CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7166 posts)

  1. jdanielp
    Member

    You may find yourself, being recategorised as a wildlife highlight
    You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  2. unhurt
    Member

    Very well played indeed!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  3. gembo
    Member

    Thanks for all compliments and talking heads reference. Glad someone was listening to the Suit In A Lifetime routine.

    @snowy, just wind behind me causing the force?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    Random (contains kingfishers) -

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/59471898@N04/

    Posted 6 years ago #
  5. chdot
    Admin

    More

    Posted 6 years ago #
  6. jdanielp
    Member

    Nice pictures! I just spotted a stoat emerging onto The Walk from under the fence surrounding the remains of the recently demolished halls by the loch at Heriot-Watt. It thought better of emerging and nipped back under, but I was able to identify it by spring its black tail tip.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Huge flock of very tame, very brightly coloured goldcrests in Mortonhall woods. Irruption perhaps?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. jdanielp
    Member

    spring = spotting

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. gembo
    Member

    Lot of birdies on canal towpath on way back from decathlon lunchtime. Heron, mallards, chaffinch? Blue tots just At the bit jdanielp spots his kingfisher. Pied wagtails. In Heriot watt grounds large brown bird, colouring of female blackbird but bigger.

    Hilariously at the top f ravelrig hill one d the numerous new Cala developments is called Kingfisher Park.

    Waxwing or Fieldfare pArk I would give them. Kingfisher would be a long way from home up that way.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. unhurt
    Member

    Gentle crow reality TV on the WoL at Saunders Street today. Hanging out on a leaf covered islet, one fished a soggy heel of bread out of the river and proceeded to subdivide it and hide the parts under leaves. (Later uncovered and eaten by two of the other crows.) Seems crows don't like herons much and the feeling is mutual. Mallards were also wary. Much paddling and wading - apparently if water birds can do it crows are willing to have a shot too. Lots of splashy bathing and one of the foursome taking a great interest in picking twigs out of the water and dropping them back in. Then she spotted a maroon hat with gold trim caught against a rock mid stream. Lots of pecking and examining head tilts. Then a secret signal sent them all off upstream, leaving the heron to it.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. gembo
    Member

    Did I mention I saw some seagulls on the canal last week fighting over a slice of pizza? The action took place on top of the surface as the canal was frozen. Not so as you could drive a car along but solid enough for a seagull fight.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. unhurt
    Member

    You didn't and that sounds entertaining.

    Meanwhile I am become as @jdanielp: kingfisher at The Dene a few minutes ago. Ridiculously iridescent - took me a moment realise it was a bird and not foil caught in a tree.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. gembo
    Member

    @unhurt, it slipped my mind.

    Foil caught in tree 30 per cent
    Blue tit 20 per cent
    Pool shoes 10 per cent
    Actual kingfishers 40 per cent

    The blue takes your breath away. The two flying in formation I saw beneath Juni green in early autumn stopped me in my tracks. The dog walkers seemed unimpressed.

    Magpies being criticised for eating robins and wrens eggs. By Michael murpugo on tweet of the day. Radio 4 this morn. Wrens and robins amongst the most numerous uk birdies so not sure what MM is on about.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. unhurt
    Member

    "Carnivore/omnivore criticised for eating things it's supposed to eat" is always puzzling to me. "They KILL other birds!" - er, yes. That's... sort of how biological networks... work?

    I am going to go on Radio 4 and have a go at robins for murdering innocent wee insects and caterpillars etc.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. jdanielp
    Member

    A sparrowhawk or something not dissimilar hovering casually above Bruntsfield Place as a seagull attempted to noisily mob it. This came just minutes after a pedestrian to pedestrian high five with gembo at the top of Morningside Road.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    A sparrowhawk or something not dissimilar hovering casually above Bruntsfield Place

    I don't know why, but I want to suggest that it was a piano.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  17. wingpig
    Member

    Some sort of hawky thing on a road sign on the A1 just shy of Haddington.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. jdanielp
    Member

    @IWRATS the sparrowhawk hung in the sky in much the same way that pianos don't.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I don't know what I was thinking.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. Frenchy
    Member

    @jdanielp - could it perhaps have been a sperm whale? They share many of the same letters.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    French Christmas cracker joke;

    Q: Why is it so hard to find whales?
    A: Because they hide in the water.

    Notes to editors;

    i) It only works in French and even then only badly.
    ii) '...in the water', not '...in the sky over Bruntsfield Links'

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. jdanielp
    Member

    @Frenchy seems unlikely due to the absence of an accompanying bowl of petunias.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. unhurt
    Member

    Wait. Isn't it bricks? I feel like references are being mixed.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  24. gembo
    Member

    Jdanielp has gone all 42 on us

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. jdanielp
    Member

    @unhurt indeed, the sparrowhawk (if that is what it was) hung there like a Vogon Construction Ship while I'm assuming that a piano would behave much like a brick...

    Posted 6 years ago #
  26. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I'm assuming that a piano would behave much like a brick...

    Clearly you're a not a golfer.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. paddyirish
    Member

    Fantastic Mr Fox ran in full flight across the path in Dalmeny Estate about 10 yds in front of me this morning. It was pitch black and it was a big adult. Glad he wasn't a couple of seconds later.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

  29. neddie
    Member

    It only works in French...

    Here's my attempt:

    Pourquoi est-ce que c'est trop difficile à trouver des baleins?

    Par ce que ils se cache dans l'eau

    What am I missing...?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  30. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    What am I missing...?

    'Baleine' only covers the filter-feeding whales, a sperm whale is 'un cachalot'. So in 'Ils se cachent à l'eau'...'hide in water' is pronounced the same as 'sperm whale'.

    One of my claims to fame is being the first to introduce the 'Why do dogs lick their testicles?' joke into France.

    Posted 6 years ago #

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