CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7161 posts)

  1. PS
    Member

    one of the things we're trying to work on at the Scottish Wildlife Trust is lmaost a rewilding of cities. Trying to get people to think more about de-tarmaccing the whole front garden, for example.

    I recently read Mark Cocker's book Our Place: Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?. It's a pretty dispiriting and depressing read on the loss of habitat and species in the UK over the past century, despite the British on the face of it being "nature lovers", evidenced by them being well into membership of the likes of the National Trust, RSPB, etc.

    The one way out of the mess that he seems to be positive about is, extrapolating out that level of public interest, the opportunity offered by people turning their gardens over to wildlife. Removing the lawns and replacing it with flower meadow species. I hope he's right, but I have to say the anecdotal experience, as per WC's neighbour, makes me pessimistic.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  2. PS
    Member

    [Double post.]

    Posted 4 years ago #
  3. jdanielp
    Member

    NIMBY and NIMFY nature lovers.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  4. jdanielp
    Member

    The Kingsknowe Rat under the longer of the bridges at Wester Hailes and again crossing the towpath approaching the Slateford Aqueduct. It looked smaller the second time, presumably due to the exertion of stealthily overtaking me.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  5. jdanielp
    Member

    A heron stood very upright on a rock in the Water of Leith towards Juniper Green, a couple of aloof horses in the field by the level crossing at the bottom of Donkey Path and a buzzard soaring over me just after I crossed the railway.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  6. SRD
    Moderator

    seen on twitter:
    @BikeEdinburgh

    Things you don't see commuting by car: an otter running along the frozen canal as the sky is pink with the sun rise

    Posted 4 years ago #
  7. jdanielp
    Member

    Ooh. Maybe I should have stuck to the towpath. Oh well.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  8. Rosie
    Member

    Wild cats bred in captivity to be released in the Cairngorms.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-50464091

    Posted 4 years ago #
  9. unhurt
    Member

    The tree outside my flat has a treecreeper this morning! I know they're not scarce but I am pretty chuffed.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  10. jdanielp
    Member

    @unhurt how would you react to spotting a chough?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  11. unhurt
    Member

    I'd crow about it.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  12. jdanielp
    Member

    @unhurt and when you spot a crow?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  13. jdanielp
    Member

    A damp-looking kingfisher on a branch opposite Hailes Quarry Park as I rode home from the picket line yesterday.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  14. unhurt
    Member

    @unhurt and when you spot a crow?

    Eat it?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  15. unhurt
    Member

    Someone on Facebook reports a family of otters in the WoL at the Stockbridge bridge end of Saunders Street this morning!

    Posted 4 years ago #
  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Delighted to spot what I thought was a stock dove in the garden this morning. There was a wood pigeon as well and I thought 'oh good, I can compare them side by side' but then the 'stock dove' jumped on top of the wood pigeon and they began an enthusiastic copulation and I really don't know what I just saw?

    I mean it's almost December.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  17. unhurt
    Member

    Pigeons are one of the few birds in the UK that get frisky dove style 12 months of the year apparently.

    A wee bit of googling suggests stock doves like to hang out with woodies but rarely hybridize with them. But that probably doesn't mean they don't enjoy trying.

    I didn't really didn't expect to be thinking about pigeon sex before lunchtime today.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  18. dessert rat
    Member

    I didn't really didn't expect to be thinking about pigeon sex before lunchtime today.

    Here in Newhaven, rarely an hour passes without comment on the relentlessly randy pigeons on our office balcony.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  19. unhurt
    Member

    Are pigeons the original doggers?

    Posted 4 years ago #
  20. dessert rat
    Member

    we can't tell if it the same 2 or 3 pigeons or different ones each time.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  21. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Catch and mark them? Don't think you need a licence for flying rats.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  22. IWRATS, our Woodies are still at it. We've got a Stock Dove pair regularly in our garden, and one day it looked like one of them was trying to get involved in an unlikely threesome with a loved-up pair of Woodpigeons. It was only on very close examination of the photos that I realised juvenile Woodies look a lot like Stock Doves.

    Of course I can't access my Flickr properly from the work computer to nab the photos....

    Posted 4 years ago #
  23. Found a way round it.... This was back in April. Last shot is the actual Stocks.

    Juvenile Woodpigeon_1 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Juvenile Woodpigeon_2 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Juvenile Woodpigeon_3 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Stock Doves by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Stock Dove by Anthony Robson, on Flickr

    Posted 4 years ago #
  24. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Wilmington's Cow

    Nice. Very nice. Juvenile Woody getting jiggy with a grown up then.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  25. Does that make the adult a Cougar? This is all very confusing.... :D

    Posted 4 years ago #
  26. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Well Cougar maybe unless they were both boy birds but minefield man, minefield. No judgements.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  27. unhurt
    Member

    I mean, they're essentially small airborne dinosaurs. They do what (& whom) they like.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  28. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The dunnocks will have been watching from the shrubbery, sniggering and calling them mundanes and vanillas.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  29. jdanielp
    Member

    Kingfisher on a branch on the far side of the canal between Polwarth Crescent Bridge and Harrison Park this morning, which is the closest to town I've ever seen one. Another between Bridge 8 Hub and the turning area in mid afternoon.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  30. ejstubbs
    Member

    Yesterday at Loch Leven: two kestrels (maybe one kestrel in two places), tufties, goldeneye, field full of rooks, mute swans, cormorants, stubble field heaving with geese - hundreds, could even have been in to four figures - mostly greylag but some pinkies. Plus yer usual robins, blackbirds, tits, finches various etc etc.

    Probably lots more about that I didn't see but I was largely focused on riding the trail round the loch. First time I'd been all the way around since it was completed. Also the first time I'd been out on the Tricross in many months. Towards the end of the ride I definitely felt the lack of the eMTB's cushy 2.8" tyres and full suspension on the coarse grade hardcore that the trail had been laid with...

    (Also. from Sunday: purple sandpipers at Gullane, in amongst a group of knot and redshank stotting to and fro with the swash at the top of the new moon spring tide.)

    Posted 4 years ago #

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