CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7166 posts)

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  1. gembo
    Member

    Samuel Pepys buried his Parmesan during the fire of London? I have other suggestions but they are brand dependent.

    Saw partridge, black headed gulls, was chased by lapwing as going so slow up the granites, at top when stopped to admire the view of the whole of the lothians a curlew flew past and was calling out in flight. I love a curlew.

    Also had epic brunch at No 1 Peebles Road Innerleithen - poached egg on toast with side of halloumi, triple shot Americano. None of that helped me up the granites,in do have throat and chest infections and I am old.

    I wish the granites ended in Balerno. The last 23 miles were a struggle into the wind in up and down Midlothian and through the madness of hill end junction, bush junction, gowkley moss roundabout

    Many different types of bikes at no1 Peebles road, Graeme obree or that guy tha t looks like him, a very sporty recumbent. Our climber caught him going up the granites but then he had to wait for me.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  2. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I checked the Parmesan (actually Gran Padano I cannot tell the difference) but it is still in the fridge.

    The brand was Grahams. Slightly salted. Spreadable.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    Graham's and slightly salted spreadable you say? Sounds like a squirrel was on holiday from Stirling and some of yr neighbour's were having a barbq with corn on the cob and baked potatoes as well as rolls needing spread. That all went well and the only thing was they left the butter out. Some point in the early morning the Stirling squirrel stashed the Graham's for the next time it was down in embra on hols.

    Graham's ten a penny in Stirling but only recently started their butter, yoghurt cheese and quark diversification down here, there milk has been coming to my door however for years.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  4. Greenroofer
    Member

    Four buzzards circling in a thermal above the Braidburn Shell station earlier this afternoon.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  5. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    That sparrowhawk circling over Liberton again. Twice. Once in company with two buzzards.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  6. amir
    Member

    Bumble bees, wasps, peacock butterflies, chiffchaff, yellowhammer, raven, skylarks, fieldfares, little yellow flowers, trees ready to burst bud, humans.... All evident on the Pencaitland railway path (and my bike didn't get too muddy)

    Posted 7 years ago #

  7. fimm
    Member

    Something (probably a buzzard) circling above Midlothian on Sunday.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  8. jdanielp
    Member

    A great spotted woodpecker in Craiglockhart Woods on Sunday morning, raining down bits of bark onto me as I craned my neck to spot it. A nesting swan on the pond, which stood up to move around whilst I was watching - I could see two or three eggs but there are no doubt more.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  9. amir
    Member

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-39384426

    "A project to boost golden eagle numbers in southern Scotland has had funding of more than £1.3m confirmed.

    At present there are only between two and four pairs of the bird across Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders.

    The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project hopes to make them a "more common sight" throughout the area.

    A study has shown that there is suitable habitat for somewhere between 10 and 16 breeding pairs across southern parts of the country.

    Thanks to the Heritage Lottery funding, work will start on the project this autumn, subject to a licence application lodged with Scottish Natural Heritage being approved.

    In summer 2018 and for the next four years it is planned to bring in between five and 10 young eagles from the Highlands.

    They will be raised and released at a hidden location in the Borders."

    Posted 7 years ago #

  10. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @amir

    That land largely belongs to Mr <Redacted>. They can release and monitor as many eagles as they like but unless the 'land managers' change their behaviour the end result will be the same as for the other birds of prey there - low velocity carbofuran poisoning and high velocity lead poisoning.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    "unless the 'land managers' change their behaviour"

    Maybe that's what the money is for...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  12. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The eagles they release will all be sat-tagged. The real pressure on the grouse farmers has been from the knowledge of the locations where sat-tags stop working and the incredible difficulty of recovering the bodies of birds whose tags have stopped transmitting.

    Eagles are huge, the tag locations are very accurate, but time after time no bird has been found when the locations are searched.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  13. Frenchy
    Member

    low velocity carbofuran poisoning and high velocity lead poisoning.

    Very droll. That's a very depressing web page.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  14. Nelly
    Member

    Big fat Ratty McRatface dead as a dodo on the Aqueduct this morning.

    Must be the time of year for dead rodents, saw a dead mouse squished on Castle Street last week.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  15. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The rat's sad demise is the crows' bounty. So turns God's green Earth.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  16. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    amir: little yellow flowers

    Lesser celandine or Colts-foot?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  17. gembo
    Member

    Spotted posey of celandine growing out of a rock in the middle of the water of leith near where the tannery used to be. That whole site has been cleared of trees. Sunday when put for a stroll.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  18. amir
    Member

    @Cyclingmollie I thought celandine but... Its just south of Ormiston station

    Posted 7 years ago #

  19. amir
    Member

    It's that time of year. Garlic in the air. Hares in the fields. Plus a confident buzzard deworming the field.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  20. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    @amir, yes, I think that would be Lesser Celandine.

    I found Purple Toothwort, Dog's Mercury, Yellow Archangel, Colts-foot, Celandine, Honesty, Wood Anemone, Butterbur, Ground Ivy and Few Flowered Garlic when I was out with the dog on Monday. The first two were new to me. Still looking for Moschatel though.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  21. amir
    Member

    Moschatel = Town Hall Clock

    Posted 7 years ago #

  22. gembo
    Member

    I have plenty nice young fresh ground elder in my wild garden if amir or cyclingmollie wish to come and eat it?

    Posted 7 years ago #

  23. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Thanks for the offer gembo. That stuff is pericious but I have heard the Romans introduced it as a green vegetable.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  24. jules878
    Member

    Fully grown rabbit racing down middle lane of Dewar Place at 11pm tonight as I was cycling up the said lane.

    I'm not sure which of us was most surprised by the encounter!

    Posted 7 years ago #

  25. gembo
    Member

    @cyclingmollie I was in Wedgwood for lunch one day I was feeling like a treat and ground elder was on the menu which I found hilarious given the amount of it I have tried to blitz to little effect (apart from the Paraguat before we could do anything in the garden. Old carpets worked a wee but. But pernicious is accurate.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  26. jdanielp
    Member

    A roe deer grazing on the vegetation on the far side of the canal just west of the Slateford Aqueduct last night. I assume that it is likely to one of the group that had been living in the vegetiation on the towpath side of the canal during the winter. I hope that the others are ok...

    Posted 7 years ago #

  27. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I'm sorry you've got ground elder gembo.

    I managed to finally find Moschatel, a tiny spring wildflower yesterday. I had read it was found in old woodlands so I rode out to the oldest woodland I could find (i.e. looked for the tallest trees in the landscape). I did have to explain myself to the residents who stopped by in their car to ask what I was doing. So it required some trespassing/assertion of my right to roam under the Land Reform Act though they were quite interested and got out to look for themselves. Turned out they get people stealing their primroses.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  28. gembo
    Member

    First big bumble bee yesterday in garden, today in the back porch needing ushered out.

    @cyclingmollie, the ground elder is creeping back. It was all over the garden which is steep with rough terraces towards the WoL path. Could only really remove with Paraquat. Dug out several dead trees, burnt twenty five years of hedge clippings and trees I think from other gardens. Lot of railway detritus And one intact portobello jar.

    Up at Harlaw ranger centre today the little pond was ringed with yellow primrose I think. And seething with copulating frogs. My wife had been up at the reservoir earlier in the week with her class planting a wild flower meadow. One lad said, you know miss the female frog will copulate with two males at the same time. But it is not her fault.

    Today we actually saw the spawn emerging. We then read a wee sign by the Rangers telling us about frogs and how the newts in the pond eat the spawn. Fear not, there is a burn further along with tons of spawn and no newts.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  29. wingpig
    Member

    Huge waft of honkbeaks heading north over the allotment yesterday morning, with a smaller set of stragglers a few hundred metres behind.

    Posted 7 years ago #

  30. fimm
    Member

    Skylark over the Pentlands yesterday.

    Posted 7 years ago #

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