Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Harperrig Reservoir & Cramond Island–Edinburgh Trip early Oct 2011 - Part One

Well its the end of the year and I need to catch up on my blog, hope everyone had a good Christmas. I always get behind with blogging this time of year as we get so busy pre Christmas.

At the beginning of October we had a few days away around Edinburgh.

 1-near-Penpont

On our way we stopped for a picnic lunch somewhere near Penpont.

2-Harperrig-Reservoir

Closer to Edinburgh we decided to investigate Harperrig Reservoir. There is a good little car park not far off the main road. This is the view from the carpark. We could just see lapwings and other waders on the shore.

3-Harperrig

Walking down the lane we bumped into the warden. He said that they had just created some walks and a wildlife hide so we decided to investigate. This area above is a wildlife area. Plenty of darters about, mostly black I think. We also watched a Bullfinch in the scrub area.

4-Harperrig

Beyond the bridge is a small area of woodland with a short walk and a lookout area overlooking the wetland. A heron was fishing here.

5-Harperrig

Lovely old stone bridge.

6-Castle-Harperrig

Another walk leads round the reservoir past this ruined tower.

7-Harperrig

Big skies!

8-Harperrig

A bit wet underfoot but this has the makings of a lovely walk.

9-Silver-Y

Lots of Silver Y moths about.

10-Harperrig

Distant hills

11-Harperrig

We trird the hide, a good idea but it has a dodgy door and looked out over the fisherman so not a lot else to see.

12-Harperrig

We retraced our steps back to the bridge as it got too boggy to walk further.

13-Harperrig

Sun starting to go down

14-Harperrig

Ruined tower from the lane.

15-grey-squirrel

Back to our Travelodge on the Edinburgh bypass and there were squirrels outside our window, sadly they were greys, we are used to seeing reds!

16-Crammond

Next day was damp and misty, we had a boat to catch from South Queensferry at 12.15 so decided to explore nearby in the morning. We drove to Cramond and as the tide had just gone out it was safe to walk out on the causeway to Cramond Island.

17 BA-Plane

This is a busy air route and a low flying plane goes over every few minutes, time for a bit of plane spotting, British Airways this time.

18-man-and-trolly

Although we were the first to venture to the island this morning, there were others that were heading back to the “mainland” that had obviously spent the night there. This guy looks as if he is prepared and does it regularly with his custom trolley an guitars!

19-Easyjet

Easyjet!

20-Crammond-Causeway

The causeway and breakwater are a bit worse for wear and in need of repair.

21-flybe-plane

Flybe!

22-heron

A Heron

23-arrow

Huge arrow showing which way boats should go when the tide is in.

24-herons

More Herons fishing.

25-crow

A Crow on the shore

26-info-board-Cramond

Information board on the island

27-Cramond

From the highest point, looking back towards the causeway.

28-defaced-info-board

The authorities really should do something about the wild camping here and clean this beautiful place up, the anti English slogans are very off putting!

29-Cramond

No time to explore further so we headed back to the causeway.

30-Cramond

Crumbling giant bollards!

31-Cramond

Wartime lookouts

32-Cramond

A bit slippy underfoot

33-Turnstone

Turnstone

34-black-headed-gull

Blackheaded Gull

35-cramond

Toppled bollard

36-wood

Reflected log.

37-cramond

Other people now heading out to the island

38-geese

Lots of geese about…

39-lapwing

…and Lapwings

40-Cramond

Cramond

41-Cramond

Plenty of yachts

42-yacht

Reflected yacht

43-Cramond

 

44-birds

Mute swans, a Canada Goose and assorted gulls being fed.

45-Mallard

Male Mallard

46-air-france

Air France!

47-chimneys

Lots of chimneys in Cramond.

2 comments:

Seasonal Activities said...

Nice pictures!!!

Crafty Green Poet said...

I've never been to Haperrig so thanks for the tour! I love birdwatching down at Cramond, there are so many great birds, specially this time of year.