Loch Leven

Scotland’s biggest lowland Loch is important for wintering and breeding wildfowl. I visited the RSPB hides using my mum’s ancient Audubon binoculars, the good ones being in Italy.

Highlight was this large whooper swan family in from Greenland. Two parents and five cygnets.

Whooper (confusingly pronounced ‘hooper’ ) swans are one of the biggest birds - an adult was recorded at 15kg.

I took a walk to the outflow of the canalised Leven river - the Cut - which lowered the lake by four feet. A bit of a slog it is part of a 12 mile circular path that battles with road noise and a tangle of boggy woodland that keeps you away from the water. At least where I was.

As dusk fell I drove to Kinross in the hope of seeing the overwintering pink-footed geese returning to their watery roost in thousands but it was not to be. There was a pretty mini-mumuration of starlings. As the dark fell I got cold and headed back to Edinburgh.

It’s an interesting place that doesn’t give itself up easily.

The evening menu consisted of Moroccan style humous on toast, a rolled piece of shoulder of lamb, carrots, leeks, chips (!), poached Roche pears and a brown butter (noisette) mince pie. Wine and tea a choix. Terry and I slept prodigiously as Canada struggled to overcome a sluggish Belgian team.