Birds and Botanics

I've had a bit of a cold all week and today I woke up feeling pretty low in energy. The birds at my neighbour's bird feeder cheered me up though. I don't have garden or any outdoor space, so am not able to feed the birds myself. However all my downstairs neighbours have a garden and one of them puts out bird feeders. My kitchen windows overlooks these feeders and I get great joy from watching the birds as they come to feed. This winter the feeders seem to be attracting a greater variety of birds than I've seen before. As well as the normal sparrows, today there were blue tits, great tits and robins. My highlight today though was a long tailed tit. I had to look it up in my bird book to be able to identify it - I'm still learning! And a couple of starlings came down for breakfast too. I was just able to grab my camera and capture this one through the kitchen window.

In the afternoon I went for a walk along the Water of Leith to the Botanics. I was feeling so tired that I almost didn't go out. But I'm so glad I did. It was lovely to be out in the fresh air after a week in the office. The walk along the Water of Leith is always lovely - such a beautiful green ribbon through the centre of the city. I feel so fortunate to live nearby. And the Botanics are lovely any time of the year. My extra photo is taken in the Botanics. I love this view of the trees with the glimpse of the city beyond. It reflects the things that I value about living where I do - I enjoy living in the city, but I do need my green space.

On my walk there was plenty of bird life to spot too. As well as the normal mallards I also saw a moorhen, a heron, several goosanders and a wren. I heard many more birds calling in the trees above me. All in all a bird filled day. Not bad when you consider that I live near the centre of a city!