A Bird Walk, a Castle Tour, and Samosas

Today was just another in our string of A+ days. And more good news is that the weather report has changed, keeping the fair weather with us for the next 3 days instead of 1. So the umbrellas remain packed for now, which is just fine with us!

This morning, the very nice local birder James Ryder picked me up at the hotel and drove us about 5 miles east along the coast to Musselburgh (say: Mussel-burra) Lagoons. This is part of the estuary (or "firth") where the Forth River meets the ocean. The entire water area is known as the Firth of Forth. Anyway, this particular site is semi-man-made. There is a power station nearby, and the lagoons area is partially landfill from the ash remaining from the plant. It's a huge area, mostly now grassed over, but trucks keep the newer deposits watered down to prevent wind-driven ash clouds. The concession made to the city was that the power company created lagoons for wildlife, constructing pathways and blinds for nature viewing. The wading birds, shorebirds and waterfowl love it, and it is now one of the best birding spots in Scotland. We had a very successful morning - saw 40 species in all, 10 of which were new for me. (sha-ZAM!) List at the end..

Then back at the hotel at noon, Chuck and I headed up the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle. Stopped along the way for lunch, then spent the afternoon exploring the castle. The site is a perfect, top-of-the-hill location, so the views are commanding. The architecture is what you'd expect for a castle - old, big, strong, imposing - and so interesting. The oldest structure still standing in all of Edinburgh, St. Margaret's Chapel from the 1100's, is within the castle walls, as is a dungeon, the Scottish Crown Jewels, museums and so forth. Great way to kill a few hours on a nice day!

From there, we jumped on one of those double-decker tour buses that rushes us tourist-types around the city for too much money... but it was entirely worth it cuz our dawgs were tired and getting off our feet for the hour it took to tour the city was just what we needed.

Then, dinner tonight. We decided on Indian, because there are as many Indian restaurants here as we have Mexican restaurants in the states. We went to one that's off the beaten tourist-path recommended by an Indian guy at our hotel, and it was great - packed with locals and we had a very good meal (starting with vegetable samosas, those potato/pea mini-turnover type things.

OK, pictures are from the birding adventure and the castle tour.

The 10 new life birds today were: Chiffchaff, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Ruff, Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Curlew, Black Swan, and Pied Wagtail. The trip stats are as follows: 63 species for the trip, an impressive 27 new life birds!