Song thrush known as Throstle. I also like the Mistle Thrush (not so much singing from it tho)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Young swallows on the roofline, getting fed by parents on the wing.
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The Russel Road to Roseburn Path ramp (the RRRramp?) now has its own rat - the RRRramp Rat. I've seen it scurrying across a few times in the last month or so.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo: A complete clanjamfry of maybe field fare around a sheep pen in the granites and I mean 100s and 100s of them. Too brown for stuckies.
Wrong time of year for fieldfares in numbers like that, surely? RSPB (all I have to hand on holiday - forgot my usual bird books at home :() says 1-2 breeding pairs in the UK. The large flocks are winter visors as I understand it.
Also, fieldfares are noticeably larger than starlings. They also have grey (almost blue-grey sometimes) head, and tail coverts; and a yellow-ish-orange throat - which is to say that they're noticeably not just brown.
We saw a mini-murmuration of juvenile (therefore brown) starlings at Loch of Stenness this afternoon, only one adult bird in charge as far as I could see. I'd hazard a guess that you saw something similar, except unusually more so.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes @ejstubbs those are good points. Had they been darker I would have said starlings given just how many of them there were
Posted 5 years ago # -
Dolphins in the Bosphorus just off the boat!!! This tour was £3 (TL20) well spent!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Please say you are taking the orient express home
Posted 5 years ago # -
Ish. Sleeper to Sofia tomorrow night. Stopping a couple of days. Then on to Belgrade. 24 hours there then trains all the way (including one sleeper) Belgrade - Zagreb - Munich - Frankfurt - Brussels - London - Edinburgh.
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It would be truly heroic if you swam the Bosphorus with them.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I actually know someone who has swum the Bosphorus - charity swim for bowel cancer (which killed his wee sister).
Posted 5 years ago # -
If there is a small Belgian with moustaches on your sleeper, change tickets @unhurt
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Sparrowhawk sat on the roof of our garage for 10 minutes. I stood and watched it from the window whilst on the phone, then when I finished the phone call, I went to the next room to get a better view but it had flown away.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Male sparrowhawk lugging prey in a very straight line and now I think know where the nest might be. Will go and listen as the young should be very big and noisy right now if not fledged...
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This gull fell from its nesting site a few weeks ago and now lives in a garden with a large dog and three chickens waiting to be able to fly!
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Bit knock kneed?
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I was watching the juvenile Swallows on the tram wires through Edinburgh Park yesterday (there's a large area of overgrown waste ground that I've spent a large number of lunch hours) - 15 counted at their height, each waiting for an adult to come and feed it, and bolting at each tram passage.
7 or 8 Swifts bombing about as well, and a surprising Linnet on the tram wires at one point as well.
Spoonbills are still at Tyninghame. Pondering a very early rise on Saturday to finally get out and try to see them (I'll be glued to @birdinglothian on Twitter to keep abreast of their movements).
Posted 5 years ago # -
Tebay east side today on the rocks overlooking their pond eating their chips (bit cold actually but still tasty) many Jays, a rook, small gulls and best of all House Martins swooping at high speed crash bang under the eaves of the building. THey were right on target over the water and their aim was true.
Tomorrow I will cycle to the highest point in Warwickshire and report what’s I can see
Posted 5 years ago # -
Crows harassing a buzzard outside my office window. Buzzard keeps shouting "What?", but the crows keep chasing it.
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10 spots of Red Kites in Warwickshire today. One on Brompton when I tried to pedal the wee folder up the highest hill in the County. Steep if short but with cheeky false flat/false summit
Nine on family walk from Ilmington to Hidcote Manor Gardens, with slight detour at Ebrington due to being sold a dummy by another walker. Ended up being ten miles plus two more round the gardens. Master Gembo, and Little Missy Gembo will sleep well the nicht
Posted 5 years ago # -
A flying stork! From a train! Those things are Big.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo: We saw a red kite from the Farr Road the other week, on our way to Loch Ruthven. Not quite what we were hoping for, since we'd been promised Hen Harrier, but it was quite a surprise since we didn't realise they'd got that far north. Then further down the road we passed a sign for a Red Kite Centre...
Earlier in the day we'd seen an eagle soaring over the hills to the south of Strathdearn. Possibly even the same one we saw from the A9 south of Slochd on our way back south just over a week later.
Orkney highlights were a large flock of curlew, simply because there were so many of them all together, and artic skua both dark and pale phases. Eider bobbing about in the bays with their ducklings were cute. Gratifying to spot a reasonable number of lapwings, given their general parlous status. Back on the island of Great Britain, at Melvich, we encountered some ringed plover plus youngsters on the beach and river bank, neat little birds.
Non-animal highlight of the trip was finding primula scotica amongst the short-cropped grass alongside the coastal path at Yesnaby.
Posted 5 years ago # -
finding primula scotica amongst the short-cropped grass
Nice one. Supposed to be quite small and hard to find.
My highlight today was being buzzed by a buzzard.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Full disclosure: shortly after leaving the car at the old battery we were strolling along when the wife spotted that someone had scrawled "SCOTTISH PRIMROSE" in the hard-packed earth of the path, along with three large arrows pointing towards the landward side. They were about five yards off the path and still took a bit of finding to begin with, but as is often the case once you got your eye in they became easier to spot.
Later on in the walk we did discover some more at another location purely by our own efforts.
When we returned to the car the message on the path had been scuffed out. We were grateful to have had them pointed out but we could also understand that someone else might have been concerned that less principled persons might have wanted to take more than photographs.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I seldom see much wildlife on my commute, save for that already deprived of life at the roadside, but late yesterday evening was the exception and it jolly well cheered me up. As I watched, this little one actually came right up to me, and sat by my foot for a time.
I wanted to take it home, where it could gorge on the snails in my garden.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Aww! I spotted a deer in the field between the canal and the motorway just next to Hermiston House Road Bridge as I cycled home earlier.
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This morning Some sort of thrush/quail with broad yellow stripe down back flew in the distance across my brompton path on Mallard Hill (not a huge hill in the Brickhill Parish of Bedford - where all the streets are named after birdies, Curlew Crescent being my favourite).
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Numerous CS orchids lining the route up the Granites
Posted 5 years ago # -
Out the Cam towards Grantchester - Marsh Harrier and a lovely wee bird hovering and dancing across the water. Never seen that before. Many humanoids punting, swimming and sunbathing. Scorchio
Posted 5 years ago # -
Two red squirrels running awat in opposite directions on the trail around Loch Leven
Posted 5 years ago #
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