@bill careful now. You'll be falling asleep at the handlebar.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7166 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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@jdanielp good point but for now I am still very much awake while cycling on the new bike :)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Attacked by a duck on canal towpath today. It took off from the canal and flew straight at me. I had to duck to avoid the duck.
Laffed about it with the cyclist behind me who also felt attacked.
Unlike @unhurt's swan attack linked to unhurt trying to take the swan's picture without permission, this duck attack was totally unprovoked
Posted 5 years ago # -
this duck attack was totally unprovoked
This aggression will not stand, man.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Nobody ducks with the gembo?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo I nearly had to duck down the other day as well while several ducks were taking off the canal. I wonder if these two incidents are related...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill. The ducks may be trying to tell us something
Posted 5 years ago # -
Three deer bounding across the track past the remains of Dreghorn Mains this evening at twilight. I just saw three white bottoms bouncing along to begin with and registered them as rabbits. Then I realised they were a lot bigger than that, but in the beam from my front light all I could immediately pick out were three pairs of bouncy legs. For a moment my addled brain* identified them as wallabies(!), until they crossed a shaft of light from the full moon and I realised what they were.
Apart from their white bottoms they did seem quite dark in colour. The effect was a bit like those puppet shows where the performers dress all in black against a black background.
* I contrived to smack my forehead quite hard with a sack trolley at the weekend. The incident arose from insufficient care being taken when placing a large bag of logs on to the platform of a slightly unstable trolley. Not dissimilar to the old standing-on-the-tines-of-a-rake slapstick joke. It would probably have appeared quite comical to any onlookers, though there were none (and probably just as well, given the bad words which I uttered in my pain and confusion).
Posted 5 years ago # -
@ejstubbs Excellent story!
wallabies
Wouldn't that be exciting!?Posted 5 years ago # -
You do get wallabies in UK. E.g. South of Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire the squire of Sewerby Hall has a wallabrawonga of wallabies.
They look freezing
Wallabrawonga is the collective noun for a grouping of wallabies.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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@IWARTS I actually learned from this very forum about Inchconnachan wallabies. On the way down Ben Lomond a couple of months ago we were figuring out which island that would be.
@gembo 'wallabrawonga' you say... sounds plausible but neither Mr Bill nor even the internet heard of it in regards of wallabies. Mr Bill says that 'wallaby' is a dhharug word (Sydney region) while 'wonga' is south Gippsland (~Melbourne) word, so a bit of a fankensteinish kinda thing.
You didn't base this statement on some XXXX advert, did you?Posted 5 years ago # -
Not sure if it is a highlight, but just saw 4 magpies in our front garden. Kids and I have been seeing much bigger groupings including 7 for a story never been told on the cycle to school yesterday.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Noticed heaps of squashed frogs today on the roads and a few on the towpath. Wonder if it is related to the Super worm moon last night.
Posted 5 years ago # -
2 or maybe 3 different sets of Ravens/Crows this morning collecting nesting material. It must be spring.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Mob of wallabies
Charm, gulp, or murder of magpies
Unkindness of ravens
Army of frogs
Murder of crows
Corvids getting a bad press in the Venery
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also in The Venery
A ball sack of Brexiteers
Posted 5 years ago # -
A (prison) cell of brexiteers
A (prison) wing of brexiteers
A dungeon of brexiteersPosted 5 years ago # -
Sadly, as far as they are concerned it is
A tax haven of Brexiteers
Posted 5 years ago # -
Tusk seems to be unsure whether it might be a hell of Brexiteers.
Posted 5 years ago # -
A bickering of Brexiteers
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill: I don't think squashed frogs are particularly related to the moon. It's just the time of year when they head en masse for suitable bodies of water to do their bit to perpetuate the species (Rana temporaria).
In certain hotspot locations for frog migration people have been known to operate frog ferry services to help them get across busy roads unsquished. (We used to do this when I was a kid. Our house backed on some woodland, including a sizeable pond, attached to a private golf course. The frogicide rate on the private drive that led to the golf clubhouse was distressingly high, even though the actual volume of traffic was far from high. Which rather suggests that there were actually hundreds of the hoppy things attempting the journey every early spring.)
Rather depressing that some people don't seem to be able to make the effort to avoid them on the towpath, though.
I reckon we have six or seven clusters of spawn in our newly-rebuilt pond so far. Which is quite pleasing, given that I had been concerned that the rebuilding work might have frightened them away. On the contrary, though, I counted fourteen frogs in there one evening a few weeks back. Good news for our hostas, hopefully.
Posted 5 years ago # -
An eyeful of plump flying insects on the Innocent yestereve.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Reed bunting in the garden!
Posted 5 years ago # -
@amir, you have reeds in the garden?
Mad oystercatchers alive and kicking on the granites this afternoon. Sadly also several dead badgers, several dead pheasants and a dead hare.
6 local authorities in the 100 plus miles. Three lothians, one Edinburgh, one borders, one south Lanarkshire.
Third largest medieval hospital in Scotland.
19 of us to Biggar, 18 thereafter. I wish the Humbie hub was in Balerno as last ten miles from Dalkeith full of bad drivers. Always,mono different tonight.
Posted 5 years ago # -
hedgehogs awoke bang on the equinox
uncanny
Posted 5 years ago # -
Spotted quite a large red tailed bumblebee (worker) in the garden this morning. All black with reddish tail. Just googled, quite complicated identifying bumblebees. Includes cuckoo bumblebees
Posted 5 years ago # -
Pair of buzzards soaring above Inverleith Park/Fettes this morning.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Butterfly! Wasp!!
Posted 5 years ago #
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