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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7166 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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I chased a medium to large sized rat along the towpath and under the canal bridge by the Scott Russell Aqueduct on my first properly dark cycle commute of the season.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Seasonal house guests have begun to arrive.
Posted 6 years ago # -
That is just a baby spider unhurt. Also your finger nail has turned green?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Digit just for scale, but I reckon she's at least a teenager (in spider years).
Re: fingernail - extraterrestrial broccoli spores?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Stockbridge spiders are the best.
Posted 6 years ago # -
But balerno arachnids are bigger
Posted 6 years ago # -
A dragonfly taking advantage of the sudden heat wave.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I was making my way over Drumochter this morning (It looked a bit windy for the Ski Road Challenge, but I had a train ticket to use, so I instead rode home from Dalwhinnie via the A9 path). Anyway, on the way over a windy Drumochter there was a large raptor hanging in the wind and looking closely at the ground. It didn't have the light-coloured underneath of a buzzard, and was generally a darker, richer, brown. Is there any chance it could have been a Golden Eagle?
Later, in Fife, there a kestrel doing its hovering thing, and several skeins of honking geese heading north west.
As a low-light, there was a lot of squashed wildlife, from tiny bundles of speckled feathers to a whole deer and everything in between.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Good chance. They are bigger than buzzards but smaller than sea eagles. Dimensions were actually discussed on here a while back.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@greenroofer I also saw lots of skeins in my Lothian wander. And dead stuff (includes rat, haré, badger, roe deer). Must the time of year
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Greenroofer - reports for Project Splatter? (On Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ProjectSplatter.)
ETA: naturally, @sallyhinch already follows them!
Posted 6 years ago # -
@greenroofer
Not really. Buzzards are very variable in colour. The French for buzzard is 'buse variable'. Where you were is not eagle friendly territory.
Dolphins in the mouth of Aberdeen harbour for the first time.
Posted 6 years ago # -
On the Loanhead-Gilmerton path this morning I caught a glimpse of what looked like a very fluffy reddish/gingerish rat jumping into the verge. Its tail was also fluffy, and a couple of inches long.
Any help identifying?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Posted 6 years ago #
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A squirrel that's lost part of its tail?
Posted 6 years ago # -
A squirrel that's lost part of its tail?
My best guess (other than me remembering wrong), too. Think it was a bit fat to be a squirrel, more guinea pig shaped, but with a tail.
Posted 6 years ago # -
3 swans taking off from the direction of Cramond Island flew in to the mouth of the river did a banked turn and headed out to sea. Almost perfect imitation of an aircraft take-off.
I wasn't sure if the sound I heard was them calling (much quieter than geese who flew much higher) or the flapping of their wings. Researching swan calls this evening...
Posted 6 years ago # -
I do like Heriot-Watt's owls regardless of whether or not they may be artificial, but I would really like to see one rather than just hearing hooting from wooded areas as I'm heading home after dark.
Four of the canal swan family were heading west on the Scott Russell Aqueduct shortly thereafter. Night swimming deserves a quiet night, but I'm not sure that all the people in the vehicles on the City Bypass underneath us understood that, sadly...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Owl, swan, swan, hummingbird?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Hedgehog playing chicken on the Innocent cyclepath this evening. There are benefits to dark commutes
Posted 6 years ago # -
Dive bombed by a bat on WoL path in dark. Earlier some peaky blinders and some mammals without lights at all on towpath.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt I had to look that reference up :)
I have been spotting a few goosanders on the canal recently. This morning, after passing a female in the water near the Scott Russell Aqueduct, I was then passed by it in turn, presumably as a result of it being spooked by me and the cyclist behind. As it flew by, it evacuated its bowels onto the surface of the canal in a way which was reminiscent of archive footage of aircraft dropping napalm in Vietnam.
Shortly thereafter I saw a small bird on the water that I haven't spotted on the canal here before - it *may* have been a little grebe or something along those lines unless it was a young moorhen or coot which was still looking relatively fluffy.
Posted 6 years ago # -
jdanielp
Little grebe often mistaken for a duckling at first. Likely your bird. Have seen one at the Wester Hailes basin back in my canal days.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@IWRATS it wasn't as little as I seem to remember the little grebe that I spotted before (as confirmed by parents) was.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Two big foxes ran up to me on WoL path at colinton just after Former Globespan building. Just before I dipped back down onto the path. Nice beasts. Think one was running parallel to me after that but in the bushes. No bats tonight though
Posted 6 years ago # -
“Two big foxes ran up to me”
Did you smell of fox food?
Posted 6 years ago # -
No, only wolves will eat humans if very hungry. These foxes were just frolicking. My light may have impacted on their bifurcation
Posted 6 years ago #
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