Fox the now on Malbet Park. It seems to know pedestrian cut throughs that I don't.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7166 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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Two cormorants fishing together in the canal by the Bridge 8 Hub this morning.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The next generation of foxes guaranteed judging by the chimp-having-a-heart-attack racket in the depths of the garden. A righteous and mighty vulpine copulation with set dressing by storm Brendan?
Posted 4 years ago # -
A kingfisher on the canal at the end of Hermiston House Garden despite the continuing gusty wind this morning.
Posted 4 years ago # -
More otters on the Water of Leith:
https://twitter.com/stuart007464/status/1217043442158723072Posted 4 years ago # -
Oh cool. Someone was tweeting that they'd seen them by Saughton Park.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Lovely grey wagtails on the Water of Leith at Tanfield. Spectacular bird in the right light.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Grey squirrel spatch-cocked face down on Gilmerton Road. One fewer invader. Come on ye reds!
Posted 4 years ago # -
Can anyone recommend a bird identifying app for an Android?
Posted 4 years ago # -
Fox on our street just now.
Was woken up at 5am by what I think was a fox barking a few days ago.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@Frenchy
Very much hot fox-on-fox action season. Very noisy and quite smelly too. Not discrete animals at all.
Posted 4 years ago # -
A crowd of people on the towpath just west of the Slateford Aqueduct this afternoon, wielding various optical devices. A couple had cameras with big camouflaged lenses. All were pointing their optical devices at a patch of reeds on the other side of the canal.
There was something swimming the canal, which looked like a cormorant to me, and I assume this wasn't the object of their interest.
I've no idea what they were looking at, though, but it seems that it was a wildlife highlight for them, if not for me.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@greenroofer - Otter? I hope so as they can take on the mink
Posted 4 years ago # -
An unconfirmed (too far away to be sure) but likely spot of the Lancaster Canal Kingfisher yesterday morning. Also a lot of squirrel action in the tall trees in Haslam Park. Quite a fog unexpectedly descended during our late morning walk.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Greenroofer and gembo
Yes, It was an Otter that had attracted the crowd, and it was catching large fish and feeding some to a noisy youngster.
One of the large lenses was operated by someone who posts on scottishsistersphotography.com.
We also saw a Kingfisher flying over the aqueduct, and a pair of Dippers below it by the visitor centre.
Cheers
ColinPosted 4 years ago # -
Otter drama at Eskmills in Musselburgh.
Lots of noisy alarm calls as a female Otter unsuccessfully led three cubs back up the weir by Eskmillls after they were washed down it. She eventually led them up the bank and into the bushes. For a while, it looked as though two would’ve been washed away.
They were a delight to see.
Cheers
ColinPosted 4 years ago # -
@Colin
Deep joy.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The Kingsknowe Rat ran ahead of me along the towpath under the longest bridge at Wester Hailes as I cycled home from the Sustrans event at RBS Gogarburn earlier. There was some rustling amongst the reeds as I was passing Kingsknowe itself, but I didn't see what was lurking within them.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@jdanielp, we predicted that rat
Posted 4 years ago # -
Stenhouse Fox tonight bold as brass on the cycle path.
Scott Russell Rat just west of eponymous aqueduct
Posted 4 years ago # -
WoL Trust cleanup on Sunday: I saw a LAMPREY while standing in the river!
Posted 4 years ago # -
My daughter and I spotted many Goosanders while riding the canal to the WHEC for swimming on Saturday. She was watching and telling me about the ducks when suddenly one dived
"THE DUCK IS UNDERWATER DADDY"She was very very impressed. She told my dad (an avid twitcher) all about the diving ducks later in the day, although despite practicing "Goosander" for I think about 95% of the trip back she couldn't remember the name of them.
Aparently otters spotted along by the quarry past Wester Hailes - not sure where that is but squads of older people with large cameras trecking along there to see if they could spot them. Later heard that they were spotted on Saturday at Harrison Park delighting those who had attended to torture the ducks with bread.
re: Lamprey - didn't know they'd be in the WOL. That is very cool.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about them is that they have been around since well before the dinosaurs, and with 360-million-year-old fossils looking remarkably like modern lampreys, they are said to be the oldest vertebrates.
Having thrived all that time they have suffered greatly in the UK from pollution and human interference with the flow of rivers, which has prevented them reaching their spawning grounds.
“
So presumably ‘put there’ rather than jumped the weirs?
Posted 4 years ago # -
I thought it was a small eel at first, but the WoL Trust lady reckoned it was almost certainly a lamprey & that this was a very good sign of river-health (as are otters with babies!).
Still hoping for an otter-spot - before Christmas one of my neighbours saw them just by the bridge in Stockbridge.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Apparently the "otters" filmed in the canal are actually mink.
Posted 4 years ago # -
thanks @fimm this has resolved some cognitive dissonance I have been experiencing wondering about otters going up the bike chute steps from WoL to canal towpath
Posted 4 years ago # -
@fimm how many videos are there? I've seen footage that's 100% definitely otters, but if everyone is looking for them I can see that mink might be confusing.
@gembo can't see an otter having much of an issue with that ascent!(There's even a handy otter ramp on the left as you go up...)
Posted 4 years ago # -
Otter stills & video:
On canal: https://twitter.com/Ricowellss/status/1221767681898110977
On WoL: https://twitter.com/Ricowellss/status/1217883357566185472Mink look more weasel-y:
https://www.nature.scot/sites/default/files/styles/hero_banner_half_width/public/2018-07/Mink%20project_American%20mink.jpg?itok=thYJe4uTPosted 4 years ago # -
I saw a different film of something swimming in the canal that other people commenting were saying was mink.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Kingfisher on the River Tweed at Melrose today (just upstream from the wear above the chain bridge). Plus cormorant, heron, moorhen, mallard, dippers, and goosander by the bucketful. Also a little grebe I'm 99% sure but the bloomin' thing kept diving just as I got my binos on it. (Oh, and a buzzard circling overhead.)
Posted 4 years ago #
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