Usual suspects on the loch and fish in an Edinburgh pond

On one of the sunny days while I was at the Edinburgh Festival in August, I went for a walk in Holyrood Park.  I ignored all the tourists queuing to go into Holyrood House and, instead, headed for St. Margaret's loch - a small lake that was a short walk from the house and hidden by surrounding trees and hills.  In fact, as I did not have any idea where the lake was, I had to ask a man in a kiosk in the car park and he very kindly pointed me in the right direction and also gave me a map of the park.

I was interested in finding out what type of birds I would find on the loch and was hoping to find something different, but there were only the usual suspects - swans, ducks and gulls.  In the photograph below the re is a young Herring gull, but I really am not sure what type of duck is in the foreground.  Is it a female black duck or just a mallard?   Can anyone identify it for me?

Also on the loch were lots of black-headed gulls.  This one is in its winter plumage and therefore does not have a black head.  I love the shape of its feathers as it sails along on the surface of the water.

Below is a view of St. Margaret's loch from one end.  As you can see, there was not really much in the way of wildlife on it during my visit.  Also, the birds kept disappearing from sight when someone at the other end of the lake was feeding them with unsuitable food.

It did not take long for me to walk round the loch as it is not very large.  I sat on a bench by the water for a while and had some lunch before deciding to walk through the park along the path in the valley below Arthur's Seat, which is a very high hill that can be seen from almost everywhere in Edinburgh and is much too tall for me to attempt to climb.  Even the thought of it makes me feel bad!

This is the view from the park at the start of my walk, over the rooftops of Edinburgh, past the Firth of Forth and all the way to Berwick Law - another tall hill - in North Berwick, which is on the coast and several miles from Edinburgh.

Below is a view of Arthur's Seat that I took at the start of my walk through the valley.  I think that there are several ways of walking to the top and some of them seem to involve thousands of steps!

At the end of my walk there was a view from the park of Edinburgh Castle, which is perched high on a rock in the centre of the city.

I left the park and then had to face a long walk along the pavement back to the student flats in the centre of the old town.  The walk was livened up by a view of pretty pink water lilies and golden fish, which I presumed were koi carp, in a pond belonging to the offices of Lloyds bank.  They even had a garden with benches for their staff to sit in, but where the public were not allowed to go.

Needless to say, after the walk to the loch, through the valley in the park and back along the road to the student flat, I was exhausted and needed a cup of tea and a long lie down.