CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7221 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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Hemlock, growing by the North Esk path near Musselburgh.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Cotton thistle growing just off the NCN between Whitecraig and Dalkeith. "Normal" thistle beside it for size comparison.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A badger again and lots of bats up Craiglockhart Hill on Saturday evening. Wish I'd had my decent camera with me.
Posted 7 years ago # -
a robin in my kitchen this morning - funnily enough it didn't seem too happy. Defecated it's way round most of the house before exiting through the front door.
Isnt that mean to be bad luck when you leave a house through different door that you entered ??
Posted 7 years ago # -
Some ducks having a sleep and a cuddle on the edge of the towpath this morning:
Posted 7 years ago # -
Darting frog, one red admiral and two orange brown moths frog easy strimming
Field fares I think on slamman plateau cycle and err the human species of orange men and women on the fauldhouse orange walk. There was even a wee boy with cymbals and a skinhead and hat too big for his head. Wondered if he was saveable.
The very tall guy battering the feck out of the poolbeg was not saveable
Posted 7 years ago # -
Jogging along on a quiet path through the woods on Craigmillar hill and a headless rabbit dropped from the trees at my feet.
Pleasingly, it makes exactly the sound you would expect, a soft, hollow 'fop'.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A gift! Are you going to tell us if you saw what ate (presumably) the head.
Posted 7 years ago # -
This rabbit, let's call him Peter, was out climbing trees in Craigmillar despite his mummy telling him not to. He had already lost his shoes and jacket and then wee malky mcgregor chopped his head off and left him up the tree to warn his cousin Benjamin bunny not to come climbing on malky mcgregor's trees?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@acsimpson
I once took and cooked a rabbit that a stoat abandoned in front of me, but this one was not that fresh.
It was a buzzard that I had disturbed. Wee Malky Mcgregor not yet into grouse shooting, therefore no persecution of Craigmillar's raptors.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A pigeon has just crashed into the office window. Within seconds it was being devoured by seagulls. Maybe Cllr Cook is right.
Posted 7 years ago # -
bleedin' cannibal seagulls again
Posted 7 years ago # -
Three magpies having a scrap at Meggetland this afternoon. It was a sustained scrap, with two of them going for the third one. Every time the third one tried to fly off they chased it down onto the ground and sat on it while pecking away. There was a lot of squawking, although no blood.
It may have been a bizarre mating ritual, or just internecine warfare.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@greenroofer, two's company
Saw four magpies on the very back road out of heriot watt on Saturday. The one that used to have kennels at the end of it and you set the dogs off as you emerged.
The four were behaving
Maybe only odd numbers of magpies misbehave?
Posted 7 years ago # -
A flying rat! A seagull picked up a dead rat from the middle of the towpath at Kings Knowe. I slowed down and gave it time to fly away as I didn't fancy getting a rat hat. The seagull was struggling a bit and managed to fly only about 4 meters to the side and landed with the rat.
The rat must have been hit earlier by a cyclist. I also had a few sudden brakes today to avoid hitting a squirrel, rat and bird.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Feels like there is something up with the wildlife, headless flying bunnies, cannibal seagulls, bizarre magpies and now flying rats
What are they trying to tell us?
Posted 7 years ago # -
If I remember Higher English correctly we are living through a Shakespearean tragedy where the underlying morals of the state and thence the natural order have been corrupted.
Something is rotten in the state of this rat. The magpie himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of the bunny. Etc etc.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Seagull trying to take duckling from canal this morning. Feckin cannibal seagulls
Posted 7 years ago # -
A newt crawling away from the canal over the towpath at Kingsknowe yesterday late afternoon. I attempted to jink around it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Attempted? Is this....a confession?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@IWRATS I'm afraid that I didn't stop to check if I had avoided it or not. Hopefully it got better if I didn't.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Buzzed by a buzzard at Kiln Wood near Tynehead. I saw its shadow pass over a couple of times. Same on the way back. Close enough that I could hear it this time.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Scottish Government response to my rant in May;
Dear IWRATS,
Thank you for your letter of 18 May 2017 to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, regarding raptor persecution. I have been asked to respond on her behalf. Please accept my apologies that, due to the high volume of correspondence received on this matter, it was not possible to reply sooner.
Please let me start by reassuring you that the Cabinet Secretary considers this matter to be hugely important, and shares your concern over the difficulties in detecting and prosecuting wildlife crime. However, decisions on prosecution in individual cases are entirely a matter for the Crown Office and I hope you understand that it would be inappropriate for Scottish Ministers or government officials to comment further on these.
In August 2016, Ms Cunningham ordered a review into the disappearance of a number of satellite tagged raptors. As you may be aware, this review, looking at data from 2004-2016, was published on 31 May 2017. The findings were extremely concerning. The report concluded that almost a third (41 of 131) of satellite tagged eagles disappeared in suspicious circumstances and that illegal killing was the most likely explanation for their disappearance.
It can be read in full at the following link:http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publications/search-thecatalogue/
publication-detail/?id=2468.In response to this latest report, and also bearing in mind other recent raptor persecution incidents and a recommendation from the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee on licensing of shooting businesses, the Cabinet Secretary announced a package of further measures to tackle this ongoing blight on Scotland’s countryside. These are:
• Set up an independently-led group to look at the environmental impact of grouse moor management practices such as muirburn, the use of medicated grit and mountain hare culls, and to recommend options for regulation including licensing and other measures which could be put in place without new primary legislation;
• Immediately review all available legal measures which could be used to target geographical areas of concern;
• Increase resources for the detection and investigation of wildlife crime and work with Police Scotland to pilot the use of special constables in the Cairngorms National Park;
• Rule out giving the Scottish SPCA more investigative powers, in light of legal advice;
• Examine how best to protect the rights of gamekeepers and their role in promoting biodiversity, not just grouse interests;
• Commission research into the costs and benefits of large shooting estates to Scotland’s economy and biodiversity.
These new measures will build upon existing work, including restrictions on general licences and a commitment to implement recommendations from the Poustie report, including increasing the penalties for wildlife offences during the current Parliament. Further details will be released in due course.Turning to your third point, Police Scotland can currently consider the refusal or revocation of firearms certificates or shotgun licences from an individual for various reasons, including if they have been convicted of a wildlife crime. Several people have had licences revoked or refused in recent years wholly, or partially, as a result of wildlife crime. The Scottish Government has committed to explore options for implementing recommendations from the Poustie report to enhance these powers. However, firearms legislation remains reserved to Westminster. The Scottish Government believes this legislation is complex, difficult to understand and long overdue for reform and Ministers have written to the Home Secretary several times about this.
I hope you find this response helpful in outlining the Scottish Government’s determination to rid Scotland of such outdated and irresponsible practices.Yours sincerely,
Aye well, we'll see.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Stoat on the towpath out by the bypass this morning. Kestrel hovering over the waste ground by Edinburgh Park Station this afternoon.
Both relatively unusual sights for my commute.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A wee sleekit STOAT on the shared path opposite Queen Margaret's University. S/he dashed back into the vegatation alongside the path when me and my stealth machine were heard approaching.
I've not seen a stoat for decades, and I see Greenroofer also saw one last week! Amazing!
Posted 7 years ago # -
Saw stoat on Sunday, but in Suffolk.
Egrets very easy to spot down here too also saw two marsh harriers today which are big raptors. But highlight was a little tern out on the Dunwich shingle a tiny cute little bird.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@gembo
A herring gull conducting a gastronomic autopsy on a rabbit in Bingham.
There is a storm brewing I tells you.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The herring gull has no shame, an evil glint in its eye but in its defence, it hasn't eaten a herring for many years
Posted 7 years ago # -
A Jay near Aberlady. Also lots of fungi including a couple of puffballs
Posted 7 years ago #
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