Not one but two kingfishers on the canal this morning. One flew past me as I was cycling alongside the playing fields at Wester Hailes and another was perched on a branch on an overhanging tree just west of Gogar Station Road Bridge. I am predicting a bumper winter for kingfisher spots just so long as Scottish Canals don't trim overhanging vegetation.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 5 years ago #
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Two kingfishers on the way home - one perched on the end of the small wooden jetty at the bottom of Hermiston House Garden and the other flying up from the surface of the canal into a tree in between the bridges at Calder Road.
Posted 5 years ago # -
If only anyone else could see these kingfishers. Still I did spot @jdanielp bossing it through the chicane
Posted 5 years ago # -
No kingfishers this morning, but a growing number of goosanders.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Merganser Merganser conference season
Posted 5 years ago # -
If only anyone else could see these kingfishers.
Would I be expelled from CCE for liming branches on the canal?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Would I be expelled from CCE for liming branches on the canal?
Its use is illegal in many jurisdictions, including CCE...
Robert
Posted 5 years ago # -
Xmas themed, made from either mistletoe or holly?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is it acceptable to give IWRATS the bird for that suggestion?
Posted 5 years ago # -
How about gin traps?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I'd be endangered by a trap baited with gin...
Posted 5 years ago # -
A couple of red kites: one eating some roadkilled bunny and another circling around in an updraught.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Disconnection from nature can be bad for our mental health. But there was no name for this particular malaise until Australian sustainability professor Glenn Albrecht coined the term psychoterratic, creating the beginning of a vocabulary to discuss the relationship between mental health and environment.Posted 5 years ago # -
Yesterday, near the Easter Hailes gait a deer came up from the river, crossed the WoL path then skipped up the vertical hillside with ease
Posted 5 years ago # -
This morning on the Slateford Aqueduct a dark-coloured mustelid the size of a ferret was making its slightly panicky way along the towpath on the inaccessible side. At one point it crossed through to the outside of the railings before realising that there weren't many options for escape there.
I couldn't pay it too much attention (I was riding along the other side and didn't want a pre-work bath) and it was still pre-dawn, so I couldn't be sure of the colour or any distinguishing features.
Not something you see every day...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Let's hope not.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I've seen mink in the WoL. They're everywhere.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Sounds like mink, they eat the water voles babies
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS. Yes very probably. It did seem to be very dark in colour all over.
Posted 5 years ago # -
While cycling near Loch Awe:
1 red squirrel. 1 heron eating a fish.Posted 5 years ago # -
A kingfisher perched on a branch of leafless bush at the bottom of Hermiston House Garden this morning. I stopped briefly to admire it gleaming in the sun, at which point it moved further into the bush, chirping irritably. I took the hint and headed up the ramp onto Hermiston House Road.
Posted 5 years ago # -
stood for about 45 mins on Saturday afternoon watching salmon trying and largely failing to get up the weir at the Dacha. More than 1 / minute, there were loads.
100% failure rate, which makes me think they were also probably using the salmon ladder in the middle - which would make sense.
one in pic prob about 50-60cm long. Super cool, never seen it before in the UK.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Kingfisher near Hermiston House Road Bridge this morning.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Still disappointed in @Iain McR for failing to hurl himself into the water grizzly-style & emerge with a salmon in his teeth. Surprised Mrs McR, being Canadian, didn't push him in.
Several seals banana-ing on protruding rocks in the tidal part of the Loch of Stenness at sunset today. Soundtrack: various waders and a chill wind hissing through the dead grass & reeds. Atmospheric, what.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Iain McR
This is our dinner.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Big skein of geese honking their way over East Calder.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Kingfisher at the bottom of Hermiston House Garden this morning. Let me know if/when these updates are boring (spotting them never is).
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jdanielp
The kingfishers are core CCE content. Please continue.
Posted 5 years ago # -
saw a formation team of goosanders taking on some seagulls on the canal the other day. Very effective attack
Posted 5 years ago #
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