August 2024
August has been a frustrating month on the photography front simply because I have been in search of otters on the Water of Leith for the last 4 weeks. As I mentioned last month we lost the newly born otter cubs in May & I have been trying to find out where the mum has gone. With 12 miles to cover, I have been up as far as Balerno and then down to Leith several times this month but to no avail. This meant I had to rely on my trail cameras. Unfortunately, they only picked up one otter per day but this was at night & I have been unable to identify it or them. Hopefully I’ll have better luck in September…I have put out another 3 trail cameras which should help!
For an update on what the trail cameras have picked up this month CLICK HERE – includes footage of badgers, otters & foxes on the Water of Leith
I’ve mainly been photographing kingfishers and dippers, whilst on the otter search, this month and have been trying to record the kingfishers’ movements. The reason for this is that the council have chopped down dozens of kingfisher perches, in key areas, along the Water of Leith. This means that there are two territories without kingfishers over the last two months. Hopefully they will return soon.
The second half of August was taken over by a project that I was asked to do, which was photographing some of the iconic spots in Edinburgh but in particular the Forth Bridges – I’ve included one or two below that aren’t being used.
Whilst being out at the Bridges frequently this month, I took the opportunity to head over to Fife and go looking for the green woodpeckers that I have been following over the last 2 years. Unfortunately, after several trips, I only managed to spot great spotted woodpeckers and red squirrels… not bad replacements, so I can’t complain.
…& finally, one of my fox photos (last photo below) was Chris Packham’s ‘Fox of the Day’ & he kindly shared it with all his social media followers on Twitter & Facebook this month!