Do Not Play In The Bunkers...

Golf courses may have re-opened in England but ours are still closed, and thus available for walks. We returned to the Mortonhall course for our exercise today, taking a route to the south of the elevation of the radio masts as far as the Eastern end, doubling back along the southern limit as far as the wood, which took us to the path and out at Buckstone Park. After a brief rest and snack (is this allowed, I wonder?) we returned home via the housing estate. Hereabouts, I was pleased to note, the Bear Hunt is represented by soft toys placed prominently in house windows - I have put up a succession of toys but few neighbours appear to be participating.

My collage as extra 1 is the variety of tree blossom, also evidence of the heavy rain last night, which brought down a sad litter of new growth from oak and sycamore trees. Extra 2 is a common enough plant, the Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) with its pretty frilly-edged flowers, in what might be a dewpond - a little damp today, bone dry on our recent visit.

The main picture intrigued us for a while: observing in one of the bunkers two small areas of digging, with a neat pile of faeces (ok, then, poo) occupying the base of the resulting hole, and several footprints across the sand and up to the edge. Other bunkers fared better, with just footprints, so you are spared the initial images. The tracks here were clearer, crossing the raked centre of the bunker and along the far edge.
So, who made them? We thought they were badgers - we have seen suitably-shaped holes in other parts of the course, confirmed by the Course Marshall, who happened along on his buggy. Remind me, should I ever take up golf, to be careful NOT to land in a bunker! I never reveal the location of badger setts - there are still barbarous people about - so the map shows the bogbean location.