CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Wildlife Spotted While Riding

(28 posts)
  • Started 14 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from SRD

  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Okay, so out and about in the countryside it's easy to see loads of wildlife from the relative quiet of a bike, with unobstructed views of the 'outside' world. But the wildlife in the city seems just as willing to show itslf.

    There are the usual rabbits and foxes (which I still like seeing despite having chickens), but every now and then you get something a little different. This morning it was a Kestrel sitting in a tree by the Innocent Path. He was a wee distance away, looking like a pigeon at first glance, but he looked different enough for me to stop thinking it was a bird of prey. He took off at me stopping - I watched him describe an arc behind me and disappear the other side of the railway. Cheered up my morning.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    Random Google

    Discover Your Local Wildlife Areas (CEC)

    Scottish Wildlife Locations - Edinburgh and the Lothians

    Edinburgh Wildlife Flickr Group

    WildlifeScotland - Edinburgh and Lothians

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    l

    Just published

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. Kirst
    Member

    I see lots of neds, was that the sort of wildlife you mean? :-)

    I see loads of magpies - the biggest group in one place comprised 13 of the noisy b*s. I see rabbits, occasionally a fox, and sometimes pheasants. Now and again I've seen a heron in the burn by the Innocent just west of Duddingston Park South, but he's always flown off before I could get his photo. And I have seen birds of prey at a distance and not been able to identify them. I think they like to chase the pigeons which roost near me - they were all flocking and squawking wildly the other weekend and it looked like something was chasing them.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. PS
    Member

    I can't give you any commuting examples, as I've got a 10 minute walk to work, but it's true that the vastly improved awareness and view of wildlife is one of the great features of cycling.

    For a start, in the last couple of years I've seen several weasles zipping across the road in Mid- and East Lothian - I'd never seen one before I started cycling. It's great fun to keep up with birds in flight as well - I followed an owl for about half a mile up the NCN1 in the Borders last year.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. Arellcat
    Moderator

    My commute doesn't ordinarily take in any wildlife corridors and the most exciting it gets is seeing someone's cat, or watching the seagulls. My work's site actually has a greater concentration of wildlife than my commute, with seagulls, blackbirds, bluetits and sparrows, and we used to have a healthy bee population. I've seen very few bees and ladybirds this past year and a half.

    Some very well fed foxes live beside the South Sub near Cameron Toll, and they were quite the joy to watch last week.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. Min
    Member

    I saw a mink scampering on the towpath a few weeks before Christmas. It jumped in the canal, luckily it had a fur coat on.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. SRD
    Moderator

    Anyone else notice that when the canal was frozen, the moorhens took to sitting in trees? Most surreal (maybe they do this all the time? we'd never noticed it before)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Min
    Member

    Haha, I didn't see that but I have seen herons sitting in trees before. It looks really weird.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. Kim
    Member

    Anyone seen any squirrels recently?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    That's the downside of not enough spokes....

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Oww, Kim! A hyperlink would've been sufficient, you know. :-(

    Posted 14 years ago #

  13. steveo
    Member

    I ride passed the zoo every morning, i think i would be a might worried if there was any wildlife on my comute...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  14. gembo
    Member

    Spotted a kingfisher a few times on canal and water of leith path at Dean Village. Always gives a lift to the spirits. Also there a green parrot (escapee not local). Herons a plenty given improved water quality. Foxes quite a few times. Occasional dipper. Plenty rats on inverleith path, esp after rain.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  15. Greenroofer
    Member

    On the towpath to the west of Edinburgh:

    • One flash of turquoise on the canal, which I take to be a kingfisher.
    • The ubiquitous rabbits
    • A teeny weeny rodent scurrying for its life under my wheels after dark

    ...and something that I thought was a water vole but now realise was probably a rat.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  16. Kim
    Member

    I have actually seen a water vole swimming in the canal.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  17. gembo
    Member

    Yep water voles in canal no problem, rats on the bank but maybe a rat fell in or went for a swim?

    he European Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius formerly called A. terrestris) is a semi-aquatic mammal that resembles a rat. In fact, the water vole is often informally called the water rat.[3] Some authorities consider the Southwestern Water Vole in the same species, but it is now generally considered a distinct species.[2] [4] Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep brown fur, chubby faces and short fuzzy ears; unlike the rat their tails, paws and ears are covered with hair.
    In the wild, they survive for 2 years on average; most do not survive a second winter. In captivity, they normally start to deteriorate in condition as they approach their third year becoming thinner and losing much of their fur, nearly all die during their third winter.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    Photo of mink in Stockbridge

    Posted 14 years ago #

  19. Kim
    Member

    It is interesting to see that there are still mink (Mustela lutreola) around, they are usually displaced by otters (Lutra lutra) and there are otters in both the Water of Leith and the canal.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  20. gembo
    Member

    Mink not nice they displace (well kill) water voles

    Posted 14 years ago #

  21. SRD
    Moderator

    I can't find the other wildlife spotting thread, so hauled this one out of hibernation. Wehad a lovely (but windy) cycle out the canal to Heriot watt, then across to Currie, and up via Colinton to New Year's lunch in Craighouse.

    Spotted one Shag, a pair of gooseanders, 4 swans, one tufted duck, and a few random mallard pairs. Spent quite a lot of time trying to photograph the Shag and the gooseanders, but not much luck.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. SRD
    Moderator

    Correction. We thought the bigger bird was a cormorant, but then looked at pics in the Collins guide, which made us think it couldn't be. But a look at our own pictures - and the RSPB handbook of scottish birds - makes us think it was a cormorant.

    Wish we'd gotten a better picture. He was very flighty.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. amir
    Member

    I'd say cormorant from its shape. Also you're more likely to see them inland.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. SRD
    Moderator

    Male goosander just spotted again in Polwarth by the 6 yr old. She's better at it than us.

    Yes, amir, definitely a cormorant, it was much bigger than a shag. But the colouring very black, and very hooked beak, which looked quite diff from the Collins book pic.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. kaputnik
    Moderator

    There's regularly a small congregation of goosanders above the weir at the end of Ford's Road. They were there this morning too.

    Also you're more likely to see them inland.

    If you see it inland, it's almost certainly a cormorant.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  26. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Yes, we get cormorants at the bottom of our street on the North Esk. Easy way to tell them from shags is that they sometimes stand with their wings spread out.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  27. gembo
    Member

    Cormorant common on canal.

    Kingfisher 'kasionally kaptured

    Very exciting when the latter bird flies for a mile along the water like a fighter jet. not to detract from the cormorant which is spectacular in its own prehistoric way, with the diesel effect underside feathers

    Posted 11 years ago #

  28. SRD
    Moderator

    We've not seen the cormorants much this year - perhaps explains our confusion (that, or wine with lunch).

    Posted 11 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin