CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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Spotted my first swift of the year over the lovely city of Utrecht. Hopefully this is a good omen as my OH attempts to break her distance record as we cycle to Edam. The forecast is grim.
South Holland seems pretty cool for wildlife. Lots of meadows with orchids, storks, cuckoos, harriers,... Should have brought binoculars. Wish it was warmer though.
Waterland North of Amsterdam is super for birds. Hundreds of gc grebes and swifts dive bombing. Also large numbers of barnacle geese plus grey. Different species of ducks and waders. Warblers scratching. Highlight though was a make Marsh harrier flying within 5m just below us (we were cycling along a Dyke near Monnickendam)
@amir - we camped last summer in a forest in Flevoland, and the dawn chorus was such as I've never heard before (and I'm a country bumpkin!)...
Marvellous, varied, sustained and encircling - I can provide the GPS coordinates, as it's one of the very few, legal wild camp sites in the Netherlands.
Robert
Thanks Robert. We've got the accommodation are planned and booked. It's my OH's first unsupported tour, so a modicum of comfort and security required. We are staying 3 nights in a wee house so cute that hoards of tourists pass in waves every so often.
Was it scrounging food like a gull?
@amir good heron action. I spotted two herons on the canal this morning. One was lurking discreetly amongst the reeds at Meggetland while the other was ostentatiously preening itself atop a pile of detritus before Slateford Aqueduct.
Yep, even hanging around a doorway waiting for scraps from the owner.
I've never seen such tame herons before. Bit scared of the beaks TBS
The bloke who used to run the Spanish restaurant* on the bridge at Canonmills used to feed his fish scraps to the local WoL heron after service. Often he would step out the back door to find the bird perched on the railing waiting for him!
* Dionika
Highlight today were godwits (bar tailed I think) in summer kit
Last day in Holland in a mini C2C. Saw a spoonbill near the Spaarnwoude ferry
Went for walk up to The Black Springs with Mrs Garto. Nothing remarkable, one bird making a rapid trchee-trchee- trchee sound but could not see it.
Place teeming with wildlife tho, swans, ducks, horses, cows, lambikins, finches, swallows, rooks going nuts at roosting time.
Also Harlaw carpark honeysuckle scent strong and the gorse all heady coconut. 6-7.30pm, nice quiet time
Last night cycling home in the deluge a very fast mouse crossed the Lanark road west in front of me. The road was very wet. Never spotted a mouse going so fast in a straight line before.
A black-throated diver in non-breeding plumage off Gullane Point, dodging gannets slapping into the water around it. No idea what it was doing there in that garb at this time of year.
Also whitethroats, orange-tip flutterbys, etc.
Many wee birds all along the WoL and up Harlaw. Also NEWTS! I always find newts exciting and the wildlife pond at the Ranger centre is full of them. Saw the canal cygnets on my way back into town, and a nice broad daylight fox crossing Craigleith Hill Avenue. Very bushy tail.
Patience revealed there are five eggs under the Inverleith Pond swan. But something may be afoot - one of last year's babies is still hanging about after they chased the others off. And the cob is totally hanging with him/her and I haven't seen him on the nest at all yet (usually both take turns). Hmm...
No newt action in the pond the night before, they were maybe in bed. Those Inverleith swans are a dysfunctional family.
A swan nest right next to the road on that funny wee extra bit of Glencorse Reserviour.
I agree with Gembo about the gorse.
No cuckoos.
Still 9 cygnets in the Harrison Park swan family. They were proceeding along the canal in a very orderly fashion: one adult at the front, the other at the back, the cygnets 2 by 2 between them.
Swallows swooping around The Lyell Centre here at Heriot-Watt.
Not seen a swift yet.
Plenty of swallow and swift fodder in the air this evening, especially aphids.
@fimm those swans in much better formation than Balerno Cubs cycling expedition. Down the WoL path. One parent in front, hundreds of Cubs, one parent in middle dealing with poor wee lass who had fallen off at the Gand design where the ultitrec starts and developers have fences out. Hundreds more Cubs then five dads at the back
A delightful trio of Swifts screaming as I rode down Brunstane Road this evening, after a fine spin round many wee roads near Roslin and Carrington.
Also watched two Hares chasing each other and boxing near West Saltoun yesterday.
Also today, a Mistle Thrush in The Meadows with a beak full of grubs.
Cheers
Colin
Cuckoo in the Pentlands.
@fimm :)
Last year we had a Stock Dove started hanging round our garden, and then he got a mate, and then both disappeared. Looks like they're back, which is lovely to see :)
Stock Doves by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Enjoying lunchtimee walks at Edinburgh Park at the mo with Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings keeping me company (no Skylarks yet....), though the area of land they are on is earmarked for development, and there are Stoats in here as well); and there are Baby Bunnies GALORE (years back a friend and I tried to invent the 'old' Scots word for a baby bunny as 'Burren'. Even went as far as amending the Wikipedia rabbit page. Didn't catch on).
Edinburgh Park Reed Bunting by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Edinburgh Park Meadow Pipit by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Edinburgh Park Burren by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
And in the Figgate the Cygnets have been out for a few days (like clockwork, the last four years they've made their entrance into society within a four day window - smaller brood this year, only 3, which may be down to age. Our cob has a big limp just now, the SSPCA have confirmed this usually happens to him every year as he's particularly aggressive in the pond, hence no other swans. And he may have a touch of arthritis, which gets worse every year. I've been in touch with the swan ringers before for the park, so going to try and find out just how old he is!).
Figgate Cygnets_9 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Figgate Cygnets_5 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Ooh, and a 'chiton' mollusc (Lepidochitona cinerea) on Sunday at Gullane Point, though granted this may be a little niche and only of interest to ardent rockpoolers.
Lepidochitona cinerea by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Plenty of skylarks up in the Pentlands. In fact i actually saw one sitting up on something having a good sing (normally a skylark is just a noisy, vanishing dot).
Eight newish cygnets on the nest with their parents at Craiglockhart Pond a little earlier, which were gradually encouraged to nestle down under the wings of one of the parents for the night. The other parent seemed to be making some minor repairs to the side of the nest while a heron was lurking silently in the undergrowth nearby. Walking back through the woods towards Morningside, there were loads of bats whizzing around and a reasonably large bird silently took to the air ahead of us. Some twitting noises sounded from a nearby tree shortly afterwards and some distant twooing noises were made in response. The twitting noises were then repeated, but quickly faded away to a similar sounding distance to the twooing.
Goldfinch in the guttering from the attic window this morning, watched it from about ten feet away eating its breakfast bugs. Dainty
While enjoying a sundowner in the garden last night we were treated to an aerial display being put on by a local bat.
Dipper and heron up in the Pentlands yesterday evening on a circuitous commute home from work on my 27.5+ MTB. Fun.
@jdanielp
Ditto. Did you see the heron sitting glowering like a crazy dinosaur in the swan's nest at the far end of Glencorse reservoir?
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