Eco walk beside the Water of Leith
On the Monday evening of Gala week (June 4th) Charlotte Neary of the Water of Leith Conservation Trust took twenty of us along the Water of Leith opening our eyes to the wildlife and ecology of the area.
We met in Dr Mackay's Wood where Eric Wright of the Juniper Green Village Association explained the history of its gift to the Village and its subsequent development as a community woodland.
Charlotte showed us the native trees in the wood like geans and bird cherry, birch and juniper. There were flowers too: Green alkanet( a startlingly blue flower!) and bittercress which is yellow.
Charlotte explained how some of these plants are garden escapes while others are among the first to colonise fresh soil like that left on the banks of the river after the new development of Woodhall Mill.
Richard Watt pointed out some of the birds to us: swifts and swallows hunting over the river and a song thrush which sang mightily, repeating its phrases just as Robert Browning says! (Richard is an erstwhile English teacher and knows his poets as well as the bird life!) He also pointed out the grey wagtails and dippers which live on the river and we all got a magnificent view of the heron being mobbed as it perched in a nearby tree.
Some of us saw the kingfisher which flashed past but none of us were treated to the sighting of the otter which Charlotte had had a few days previously on this very stretch of the river. She pointed out that it was her first view of it for all the seven years she had been working on the river.
Thelma Ingram and others showed us the landslip on the river bend just upstream of the new development where great chunks of rock have fallen into the river.
Further slips (which will surely happen one day) could cause the river to flood the haugh.
We all enjoyed a very relaxed wander along the river which has played such a major part in the history of our village.
