Latest Photos: Jan / Feb 2023

February 28, 2023
Well, January 2023 was full of highs and lows… literally!

Floods

As the New Year 2023 started, we were still coping with the huge rise in water levels.  The Water of Leith’s water level was averaging apx. 0.55m during December but on the 30th of December, a combination of melting snow and excessive rainfall, water levels rose from 0.55m to 2.4m within 24 hours. This meant that all wildlife along the riverbanks were displaced, as their habitats were under water.
 
Even after 4 weeks, with water levels back to 0.55m (as I write), not all wildlife have returned.  They will have found safer habitats & feeding grounds & for the time being, we will just have to wait until they decide it’s safe to return.

BBC Winterwatch

We also had the BBC Winterwatch team in Edinburgh in January to film their live shows on BBC 2.  
Between July & October 2022, the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol invited me to help out with regard to getting the BBC Winterwatch team to consider Edinburgh, as their city of choice, for Winterwatch 2023 . Edinburgh was 1 of 15 locations that was being considered for the programme – my involvement was simply giving regular updates and advising on urban wildlife locations throughout the city and giving my best feel for what wildlife would be around during filming in January 2023, if Edinburgh was chosen.  
At the end of Autumnwatch in October, Edinburgh was finally announced as the city that the programme would be filmed from – I was delighted.  Immediately after this announcement,  I was asked to be involved again but this time to send in photos & videos and keep the research team updated with all things ‘urban wildlife’ in Edinburgh up until the live shows.
By the time the live shows started on 17th January, I seriously thought we would be getting a great take, on the vast array of Edinburgh’s urban wildlife – they certainly had masses of information to work with.  The  live shows got off to a good start and I thought some of the pre-recorded interviews with Charlotte Neary, Ross Lawford and Ashleigh Whiffin, plus several others, were great.
However, watching the second week of shows, I was scratching my head, as to why they bothered to come & film live in Edinburgh at all, particularly as there was only an average of  11+ minutes per 1 hour episode on Edinburgh’s urban wildlife.  When I say 11 minutes, I am only counting the time directly related to Edinburgh’s urban wildlife – these 11 minutes per episode also included all the pre-recorded interviews.  This is a far cry from what I was first told that half the show would be filmed from Edinburgh and focusing totally on wildlife in an urban environment.
I gave them masses of information, regarding badgers, foxes, roe deer, peregrines, owls, kingfishers, otters and much more that roam and fly around our beautiful city.  I passed on numerous locations for filming of wildlife from a distance, as well as popular wildlife spots where you might get a bit closer to nature.  I also indicated what wildlife would most likely be around us in January.  It just feels like a missed opportunity for the city, with the highest percentage of greenspace in UK and a missed opportunity for the BBC Watches team to lay down a format for filming and showing how, we and our wildlife neighbours, live together, within an urban environment.  
 

Kingfishers

On a more positive note, the third week in January was probably one of the best weeks in the last year for photographing kingfishers on the Water of Leith.  The low winter sun was almost uninterrupted all week and the kingfishers were unusually predictable in terms of location and times.  One kingfisher, in particular, was sticking to a 100 yards stretch, for up 30-40 minutes at a time and diving regularly throughout the whole week.
 

Edinburgh’s Wildlife in January 

Some young cormorants also headed upstream on the Water of Leith and stayed for 10-12 days.  There was also a lot of sparrowhawk activity – I’ve no idea whether this was connected to the flooding but I will try and find out.  Around the third week in January I started seeing foxes appearing along the banks of the Water of Leith again.  There were also plenty of goosanders and mallards about, plus swans and the occasional sighting of siskin & redpolls.
 
Waxwings were still in the Edinburgh area and during January, the ones I had been following, had moved from Balgreen to Sighthill.  The otters also made an appearance on the 9th January on the Water of Leith but then disappeared – some days later otters started appearing at Figgate Park.
 
As the BBC Winterwatch team were going to be filming from Musselburgh Lagoons, I made a point of visiting this location, two weeks prior to filming.  On one of the two occasions that I visited, I managed to spot a peregrine, the world’s fastest bird, above the lagoons – a highlight of the day!  There were also plenty oyster catches, curlews, herons, lapwings, shelducks, goldeneyes, tufted ducks, redshanks and lots more.
 
The River Almond to the west of Edinburgh had plenty of wildlife on the water this month – several kingfishers, goosanders, mallards, goldeneyes, herons, a buzzard but it was the dippers that I was out to photograph on both visits.
 

…& finally

Finally, on the 30th January after the disappointment of Winterwatch, I thought it best to get out of Edinburgh and head up the east coast of Fife where I ended up photographing red squirrels, great spotted woodpeckers and lots more – I felt somewhat better after that.
NOTE:  I only managed to get out with the camera on one brief occasion during February 2023, so I have combined the Photo Updates for January & February into one!

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