Those in the Seafield and Portobello area might have noticed the council giving the grass at the top of Seafield Prom a haircut these past few days. Long-term followers will know this is a bit of grass that we’ve been working on with volunteers – adding in coastal wildflowers and scrub. The Dog and Cat Home are having some new signage put on their fence so the council have strimmed a wee strip in front of the fence to make sure the signage can be seen. The rest is being left for now. We know it’s a bit untidy looking at this time of year, but please bear with us, we promise it’s for a good reason – even now it’s vital to wildlife! Our Urban Biodviersity Leonie has designed a brilliant poster to let us know the benefits:

On Sunday afternoon we went out to North Berwick for a shorebird walk hosted by the Scottish Seabird Centre. Edinburgh residents got an opportunity to learn more about the shorebirds who call the Firth of Forth home. East Lothian still has lots of areas of rocky shore and mudflat in tact (far more than within the City of Edinburgh coastal area) which makes it a great home for our wintering wading birds, as well as sea ducks. As the Firth of Forth is a Special Protected Area for the huge numbers of overwintering birds it supports this is a very special time of year to head out with your binoculars. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp afternoon and we managed to see Greater Black-backed Gull, Shag (or Cormorant – they were a bit too far away to ID!), a Heron, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Turnstone, Purple Sandpiper, male and female Eider ducks...

We had an excellent (if sometimes grey) morning with Dr Rebecca Yahr, Lichenologist, from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Sunday. As you’ll know, the Edinburgh Shoreline project is run by the Botanics, so we’re lucky enough to work with Becky, but Sunday was all about unleashing her on the general public, and what a day it was! As well as researching lichens, Becky also works on public engagement. The Botanics wants everyone to know what special organisms lichens are: a symbiosis of a fungi and an algae. The algae produces the food for the organism through photosynthesis, and the fungi produces a protective sunscreen layer for the organism. Lichens like to live on rocks and bark, amongst other places, and they also prefer clean air. So, Becky took us on a walk to Cramond Island to find lichens. As the island is in the middle of the Forth, at...

As you might have heard, we’re now embarking on a joint project with the Scottish Seabird Centre, the City of Edinburgh Council, University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow to improve habitats in the north of Edinburgh and along the East Lothian coast and Forth islands. You can find out more about it by visiting our blog post from June. Emily Burton is the new Volunteer Coordinator appointed to work on the Wild Line project on behalf of the Scottish Seabird Centre and will be leading teams of volunteers in invasive species removal in East Lothian. Hop over to the centre’s blog page to find out more, and how you can get involved.

Our project partners at the Scottish Seabird Centre are on the look out for volunteers to be involved with the Wild Line project. If you fancy getting hands-on removing invasive non-native plants from the East Lothian coast to improve habitats for seabirds then this is the opportunity for you! For more info contact volunteercoordinator@seabird.org    

On Thursday 10th October we visited the RSPB Skinflats reserve near Falkirk with 36 P7 pupils from Craigentinny Primary School. Reserve Warden Allison and volunteers Grant and Nicola hosted us for a great session exploring the different habitats found on the site and the birds and animals that call it home. First off, we looked at globes and maps to find out where Skinflats is on the Forth in relation to Edinburgh and Stirling. It’s a perfect place for birds with extensive mudflats, which are recently improved thanks to managed realignment on the site (see here for more detail). We then split into groups to do some fun activities: bug hunting with colourful nets, nature detectives exploring for signs of animals such as shelters and dens, nibbled nuts and conkers and tracks and prints (some say of dinosaurs, but I’m not sure!) and finally bird watching.Bird watching was very popular...

For anyone that has recently visited the City Chambers, you might have spied the community map we made earlier this year on display in the main foyer. Director of Place for the City of Edinburgh Council, Paul Lawrence, was kind enough to offer to have the map on display having seen it at our celebration event in March. Displaying the map in the City Chambers over the month of September has been a great way to engage more people with the project, and also get it noticed by more councillors and council staff. Over late 2018/early 2019 we met with community groups and local residents and asked them to consider what they cherish about living in a capital city with a coast, as well as sharing aspirations for the future. The message was clear: our coastline is a wonderful asset. It allows people to connect with nature and has benefits...

Edinburgh Shoreline staff and volunteers spent a very pleasant Saturday in the Brunstane Burn with the Forth Rivers Trust, learning to survey invertebrates. Many thanks to Amy and Jonathan for spending a Saturday with us. The Trust gave us an insight into some of the work that they do on the Almond and the Avon monitoring invertebrates (see here to find out more about their work). RiverFly monitoring involves monitoring the levels of 8 particular species of cased caddisfly larvae, caseless caddisfly larvae, mayfly larvae, stonefly larvae and freshwater shrimp. No Killer Shrimp, please! These are all key indicator species of water quality, and by monitoring the numbers found in a particular river you can get an idea of the health of the water. You can find out more about the project here. After learning about the project and studying invertebrate ID guides, it was time to get in the...

Many thanks to our super colleague Martine Borge, the Scottish Native Plant Horticulturist here at the Botanics, for hosting a group of residents from Wardie Bay Resident Association today. We had a really interesting visit to the Nursery and learned about collecting and growing Scottish Native wildflowers from seed. First off, we had a special behind-the-scenes tour of the polytunnels at the nursery, and heard about Martine’s work to protect and conserve rare Scottish plants. We particularly enjoyed hearing about RBGEs work growing and researching alpine blue sow thistle, cicerbita aplina. You can read more here. The group were also interested to see some Arran whitebeams, sorbus arranensis, grown at RBGE which are soon to be planted at Wardie Bay along the new cycle path installed by the City of Edinburgh Council. Inside the polytunnel at the nursery. Cicerbita alpina is in the foreground and sorbus in the background. Then, we...

A rare collection of colour photographs of Portobello during the 1950s and 60s have gone on display at Portobello library, Rosefield Avenue.  They show the sunny side of life in Edinburgh’s seaside, with images of families playing on the beach, a pony and trap offering rides and local landmarks such as the former power station. The will be on display until 11th October 2019.You can find more detail here.  

On Sunday 1st September, the Edinburgh Shoreline Project and Lothian Conservation Volunteers planted a new wildflower meadow (measuring 11m x 16m) at Cramond. The well-known ’roundel’ in the middle of the promenade at the entrance to the beach and causeway to Cramond Island, is certainly looking very different this week, and will look even more different in 6-9 months time – blooming with coastal wildflowers such as Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Lady’s Bedstraw, Sea Mayweed, Kidney Vetch and Clovers! First off, the Lothian Conservation Volunteers removed the turf and top soil from the site. This reduces the fertility of the area, and means that plants such as dock do not take over the site and out-compete the wildflowers. The ground was then raked to prepare a seedbed, seed mixed with sand was scattered on the area and thoroughly trampled in to ensure they were bedded in and would not be blown...

Local resident Morag Edward is displaying a series of her artworks as part this years’ Porty Art Walk. Morag takes inspiration from the Edinburgh coast (as well us other coastlines around Scotland) and paints seascapes often with boats, birds, wildlife and swimmers in these scenes. Morag’s work will be displayed at Miro’s cafe, 25 Promenade, Portobello, from 7th-14th September. For more info visit inkzoo.wordpress.com

The Edinburgh Shoreline Project is delighted to offer the opportunity for one P6 or P7 class from a school in a coastal region of Edinburgh to visit RSPB Skinflats, near Falkirk. This visit is an opportunity for pupils to discover more about the interconnected ecosystem of the Inner Forth and the Firth of Forth, and see habitats in the Inner Forth that are very different from the built up Edinburgh coastline. The Forth is a Special Protected Area for the internationally important populations of winter wading birds, and the mudflats and saltmarsh at Skinflats see visits from thousands of birds each winter. Due to tide times, this opportunity is available on either Wednesday 9th or Thursday 10th October. It is available on a first come first served basis. A letter has been emailed to each eligible school, but if this has not reached you or you would like more information...

On Friday 26th July the Edinburgh Shoreline Project accompanied academics from the University of Edinburgh for their first meadow scoping exercise. As part of Edinburgh Shoreline: The Wild Line the University of Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council will be planting 8 new perennial coastal wildflower meadows to connect up existing flower-rich areas from Cramond to Granton. This will create a ‘pollinator corridor’ in the north of the city. For our first outing, we visited the 8 proposed sites to check current species diversity and sense check the locations. We would not wish to disturb any important or rare plant species when sowing our meadows! We are pleased to report that none were found – just the regulars, mainly grasses, with flowers like clover and yarrow in small quantities. Two of the meadow sites as they currently look (with predominately grass species) which will be transformed into coastal meadows next...

We had a wonderful evening with residents of Wardie Bay on Monday evening, looking at the diverse plants that can be found on and around the beach . It was a warm and sunny night and the beach was full of Edinburgh folk – swimming, fishing for mackerel and enjoying al fresco dinners. A group of us walked around the beach to see what plant species we could find, and the list was long. Very encouraging! Many were colourful, smelled wonderful and provide an important function for the pollinators in the ecosystem. Here’s what we found: Coastal specific: Sea milkwort Sea rocket Sea lyme grass Common orache Sea mayweed Others: Lesser trefoil Curled dock Ribwort plantain Yarrow Creeping thistle Mugwort Common knapweed Spear thistle Field scabious Rosebay willowherb Cocksfoot grass We will record the species on iRecord so that the data feeds into the NBN Atlas. We also chatted about...