@Rosie - follow up to comments 5/6 days ago - Ihave been reading about otters. From Ecology of the European Otter "the distances
covered by family groups of otters increased as the
young developed, until by the age of one year, groups
travelled up to 7 km in one night". "Jenkins (1980) followed the movements of one young male otter ... At the age of one year, it had been recorded along 68 km of the river, travelling distances of more than 20 km in one night." And from Journal of Animal Ecology" on 26km of the River Dee, in four main rearing sites nine otter families ... were known in 1977 and 1978"
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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Swimming downstream maybe for 20 km?
Posted 4 years ago # -
I have seen one of the Dee otter families at Garthdee. Mother and pup doing aquabatics in the sun.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@slowcoach - that's an amazing territorial reach. Can they put a tracker on an otter at Fountainbridge and check that it gets to Glasgow via the Union/Forth/Clyde route?
Posted 4 years ago # -
I noticed that the wildlife notes on the information board at Yellowcraig beach today said that certain species including heron and crossbill have already started nesting. I never realised that crossbill were found this far south. I presume they will be in the conifer breaks to the west of the access path to the beach - the plantation is mostly deciduous I believe?
Actual sightings included redshank, corvids various including a crow flying up and dropping stuff (either practising or playing as it certainly wasn't shellfish it was dropping, and it was dropping them on the sand), gulls various and a large raft of eider offshore.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The cormorant looked in its element as it swam towards me as the snow fell around it on the canal near the bridge to Colinton Dell this morning. As I entered Wester Hailes, I saw a pedestrian stop ahead of me to observe a commotion in the water. As I got closer, it became apparent that it was another cormorant that was wrestling with something large in the water which turned out to be a sizable fish.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Mouse death traps have so far trapped zero mice; last night I watched one happily scamper along the skirting. Hmm.
Later there were noises from the ceiling space above my bed - other end of (70s build) flat from mice, and sounded like something rather larger. It was a very structural GNAWING sound. Hmm! Unfortunately this would be the underfloor space of the elderly upstairs neighbour who doesn't answer the door to anyone, ever, so I can't ask him if he's heard it from above.
Next step: upgrade bait in mouse traps to fancy nutella stuff.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Ducks and geese on Inverleith Pond showing off how well insulated they are yesterday - all accumulating little layers of snow on their backs until shrugged off.
Grey & pied wagtails out & about oblivious to weather; goosanders surfing down the WoL.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Mouse gnawing in contained space can be loud.
Hope not rats
Hope elderly neighbour can also be heard moving about
Posted 4 years ago # -
Almost impossible to catch mice. I only ever managed to catch one by the tail after it ran through a trap in a panic - but then it escaped. Cats will catch them, but let them go again. Or worse bring live ones in from outside.
Best bet is to keep your house cleaner than your neighbours in the hope they go for better offerings...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Little point treating anything other than whole building for mice. Things I know have helped sometimes: stop anyone feeding the birds nearby, make your flat smell of cat, fill'n'fix foam for any obvious passages.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Wire wool slightly more resilient than expanding foam to rodent teeth. Cover any airbricks you can reach outside with fine mesh and turn off your heating so that they have no nice warm pipes to scuttle along.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Orkney highlights around meetings: Curlews landing into high winds, three hares, a pair of bold ravens perched on the Standing Stones of Stenness, fields full of geese, a loch full of winter mute swans, a solitary slavonian grebe fishing, and the fulmars already paired up and claiming their spot on nesting ledges.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Sparrowhawk just sat on next door's garden wall for a few seconds.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I got a glimpse of the canal otter on Sunday - only because a family had already spotted it and were waiting for it to reappear.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Dandered in Abernethy forest yesterday. Most wildlife cowering from the wind somewhere, but crested tits out in force.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Water of Leith Visitor Centre | Monday 24th February - 7.30pm
Beavers are Back! The Scottish Beavers Project in
Knapdale Forest.
Dr Helen Taylor - RZSS
The beaver population introduced to Knapdale Forest, Argyll in 2009 was the first legal release of beavers in the UK and has played a big part in bringing beavers back to this country after an absence of over 400 years. The project is run by Scottish Beavers, a partnership between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT). In this talk, Helen will explain the history of the project, the status of beavers in Knapdale today, and what challenges remain for conservation of this amazing ecosystem engineer.£2 or free for members
Posted 4 years ago # -
@unhurt - I have trapped quite a few mice in my time though more keep turning up. The last time I got quite desperate at one obstinate little s*d who refused the bait so I bought poison (very reluctantly). Then the morning after I put the poison down I caught the bold and cunning mouse in a trap.
I feel a little mean - he's the mouse that's boldly going where no other mouse ventures, and he's kaput! That's not the message for an inspirational quote.
Posted 4 years ago # -
This morning I spotted several ducks floating on a popup lochan (big puddle on a field).
Posted 4 years ago # -
Pop Up Lochan very 2020
fka Puddle funny
Posted 4 years ago # -
'Popup lochan' is a dazzling turn of phrase. I challenged Madame IWRATS to swim in one in Abernethy forest on Sundey but she declined. Had I used those words things could have been different.
Posted 4 years ago # -
A kingfisher chirping on the branch of a tree on the far side of the canal alongside the pedestrian bridge by the Wester Hailes 's' bend.
Posted 4 years ago # -
ten a penny now kingfishers
'Mon the otters
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo I've seen almost as many otters as kingfishers so far this year.
Posted 4 years ago # -
My pal who keeps an eye on the Scottish breeding population of Slavonian Grebes had to watch an otter hoover up the chicks one year.
So the ultimate spot will be an otter eating a kingfisher on the canal bank.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Bit thin this week - one wee vole scuttering across a frozen WoL path yesterday a.m. and one rabbit disappearing from Canal towpath into bushes about 10 pm last night. Weather not clement. Everyone sheltering (spotted various humanoid bipeds doing same under bridges and indeed whole stretch from Stockbridge to dean village full of student type bipeds, some with microphones and others with pillows 9pm last night)
In better news some blue whales in South Georgia
Posted 4 years ago # -
An indeterminate number of otters in the canal at Wester Hailes this morning. As I was cycling under one of the bridges, I spotted something interesting in the water so stopped just beyond the bridge and saw what appeared to be the three young otters swimming west, keeping close to the far bank. They disappeared underwater and I then saw a single otter emerge onto the far bank, although this one seemed to be rather larger than the young ones. Either they have grown quickly or they were being accompanied by one of the parents. While I was watching, a pedestrian who I had just overtaken caught up with me and stopped to watch too so we had a quick chat about how great it was to have otters in the canal.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The otters appear to have moved to the canal - must feel like a swimming pool to them compared to the rapids of the WoL
Posted 4 years ago # -
Took the towpath today, scanning for otters alas none
Did see
Big fat cormorant before Scott Russell aqueduct, sunning itself well if there had been sun basically just bossing the bank
Magpies
A wee wren
Mum and dad swan
Moorhens
Two lots of gooseanders
Two standard pigeon and a more pleasing reddish oneSongs recited
Femme Fatale
Killing Moon
Why Don’t You Love Me Like you Used to doI find stretch from Heriot watt to bigger aqueduct good for singing as rarely anyone behind me
I stop singing if i see a cyclist approaching
I am not that daftPosted 4 years ago # -
The first Daffodils of spring bloomed in our garden yesterday.
Posted 4 years ago #
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