Watching birds is a great procrastination technique (especially) when writing to a deadline. Last year I watched clouds and ended up as member of the Cloud Appreciation Society (look it up, it’s a thing). This year is all about the birds.

What’s your favourite bird?

I’m not a fussy ornithologist. I’m not looking for a rarity. In fact, I’m quite partial to gulls. Magpies. Crows. Tits! The ordinary bird just eeking out a living in our shared urban environment.

If I had to name my favourite bird in Leith, it would have to be the dishevelled heron that sits on the edge of the loch in Lochend park. If birds had facial expressions, this one is non-plussed. Sometimes I take fitness clients to the park, just to see the heron. I’m always delighted when it’s there, regular as always. Not doing much.

Lots of folk love the woodpecker in Pilrig Park. I’ve heard it plenty, but never managed to spot it, not once. Better for bird spotting is at our allotment, where a cheeky robin once joined our picnic. It perched on top of the ketchup bottle and looked just perfect.

Blackbirds follow us about when we occasionally do the weeding. I love their darting run, they duck their head down and off they go. I only learned this year that female blackbirds are actually brown. No wonder I was confused!

The Begbie of birds is the Pied Wagtail. They even forage on the footpath of Leith Walk. They’re brave, crazy and perhaps slightly stupid. But they’re not in decline so perhaps they’re doing something right. My bird bible, the RSPB book (and website) describe them as thus: “The Pied Wagtail is a delightful small, long-tailed and rather sprightly black and white bird. When it’s not standing and frantically wagging its tail up and down, it can be seen dashing about over lawns or car parks in search of food. It often calls during its bouncing flight and can be seen gathering at dusk to form large roosts in city centres.”

Imagine a wee willy wagtail with the markings of a magpie. Look around the footpath on Leith Walk, halfway down and you might spot one hopping about. They seem partial to Pret. Why Begbie-like? They’re aggro little buggers when it comes to other birds on their patch.

Gulls have a bad reputation. It is a displaced species, a feathery refugee. It would much rather be perched on cliffs and fishing in the sea, but a lack of seafood, and a proliferation of land-based food waste, means it’s coexisting with us. In a food crises dropped kebab will do.

Many years ago I wrote a wee Leither story about the nocturnal seagulls of Leith Walk, circling and squawking in the middle of a warm summer night. The sound of Leith, the sound of seagulls (or technically European Herring Gulls, they’re the biggies with the striking red stripe on their beak). Their tailfeathers are a fashionable black and white design. And they’re smart. I reckon nearly as smart as a dog. But less huggable.

Did you know that gulls can drink both plain and seawater? They have a gland behind their eye that extracts the salt to make the water safe to drink. Pretty clever. Gulls are fifty times heavier - a wren weighs about as much as a £1 coin, whereas a gull weighs more than a loaf of bread (thanks again to RSPB for that factoid). Mind boggling stuff.

Magpies are actually quite shy of humans. Arthur and Martha magpie nested in the tree at the end of Balfour Street, high up in the branches of the hornbeam. The nest grew and changed over the years, we don’t know if it was the same or different magpies that returned to nest. When the streetlight was installed, they made the sides of their nest extra high, perhaps to stop being dazzled. I’m not sure if they’re still nesting there.

For serious bird-spotting, head to the Water of Leith, where you can spot a Kingfisher, Eider ducks, swans and lots more. Tom Kelly’s ‘Go Wild in Edinburgh’ website has loads of beautiful bird photos www.gowildinedinburgh.co.uk and even includes tips on the best places to spot birds.

Humans are more similar than we are different, especially when you consider the avian world. Somehow birds manage to share the same sky, a good metaphor for how we could share the planet with others, despite superficial differences. The next time you’re feeling blue, look up and think of the birds…

Maybe you’ll see a dove (more likely a pigeon, which is it’s urbanised descendant). May peace be with you.

Bluesky: @tracygriffen

www.griffenfitness.com