either permanently or seasonally. They include inland wetlands such as rivers, floodplains and swamps, coastal wetlands such as saltwater marshes, mangroves and coral reefs and human made wetlands including rice paddies and fish ponds. All these habitats are vital for a range of wildlife. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) wrote recently about the range of wildlife supported by wetlands.

WWT, the wetland charity have a page full of links to resources about wetlands. These resources include a brief introduction to river names (scroll down for a beautiful photo of Edinburgh’s Water of Leith as it flows through historic Dean Village); an illustrated article about how wetlands have inspired art and a history of human connections with wetlands.

Our favourite wetlands include, in Edinburgh, The Water of Leith, which flows through the city from the Pentland Hills to the port of Leith. It’s a haven for wildlife including Kingfishers, Grey Herons, Dippers and Otters. I’m a volunteer with the Water of Leith Trust and regularly ‘patrol’ a section of the river, recording wildlife and collecting rubbish left along the walkway.

In Dumfries and Galloway, our regular holiday destination, our favourite wetlands are Caerlaverock WWT Reserve and Mersehead RSPB reserve. Both of these places are home to impressive arrays of waterfowl in winter and a host of other wildlife all year round. Caerlaverock is a hot-spot for dragonflies and damselflies (one year, we visited in the midst of a mass emergence of dragonflies, I’ve never seen so many of these amazing insects!). Caerlaverock is currently closed, while they reorganise, a reorganisation that should strengthen their conservation work, which will sadly also mean the removal of the shop and cafe.

You can read a wee bit about a trip we made to Caerlaverock below

Nature Notes

It’s February and there are early signs of Spring everywhere! At the weekend we were delighted to hear Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming in the woodlands on Edinburgh’s Corstorphine Hill. In the Walled Garden on the hillside, the Witch Hazel was in full, beautiful bloom.

I’ve also seen snowdrops and even crocuses flowering in various parts of Edinburgh. Lovely to see, but it feels very early, too early.

Winters in Edinburgh and many other parts of the UK, aren’t generally as long or cold as they used to be and we get far less snow nowadays. Of course, there may be an element of nostalgia in that statement, in the same way as childhood summers were always hot and sunny and lasted forever, whereas in reality that was only true of the summer of 1976. On the other hand, there is a lot of scientific evidence that Spring is arriving earlier. For example, a study done in 2022 (quoted in this article) found that some plants were flowering a full month earlier in 2019 than they had done in 1987.

This has a knock-on effect on other wildlife. If trees are leafing earlier, then the number of caterpillars peaks earlier. Birds, such as Blue Tits, which feed on the caterpillars find that the peak caterpillar numbers no longer match the time when their chicks need the most food, which may mean fewer chicks reaching adulthood.

Studying the seasonal changes in nature is known as phenology. If you’re in the UK, you can help The Woodland Trust to keep a track of our changing seasons by joining in with Nature’s Calendar to record the dates of key events for selected species during the changing seasons. The Nature’s Calendar database contains almost three million records, which are used by researchers to explore the effects of weather and climate on timings in wildlife. You can find links to some of this research here.

Bird Corner

While walking through the Figgate Park, taking photos of Hazel catkins, we noticed a Dipper in the Figgate Burn. It was flying around and looking for food in the water, moving too quickly for a photo, but delightful to watch. My first Dipper of the year!

I’ve Been Published

Thanks to the Ekphrastic Review for including one of my poems in the selection of responses to We Are All Eve by Monica Marks https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges

What I’ve Been Reading

I’ve just finished reading Metamorphosis, Grist’s 2024 collection of thought provoking short stories about various aspects of the climate crisis. I was sent a hard copy of the collection (I seem to have won it somehow, but can’t remember entering a competition for it!) and have been reading through it gradually.

All these years later, I still regularly walk round Arthur’s Seat and the surrounding area of Holyrood Park, including the magnificent Salisbury Crags.

Arthur’s Seat looks over Duddingston Loch, where, up until a few years ago, quite a lot of Grey Herons used to nest in the trees (how many nests can you see in the photo below, taken in April 2016?) Not so many these days, I’ve no idea why numbers seem to have decreased so rapidly.

There are two small lochs on Arthur’s Seat, the lower one, St Margaret’s Loch, is often occupied by numerous Mute Swans

Further up the hill is Dunsapie Loch

The whole area is well-known for its wildlife, including Ravens that make their homes on inaccessible rocky outcrops. Ravens are large members of the crow family, recognisable by their diamond shaped tails when in flight.

The whole area of Holyrood Park is full of wildlife and well worth walking around. It seems like a very natural place (apart from the road running through it!) but that is far from the reality. The Edinburgh Inquirer recently posted an excellent post about the impact of humans on Arthur’s Seat

The Edinburgh Inquirer

A very human hill: how we shaped Arthur’s Seat and its surroundings over six millenia

“If I were to choose a spot from which the rising or setting sun could be seen to the greatest possible advantage, it would be that wild path winding around the foot of the high belt of semi-circular rock, called Salisbury Crags…

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5 months ago · 11 likes · Sarah McArthur

Take Part

If you’re in the UK, sign up for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, happening this weekend! If you don’t have a garden, you can count birds in your local park or other greenspace! Find out more here.

We live in a top floor flat and don’t have a garden. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t see birds! On New Year’s Day, we saw a Sparrowhawk and a flock of Waxwings from our living room window.