@IWRATS nope. I first spotted the heron taking flight over Loganlea Reservoir as I approached from the west, having just spotted the dipper flying along the burn. I spotted the heron again skulking around the weir. I spotted a swan on the water just over the road from Glencorse (is that an extension of the reservoir or a separate body of water?), but didn't spot any other notable wildlife before turning left and heading (slowly) up the track towards Bonaly.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Many bats on my Wednesday night trip home at dusk. Also bat walk being advertised on placards along the NEPN
Posted 5 years ago # -
Gavin Corbett ran a bat walk in Harrison Park last year. I thought it would be a quiet affair, with everyone tip-toeing and going Shush. Instead you're given this high frequency tracking device and the kids ran around with these yelling at the top of their lungs. Interesting talk on bats though and did see a few bats.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Goldfinches, green finches on two separate spots and four separate swift spots, OK, OK,OK some maybe swallows. West Lothian and south lanarkshires (where it was not a school holiday)
Posted 5 years ago # -
two cotton tails hopping through the meadows, and three more sitting quietly behind the quarter mile wall.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Spotted a fox just off Braid Road last night. Pics: https://twitter.com/Lollercake/status/1131317314324971520
Posted 5 years ago # -
Female fox - probably with cubs somewhere judging by the state of her mammaries - trotted across our lawn this morning. Glanced in the window as I looked up, then strolled on her way.
Hope she does better than the one that got run over on Oxgangs Road around this time last year, just a day after she'd paid us a visit :(
Posted 5 years ago # -
A #SwanOff contretemps between male swan and rowers on the canal last evening!
https://twitter.com/jules878/status/1131980005259526144?s=19
Posted 5 years ago # -
#TeamSwan
Posted 5 years ago # -
On a late evening walk last night, I was bemused to notice that most of the ducks were stood on the grass between the pond at Craiglockhart and the gym looking extremely alert. I followed their collective gaze and spotted a fox making its way along the top of the wall between the pond and houses, although luckily for the ducks it was heading away from them. As I resumed walking, the fox stopped and spotted me in return, before continuing a bit further along the wall and dropping down into one of the gardens. Mildly concerned for the swans, I continued around the pond, but they appeared to be relatively unperturbed, if alert, although the cygnets were safely in the nest under one of the parents. As I was about to leave the woods at the Morningside end, a fox hurtled out of the bushes, under the gate and up the road towards Greenroofer Towers.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I've spotted a couple of leechy things crossing the towpath in recent days. I remember reporting lots of these a few years ago and somebody suggesting that they were actually some kind of larvae.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Very foxy gentleman pretending to be the reverend walker ice skating in cartoon purchased from independent zebra
Also magpie down the garden with very blue wing tips and very green tail feathers
Posted 5 years ago # -
Starling family in the garden: two adults and two begging fledglings. I always find the body and wing shape of the adults on the wing faintly reminiscent of the Hawker Harrier. The fledglings are more like a aspirant Harrier pilot on his/her first training flight...
I do like a starling or two around the place, though it's far cry from just a few years ago when we used to get our own mini-murmuration of up to a score of adult birds raiding the bird feeders.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Some of the larvae things were crossing the towpath near Bridge 8 Hub this morning - far smaller that the leechy things that I spotted elsewhere on the towapth recently.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Haven't actually spotted them myself yet, but apparently the cygnets have finally hatched at Heriot-Watt.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Pair of goldfinches plus fledgling perched on the telephone wire that crosses our garden. The adults had been regular visitors to the sunflower kernel feeder* for some time, good to see that they've managed to fledge at least one offspring. Charming, in fact.
* I used to have a nyjer seed feeder but it was never very popular. A while after I gave up on it, the goldfinches started coming to the sunflower kernels, which had been there all the time! This apparent switch in preference has been quite widely reported.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Charming, in fact.
I see you.
Posted 5 years ago # -
:)
Also, starling numbers visiting the garden are increasing for some reason. Probably just being sociable: they do like hanging out together (and making a racket in the process - a bit like teenagers at bus stops).
Posted 5 years ago # -
track suited teenagers under bonnie prince Charlie aqueduct the other night right by the roadside, smoking weed and listening to The Carpenters. True.
Posted 5 years ago # -
No sign of cygnets on The Loch at Heriot-Watt just now. One of the parents was feeding in the increasingly weedy water while the other was preening on the grass. The last hanging-on cygnet from 2018 was also in the water. A heron was being divebombed by seagulls. There were ducklings and a fluffy young moorhen. It is possible there the cygnets were taking refuge in the feathers on the back of one of the adults, but I fear that nature might have been cruel.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Neighbour told me he has a hedgehog living under the shed. It should be able to get under the fence to my garden, and I may do a little judicious digging to make an easy route. I have always wanted a hedgehog family but my own garden would be too small to sustain them.
Posted 5 years ago # -
hedgehog to nbe prized for their slug eating abilities
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo are you suggesting that Rosie deploys additional slugs to entice the hedgehog family under the shed?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I could do with an army of hedgehogs. I have literally hundreds of slugs in my garden, which all come out on damp evenings and make my patio completely impassible.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I would have no problem sourcing the slugs, as they have eaten half the plants I've been raising with tender care.
My neighbour said he'd collected 80 slugs and snails, so evidently he has no problem with his gastropod supply either.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I can confirm that having a hedgehog living in the garden does not prevent an abundance of slugs. Perhaps there are less than there would be without the hedgehog, but there are still plenty of them around...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Fewer.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Are slugs distinct entities or just formed from some sort of slug paste? Perhaps less slug could be correct too.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I considered making that argument, but I think then I should have said "there is less slug."
Posted 5 years ago # -
Fewer slugs, less sluggage.
Posted 5 years ago #
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