http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Wildlife highlight of the day en Sat, 18 Apr 2026 05:39:09 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383864 Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:41:21 +0000 jdanielp 383864@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A swan seemingly on a nest on the island in The Loch at Heriot-Watt, following a complete lack of cygnets last year (although there were a pair of goslings), and a period during the winter when there was a complete lack of swans for several months... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383860 Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:03:07 +0000 ejstubbs 383860@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><blockquote>The Duddingston parakeet making friends with a jackdaw. Both were on the ground, at the base of a tree. The parakeet was dancing backwards and forwards, and looked to be making beak-to-beak contact with the jackdaw each time it went forwards. The jackdaw stood still, seemingly indifferent.</blockquote></p> <p>Reminds of Monty Python's Fish Slapping Dance: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E</a></p> <p>Our highlight of yesterday was seeing martins and at least one swallow hawking for insects over the Musselburgh Lagoons. Other competing sightings: a small raft of three long-tailed ducks performing synchronised diving off the sea wall, ringed plover on the westernmost scrape, and a ridiculously handsome male kestrel perched in a young birch tree looking for voles in amogst the grass tussocks below. And then there was this dapper young fellow hanging around outside the RAF Air Cadets hut :</p> <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55204825939_4f4aec81f3.jpg"></p> <p>"Oh, it's just a starling..." </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383857 Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:02:59 +0000 Frenchy 383857@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Three interesting spots of jackdaws (or possibly other corvids) in the last week:</p> <p>1. A couple of jackdaws investigating whether they could get into someone's chimney.<br /> 2. The Duddingston parakeet making friends with a jackdaw. Both were on the ground, at the base of a tree. The parakeet was dancing backwards and forwards, and looked to be making beak-to-beak contact with the jackdaw each time it went forwards. The jackdaw stood still, seemingly indifferent.<br /> 3. A crow appeared to be chasing a sparrowhawk out of a neighbour's garden. Happened very quickly, so I can't be sure of either bird species. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383803 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:29:44 +0000 acsimpson 383803@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I'm not sure when I last saw a sparrowhawk local to me. However I did spot a kestrel hovering nearby on Friday. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383801 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:47:58 +0000 chdot 383801@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>About 80 whooper swans drifting along the Forth</p> <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55187627965_aa0342846e_b.jpg"></p> <p>(Yesterday) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383752 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:30:31 +0000 chdot 383752@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55180148473_f001502e43_c.jpg"> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383689 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:24:27 +0000 Frenchy 383689@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A few days ago I realised that I hadn't seen a sparrowhawk in quite a few months, possibly a couple of years. </p> <p>One just flew about two feet over my head. Came low over our garden wall and then went over the house.</p> <p>I could live with more distant, but more frequent, encounters. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383355 Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:13:25 +0000 gembo 383355@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>As i came through the bridge at Harrison Park [west] five swans were landing almost filling the bridge. 50 metres away a 6th swan.</p> <p>I like to feel the boroughmuir swan had repelled the wester hailes gang, Rooster Cogburn style.</p> <p>The Boroughmuir swans are building their next [i fear they lost the three cygnets last year] </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-383127 Mon, 09 Feb 2026 10:59:59 +0000 ejstubbs 383127@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Very dapper-looking dipper on the Braid Burn in Braidburn Valley Park on Saturday. And then again on Sunday, in the Hermitage (quite likely the same one). We've seen dippers in both locations before, but this was the first time since April 2024 (WoL and North Esk usually more reliable for dippers, which are one of our favourite birds).</p> <p>Speaking of the WoL, we had a very good sighting of a stoat the previous weekend, in the scrubby field in the angle between the Lymphoy track and the track that leads to the Malleny Garden car park. Only the second time I've ever seen one. I actually registered it as a squirrel for a few seconds, until my brain clicked into gear and realised that it was moving far too sinuously for a squirrel, and it had a skinny tail with a black tuft on the end. It hung around for quite a while, leaping about between the tufts of rough grass next to the edge of the woodland beyond the field boundary. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-382917 Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:43:12 +0000 chdot 382917@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“<br /> "This project will significantly reduce debris entering the Water of Leith, supporting cleaner rivers and a healthier local environment for people and wildlife, including otters."</p> <p>“</p> <p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70ljnyz6xpo" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70ljnyz6xpo</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-382066 Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:10:13 +0000 chdot 382066@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“</p> <p>Once-extinct wildcats to make a comeback in England </p> <p>“</p> <p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr43y97k252o" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr43y97k252o</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381922 Sun, 09 Nov 2025 10:40:50 +0000 Rosie 381922@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A skein of geese over Corstorphine Hill yesterday. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381907 Sat, 08 Nov 2025 09:44:53 +0000 gembo 381907@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Appparently the Noctule shouts four times louder than the legal limit for nightclubs. THe Leisler is another candidate. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381903 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 19:20:13 +0000 ejstubbs 381903@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Daubenton's tends to feed over water, hence its nickname "the water bat".</p> <p>Natterer's bat can have a wingspan up to 30cm according to the <a href="https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/what-are-bats/uk-bats/natterers-bat">Bat Conservation Trust</a> whch also asserts: "absent from the north Scottish mainland and the western and northern islands favouring our parks, large gardens and woodlands." [<a href="https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/in-scotland/bats-in-scotland">link</a>]</p> <p>(And if you're wondering who Messrs Daubenton and Natterer were, you can read about them <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Jean-Marie_Daubenton">here</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Natterer">here</a>.) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381900 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:24:32 +0000 gembo 381900@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Daubenton wingspan 25cm maybe more likely </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381899 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:21:47 +0000 gembo 381899@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Mushroom shaped tragus? Would have to be a blow in from SW scotland </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381893 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 09:17:48 +0000 Frenchy 381893@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Not particularly high. Tree height, roughly. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=245#post-381892 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 08:03:01 +0000 gembo 381892@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>How high up? The biggest UK bat - THe Noctule, thinks it is a Swift </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381891 Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:08:20 +0000 Frenchy 381891@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Biggest bat I've ever seen, flying around over the Innocent railway near Bingham this evening. Wingspan must have been over 30cm. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381857 Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:53:50 +0000 chdot 381857@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/edinburgh-the-lothians-fife-burntisland-hedgehog-hospital-5384245" rel="nofollow">https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/edinburgh-the-lothians-fife-burntisland-hedgehog-hospital-5384245</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381798 Sat, 01 Nov 2025 09:11:36 +0000 Frenchy 381798@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>An otter, with a fish, in the Figgate Burn. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381778 Thu, 30 Oct 2025 22:38:03 +0000 gembo 381778@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Crown are always angry about something </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381766 Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:04:54 +0000 Frenchy 381766@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Pairs make crows angry, based on yesterday's evidence. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381764 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:02:08 +0000 gembo 381764@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Frenchy What do pairs make? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381763 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:44:29 +0000 Frenchy 381763@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Two parakeets in Duddingston this morning. Have been spotting a parakeet once every few weeks this year, but this was the first time I've seen a pair. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381760 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:56:37 +0000 gembo 381760@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Ah yes around there I saw about 7 gooseanders about to be mowed down b y a barge with an enormous Barge Dog sitting on the roof. Sounds like they missed </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381756 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:20:01 +0000 jdanielp 381756@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A dopping of goosanders on the canal yesterday close to Meggetland and today at Polwarth. One dove and caught a fairly substantial fish while I was passing this morning. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381692 Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:14:58 +0000 gembo 381692@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Two white swans at Dope Central - banefield/boroughmuir no brown swans.liight beginning to fade One Jdanielp’s coming off the aqueduct after his stoat experieince Dark. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381689 Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:51:12 +0000 jdanielp 381689@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>There haven't obviously been swans on The Loch at Heriot-Watt in recent days so perhaps the ones I saw moved on, but as I walked around it just now the Heriot-Watt Stoat darted across the path in front of me. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643&page=244#post-381596 Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:04:57 +0000 spytfyre 381596@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A Heron flew past me as I had just joined the canal by Harrison Park East, had I been 15-20 seconds later I would have missed it. </p>