  The initial bifurcations in rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection are studied
in the range of dimensionless rotation rate $0 < \Omega < 2150$ for an
aspect-ratio-2.5 cylindrical cell. We used simultaneous optical shadowgraph,
heat transport and local temperature measurements to determine the stability
and characteristics of the azimuthally-periodic wall convection state. We also
show that the second transition corresponds to the onset of bulk convection.
Our results for critical Rayleigh numbers, precession frequencies and critical
mode numbers agree well with theoretical results. The dynamics of the wall
convection state can be described by a complex Ginzburg-Landau amplitude
equation.
