CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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The initial wiki source describing shrikes as carnivorous but all other passerines as omnivorous is wrong.
Shrike will eat a beetle. The unrelated Butcherbird of Australia also larders larger prey such as lizards on thorns for later. Some shrikes also got called butcher birds.
Dipper on the Howden Burn in Redford Brae. Never seen one there before.
Also saw one on the Brain Burn in Braidburn Valley Park yesterday. Again, first sighting in that location (though we see them quite regularly in the Hermitage). Woman with two children in the footbridge said there was another one on the other side of the bridge. Given that the one we saw had a beak-full of invertebrates, and there appeared to be two in close proximity, can't help thinking it might have been a pair with chicks somewhere nearby...
Dipper in small burn out at Ainville where the Clydesdales bide
A stoat crossing the 16th fairway of Braids One.
Fair chance just spotted underside of two ospreys heading north East from Balerno towards Decathlon at Hermiston Gait. Ospreys have boing legal challenges out against Lyle & Scott for the jumper logo and Osprey rucksacks for the name
First orange tip butterfly of the year
dylan the hedgehog is looking svelte this year
at least i think its dylan
they all look the bloody same to me
Almost struck by a small passerine possibly Finchy coming down Beech Ave. this a.m. about 40mph. Finchy was able to bank swiftly to avoid collision. What larks!
A guy I know claims to have had a small bird impaled in his motorcycle leathers 'like a dart' but he's a fibber. I know another guy rode his motorcycle into a flying pheasant and that did not go well.
Many years ago, while riding my VFR around the Chilterns I hit a pheasant that was crossing the road, saw me coming, turned and started to run back into the verge, then changed its mind and headed out in to the road again. A bit like the tourists who seemed unable to come to terms with the hordes of bicycling students trying not to be late for lectures in my Cambridge days - but they were easier to miss (usually).
Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere safe to stop to assess the damage for a good mile. When I did finally find a safe place to pull up the first thing I noticed was a smell strongly reminiscent of frying chicken livers. The poor bird had somehow slipped past my front wheel (thankfully) and splattered itself over the exhaust headers from the front two cylinders. Fortunately there wasn't much other debris to clear up and after a final visual inspection I rode carefully home.
Closer inspection at home revealed that none of the fairing plastic was damaged - luckily, since that would have cost £££ - but a few of the mounting brackets were bent out of shape, and a lot of the fixing hardware needed replacing (which, on the plus side, gave me a good excuse to upgrade all the main fairing fasteners to dzus clips).
You must have had fun picking meat out of the snake's nest that is the front of a VFR's motor. I have pledged never to replace a collector box on one of them ever again.
My pal was riding a Ducati, likely in an exuberant fashion, and the bird hit his left hand, breaking several bones and flinging him into the opposite ditch.
big news tonite. rusty the robin is back
at the feeder in the rain, hurrah
i feared young tabby had got him
A friend of mine in New Zealand was driving a 4x4 with front bars. A Harrier Hawk got trapped in the bars. He had a hideous job trying to get the hawk disentangled, without hurting the hawk, or himself, as its beak and talons were fearsome.
Mallard ducklings on the canal at Meggetland, Swallows skimming Duddingston Loch as a Raven flew by, and a pair of noisy Little Grebes on Craiglockhart Pond.
Cheers
Colin
Thriepmuir swallow this a.m.
Friends toughing out lockdown in Gullane *theymoved prior to covid19 hitting us. Report from evening walks on quiet beach a crepuscular nightjar
Weasel Stoating across a70 at Harperig not liking it and stoating straight back. Was very wet.
Alas wee dead Shrew in my yard at front poor wee soul
Nightjar a great spot. Did they say if it was calling?
Yes that is why they thought it was the old goat sucker from its call in the gloaming
Two buzzards soaring together over Dreghorn this morning. One appeared to have damage to one of its wings: a chunk of the outer secondary feathers seemed to be missing. It appeared to be coping OK, though.
Also:
- yellowhammer singing in the Dreghorn Training Area - first for me this year;
- curlew calling up above Bonaly reservoir;
- two dabchick on Bonaly reservoir;
- a lone deer grazing by the shore of Bonaly reservoir;
- stonechat, skylark and wheatear on the walk out from Bonaly reservoir;
- kestrel hovering over the slopes above Swanston golf course.
And some cracking views over the city and the Lothians.
Larks, swallows in pairs, rare breed pigs, rare breed sheep, wee brown deer then dozens of cyclists heading west as i was heading east (including a threesome of blokes the same age, maybe flat mates maybe?) and a motorbike at high speed being pursued by polis at high speed and just about to cast his up with all those cyclist. Fingers crossed.
One highlight from yesterday's outing that I forgot: swallows swooping in and out of the stables at Old Swanston.
Lovely big hare in field off the Glenbrook Road. Larks and swallows a plenty.
What is the small passerine about size of big Sparra but with chevrons like the thrush?
Lovely chaffinch on return, just caught nice profile of it at eye level.
small passerine about size of big Sparra but with chevrons like the thrush
Gannet?
Hmm, could be except
A. Not a passerine
B. Not small
C. Does not have plumage like that
It is bugging me as I keep spotting it out harperrig
Let's sit down and work it out shall we?
A. Size, colour, voice and behaviour
B. Habitat
C. Favourite dance move.
Probably a reed bunting. Looks same as corn bunting to me.
Ammer is German for Bunting
The Yellowhammer call is little bit of bread and no cheese apparently?
@gembo: The Yellowhammer call is little bit of bread and no cheese apparently?
Good recording of a yellowhammer here.
Just remembered that, during our walk on Friday, I thought for a split second that I heard a grasshopper warbler just after we'd crossed the Howden Burn at the ford by the cistern building below Green Craig. Certainly something was making a call that sounded like a road bike freewheeling fast on a long downhill. Stopped and waited several mniutes but didn't hear it again (and there were no bikes around at the time).
We used to get them in the scrubby field the other side of the fence from our back garden in Derby when I were a lad, which is why the sound was familiar. They do usually call at dusk, though, rather than in the middle of the day. I wasn't sure whether they came this far north but the RSPB says yes so it might have been one doing its voice exercises...
Yesterday evening as we were drawing the sitting room blinds we spotted two buzzards circling together high up over Greenbank/Morningside. Too high and not the right area to have been scouting for prey (and buzzards are lazy so-and-sos anyway when it comes to finding food - they will often take earthworms if faster-moving prey is too much trouble). We got the impression that they were just enjoying the evening sunshine.
I was out scrubbing the side entrance yesterday and saw the most striking green and bronze bug. No idea but off to google
Maybe shining leaf chafer
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