CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7223 posts)

  1. gembo
    Member

    Edmond Rostand loved a pun

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Fox came into the garden and started digging up the tatties in front of us. Seemed to be some kind of game. Wished us to chase it as it ran about with a raw spud in its gob.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. acsimpson
    Member

    We scared a hedgehog off the road somewhere north of Perth on Friday. They can fairly move if they don't decide to curl up into a ball.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

  5. ejstubbs
    Member

    Greater spotted woodpecker on our peanut feeder this morning. I know this isn't a particularly uncommon occurrence but it's only the second time I've seen one in our garden in the fourteen years we've been here (and we've never had a nuthatch). It seemed totally unconcerned as I tootled around in the kitchen making my breakfast but flew away as soon as I got my camera out :(

    Posted 5 years ago #
  6. chdot
    Admin

  7. jdanielp
    Member

    A kingfisher flying along the canal between Kingsknowe and Wester Hailes as I was cycling home from work this evening. That's my first spot in ages. I possibly half-saw one in the same area around the time that I seem to remember Greenroofer spotting one.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  8. gembo
    Member

    A wicker basket of pigeons being released above Ratho the other day, just a wee practice run back to Edinburgh.

    Interesting that the baskets still being made (looked quite new)

    Apparently big interest in pigeon racing in China?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

  10. Frenchy
    Member

    Loads of swans in the sea at Musselburgh yesterday, including a family with eight large cygnets.

    Also two small furry things skedaddling across on the Roslin path. Mice/voles/shrews, not sure.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  11. gembo
    Member

    @chdot, yeah like them except as this is edinburgh, wicker rather than MDF.

    I love these closed worlds. Sadly Pallats - the suppliers to the Racing Pigeon Fraternity - are all out of Sputniks.

    I bought a stove from the sweeps suppliers at sea field end of leith. The stove bit was joined to the sweeps supply warehouse - another semi-closed world.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  12. unhurt
    Member

    A buzzard that didn't notice me till I was 2 metres away them lifted off the fence post in irritation rather than panic. Grasshopper warbler, male yellowhammer, lots of bubbling starling, charming charms of goldfinches and a whole flock of bullfinches on the viaduct outside Montrose. ETA also kittiwakes.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I had two newly fledged buzzards mewling for food at the anti-aircraft gun emplacements on Braid Hill the other day. Quite tame. In time they may become like seagulls?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  14. unhurt
    Member

    If a buzzard wants my chips she can have them.

    Oh, forgot about the heron fishing at low tide in Gourdon harbour - and getting harassed hy a couple of herring gulls. Turns out an angry heron makes quite a loud SQUARK.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  15. amir
    Member

    We had a pleasant morning before the rain set in (again) watching several ospreys mooching, chomping and hunting at Loch Leven. Partly assisted by excellent scone at the RSPB. Also a couple of pig impressionist ravens by the ruins of Orwell Church

    Posted 5 years ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

  17. gembo
    Member

    Spotted sister of one of my colleagues chatting to the bunnies on the towpath

    The two women share a flat. The sister reports they spot many more rats than bunnies

    Posted 5 years ago #
  18. Now 6 Spoonbills at Tyninghame (though distant and sleepy - this is a massive crop, even from 500mm). Hoping they hang around till the start of September when I've some proper time off and can go when it's high tide instead.

    Tyninghame Spoonbills by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Posted 5 years ago #
  19. amir
    Member

    Nice @WC. I've heard about them for a while on Twitter but haven't got around to going to see them.
    At my OH's hometown, you can get to see a pink version.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  20. Hey @amir - yeah, they've been hanging around for ages. Fingers crossed they like it (certainly seem to) and it becomes an annual thing!

    Roseate Spoonbills are even more striking! Just so improbable, especially when you see them flying with that bill held out in front.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  21. gembo
    Member

    Spoonbills this far north - climate change??

    Posted 5 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

    Posted 5 years ago #
  23. Colin
    Member

    After watching my first Spotted Redshank at Musselburgh Lagoons, yesterday, I enjoyed watching a Peregrine making a succession of attempts to catch its dinner. It was high tide so there were many agitated birds on and around the scrapes.

    Also, the Wild Justice petition now has over 62000 signatures in under a week.

    Cheers
    Colin

    Posted 5 years ago #
  24. gembo
    Member

    Mute swan and five cygnets, many mallards, score of tufted ducks and a dab chick. Something quite interesting far side of loch but hard to say. Identification hindered by lots of pink flowering plants floating on the water and big bulrushes near the hide (above balerno)

    Posted 5 years ago #
  25. jdanielp
    Member

    I just remembered that I spotted two goosanders on the canal on Friday for the first time in a few months.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  26. chdot
    Admin

    Hedgehog being de-ticked.

    It had quite a few.

    “wee update- hedgepig seems to be recovering well and likely to be released later”

    Click here if you really want to see an extracted tick.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  27. unhurt
    Member

    Are you part of a vigilante hedgehog rescue group now?

    Posted 5 years ago #
  28. bill
    Member

    I think I keep seeing buzzards on my commute now. There is usually one sitting on top of a bale of straw along Gogar Bank. Another one this morning on a tree along Clifton Rd but flew away before I could take a better look of it.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  29. jdanielp
    Member

    A kingfisher perched on the head of the Antony Gormley statue in the Water of Leith just by Stockbridge Bridge. I only spotted it because I saw a group of people with cameras trained on the statue from the side road. It caught and consumed at least one fish before heading upstream a little where I was able to spot it again. It then perched calmly on a branch for quite some time before eventually flying out of sight.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  30. gembo
    Member

    Just there approx 19.45pm approx 25 swallows high above the house. I think maybe they were saying cheerio

    Posted 5 years ago #

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