Discovering Bauk's View

Bauk's View used to be a car park off the Pleasance, but in 1998 the local residents decided to turn it into a wildlife garden. In 2000, work had been completed and Edinburgh had a new public park, near the centre of the city but with a spectacular outlook to Arthur's Seat.

I'd spotted it a few weeks ago on the Edinburgh Outdoors twitter feed, and was struck that as a life-long resident of Edinburgh I'd never heard of it, let alone visited it. So I organised the simplest and perhaps most Meetup-ish of Wild Reekie Meetups: let's meet at Bauk's View and make a species list.

It was also one of the most effective. None of us were ecologists, but in an hour we'd counted 30 species and 5 more approximate identifications, and discovered that between us we had quite a lot of pooled knowledge. Everyone contributed and everyone learned something.

Here's our modest list -- just a hint of the diversity of life if you stop for a moment to look:

Blackthorn

1. Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa
2. Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna
3. Seven spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata
4. Holly, Ilex aquifolium
5. Honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum
6. Primrose, Primula vulgaris
7. Robin, Erithacus rubecula
8. Black slug, Arion ater
9. Woodlouse (there are lots of species of woodlouse and I can't distinguish them)
10. Millipede (also not identified to species level: we need an outing with the British Miriapod and Isopod Group...)
11. Bumblebee (now, these I really ought to learn!)
12. Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta (no doubt x hispanica)
13. Sticky willie (Cleavers), Galium aparine
14. Stinging nettle, Urtica dioica
15. Common whitlow grass, Erophila verna
16. Lady's mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris
17. Snakeshead fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris
18. House sparrow, Passer domesticus
19. Cowslip, Primula veris
20. Dandelion, Taraxacum
21. Broad-leaved dock, Rumex obtusifolius (it turns out both dandelions and dock are also diverse at species level)
22. Blackbird, Turdus merula
23. Feral pigeon, Columba livia
24. Magpie, Pica pica
25. Wood pigeon, Columba palumbus
26. Bramble, Rubus fruticosus
27. Great tit (by song), Parus major
28. Springy turf-moss, Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus
29. White clover, Trifolium repens
30. Meadow cranesbill, Geranium pratense
31. Herb robert, Geranium robertianum
32. Dunnock (Hedge sparrow), Prunella modularis
33. Jacob's ladder, Polemonium caeruleum
34. Melancholy thistle, Cirsium helenioides
35. Greater black backed gull, Larus marinus

Snakeshead fritillary

You can record sightings using a smartphone on the Atlas of Living Scotland database. This helps provide 'big data' for wildlife organisations and scientists to use in research. You can read about Bauk's View on the Edinburgh Council parks pages. 

I hope to organise more 'discover a park and make a species list' events with Wild Reekie: follow our Meetup page to be notified of future adventures. 

Eleanor M Harris, @eleanormharris