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First nature ramble of the new year.

I grew up in Ayrshire and go back there each Christmas holiday. National Cycle Network route 7 runs through my hometown along the coast, at points giving fine views of Arran and Ailsa Craig, then changing to a narrower path lined with thick scrubby sea buckthorn - an ocean of orange berries buffering the prom and the sand, from which countless different bird songs can be heard without ever seeing their singers. I headed out with the binoculars at first light one morning to get there before all the families on Christmas walks - robins and wrens flitted around the edges; the 'pink' of the chaffinch and the squeaky-wheel call of the bullfinch led me to spot them deeper in the branches; a yellow side flash and bruiser beak gave away a greenfinch, and I had a fleeting but unmistakable brief encounter with a goldcrest too. Sea buckthorn is not only great bird habitat but the berries are edible and sea buckthorn juice is high in vitamin C and immunity-boosting antioxidants. With the family suffering a domino-effect of coughs, colds and sneezes, perhaps I should have brought back more than just wildlife sightings from the beach. Maybe next Christmas...

Boxing day walk along the Fenwick Water.

It’s a rubbish time of the year to talk about rubbish. But I’m going to do it. Today I went out on the last litterpick of the year on the National Cycle Network – one organised by Scottish Canals on the Union Canal towpath, which is also route 754 - and we collected 45 bags of litter from the towpath, the banks and the water. (Scottish Canals events are the only time I get to play with a 6 foot litterpicker – a mighty piece of equipment with a surprising heft and an enormous turning circle. It’s oh-so-tempting to lean juuuust a little further out over the water to get the crisp bag...) I am fascinated by litter. I like picking it up. I wonder why people drop it. I celebrate finding weird things (today, a guitar neck). But I don’t like the amount. On a litterpick in West Lothian in October we collected and recycled over 200 bottles and cans from a length of route only 50m long, but next to a popular parking spot. We went back two days later and there were another 100. I can’t imagine John Muir ever came across such a haul on his journeys outdoors….although he didn’t have plastic to contend with. However, it’s Christmas, so let’s not be too bleak. This year Sustrans started providing #2minutecleanup bags in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Clean Up Scotland campaign – reusable blue bags made from recycled plastic and designed to be used for a quick litter collection and emptied into a bin. Yesterday, we put a Facebook post up reminding people they could get these from us, and the response has been heartwarming…..nursery teachers, Scout leaders, parents and coaches all wanting to order bags for #2minutecleanups with children on the National Cycle Network in the new year. In October we took Primary 6s and 7s from one of the primary schools we work with out on a litterpick on NCN1. Admittedly mostly only excited by our attempts to wrestle and shut off a discarded but feisty fire extinguisher, they also wanted to know “Where did all the litter come from?” giving their teachers a chance for follow-up work. And Blue Planet has been a bit of a game changer, David Attenborough being as heavy a hitter in the conservation movement as John Muir - people want to see less litter, less plastic, less waste in the oceans, and are hopefully passing this down the generations. Next year Sustrans will be focusing on running more litterpicks on the National Cycle Network, but maybe one year we might not need to….there’s a Christmas wish for you, angels. In the meantime, it was a beautiful morning to cycle along the canal – red-breasted mergansers, fieldfares, robins, long-tailed tits and a brief visit from a tiny newt. And I noticed how wonderfully bizarre moorhens are, with their giant feet and side flash and sociability….a blog for next year perhaps. Happy Christmas.

At Underhill they had built a barn for the barn owl. We liked the piles of hay and grain to attract rodents and we liked planting gorse trees for spring pollinators.