You’re more likely to see far more oyster catchers in Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy than you ever see down on the shore. I’ve counted over 40 of them all feeding away on whatever creepy crawlie it is they’re getting from the grass. Surely there can’t be that many worms in the ground.
If you look carefully at the above photo you’ll see some squirrels too, there’s one on the grass to the left of the trees and one on the bark of a tree. Sadly they’re just the common, thuggish grey ones. You have to travel further north or over to the west to see the lovely wee native red squirrels.
The seagulls in the photo below are actually standing on thin ice in the middle of the boating pond. I was surpised it was cold enough for the ice to form. Some folks like seagulls but these ones are an absolute menace, especially if they nest on your roof. They’re just a pain in general. Poor Laura got mugged by one last year as she was eating her lunch ‘on the hoof’ on her way to work. A huge seagull came up behind her and she knew nothing about it until she felt a weight on her shoulder, the next thing her sandwich had been snatched from her hand. It can feel like you’re in Daphne du Maurier’s Birds sometimes as they eye you up and they’re the size of a dog!
I was amazed to see a cherry/almond tree blossoming in January, at the same time as there’s ice on the pond. It’s usually another couple of months before these trees are in flower, the poor thing looked so cold. It’s been such a weird stop-start sort of winter. I’ve had some pelargonium/geranium plants in my garden which have been flowering all through the winter, albeit very bedraggled and straggly looking. It’ll be an even stranger spring at this rate.
Sadly quite a few of the really old trees in the park just couldn’t withstand the force of the wind of the second hurricane/gale which we had recently. Some of them had obviously been there since the park was first planned over 100 years ago.
The two conifers which fell over at the ornamental fountain are going to be especially missed as they were part of a formal design which is now lop-sided. Such is life – and the death of trees.
