I just about took out a pheasant on the East Lothian coast road on Sunday morning - stupid bird!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 3 years ago #
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Momento clou della fauna selvatica del giorno (notizie alci):
Moose on the Mediterranean? Research sheds new light on where moose once roamed
Posted 3 years ago # -
They have since lost the ability to weave antler-mounted straw parasols to keep the sun off at midday.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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A couple of peregrine falcons playing and hunting around Salisbury Crags just now. I suspect that they were the two youngsters that I saw with one of their parents the other week at the crags by the high road.
Posted 3 years ago # -
A jay sighted near Gladhouse. And another heard a while later.
I do like to see a jay. In the UK, they are pretty timid and fairly difficult to see given they are not uncommon. In other countries, they seem much less timid.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@amir
I've noticed that too. Odd because their main predator - the goshawk - is much more prevalent (and also much less shy) on the continent.
I saw a jay in town for the first time during deep lock down, on Mortonhall golf course. I suspect they'e more common than we think despite the gaudy colours.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@jdanielp
Fantastic! I'd heard there was a pair on the cliff. Magnificent!
Let's hope it's the female from the Pentland nest. She'll be safe in town unless the pigeon fanciers get organised.
I saw one of them scouting pigeon lofts in Bingham earlier this year....
Posted 3 years ago # -
@IWRATS ah, so maybe when I saw three of them it was the two parents with one young? I don't really know very much about peregrines, but can now recgonise their shape a bit better than previously and, more usefully, their call...
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They do make a racket when they have young....
Posted 3 years ago # -
Leucistic (white) squirrel foraging in the bushes at the road junction by Red Moss. Sadly did not manage to get a photo as it scarpered as soon as I stopped and fumbled for my phone.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@iwrats: We were walking in Craiglockhart Dell the other day and I heard what turned out to be a sparrowhawk family making a fair old commotion up in the canopy. I managed to get a decent sighting of one of the adults against a patch of sky amongst the trees to confirm the identification of the source of the noise. We were there for an hour or so and they were at it on and off for most of that time.
The female sparrowhawk that took down a pigeon in our garden a few years back turned out to have been ringed as a juvenile in Gorgie. Who'd have thought it?
Posted 3 years ago # -
I was shouted at by an excited sparrowhawk a couple of weeks back. When the young are out on branches they are very expressive. The two pairs in the Botanics used to have a competition to see which was loudest.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Strolling through Fairmilehead Park this morning I heard another sparrowhawk making its presence known.
I've also just remembered that one had a go at the wee birdies on my bird feeder last week. I happened to look up just in time to see it flaring in to the strike, but missing and scarpering sharpish.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Sparrowhawks (I think) at the Botanics. Lots of noise. Parents possibly trying to encourage their young to fly the nest?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Mum (on the phone to me) "Oh, there's a sparrowhawk on the roof of the shed. That's why the sparrows have all disappeared."
Posted 3 years ago # -
@fimm
Please welcome your mother to the cult of the sparrowhawk.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Disturbed a barn owl as I was showing my niblings a combine. They were far more interested in the combine. Fair enough, I suppose.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@chdot: How does he know it's called Gilbert?
And I have to admit the use of the term "seagull" always irks me a little. "Gulls are members of a large, widespread family of seabirds. Often known as seagulls (though no species is actually called a seagull, and many are found far from the sea)." It seems harsh to treat everything from a kittiwake to a greater black-backed gull as all of a one - especially when the term "seagull" is so often used target for criticism and complaint.
When we were in the Botanics the other week a herring gull swooped down and stole a sausage roll that had been left unguarded on a family's picnic blanket. The family was actually sat on a bench a few yards away, so serve them right IMO. For the next twenty minutes while we were there the father was jumping up and down waving his arms every time the gull appeared. I reckon the gull was doing it for a laugh by then: it probably had a bunch of pals hiding nearby and was saying "Look what I can get this guy to do just by flying past!"
Posted 3 years ago # -
@ejstubbs
Language is a funny substance. I keep saying this but French has two words for 'seagull' depending on whether or not you need a weapon like a tennis racket to shoo them away. The distinction is pretty fluid and depends how assertive the speaker is.
'Seagull' is not a species but nobody gets excited about 'thrush' or 'finch'. And what to say about the native words for these creatures like 'pyoch','scurrie' and 'pleengie'?
It is literally a minefield.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Speug and stookie
Posted 3 years ago # -
I saw a badger for the first time ever last night! Unlike me, it couldn't care less and just stared for a while before sauntering into the bushes.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I saw a sparrowhawk a few weeks ago, and the next day found rather a lot of pigeon feathers spread throughour garden and the neighbours.
haven't seen it since, and now all other birds are dull.aside from the young thrush that hasn't learned to be afraid of me yet. i tried tossing some snails towards it, but the gesture was misinterpreted.
the badgers now have two sett entrances into our yard. I'm not sure that i'm thrilled by this.
Posted 3 years ago # -
now all other birds are dull
Wait till you see a goshawk. They eat sparrowhawks.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Multiple mini-mice in my garden.
The neighbours might file this under "wildlife lowlight" and if they move inside again I will be slaughtering them, but they're awfy cute.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Living under your decking??
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo or is unhurt living over their decking?
Posted 3 years ago # -
@jdanielp - let’s split the difference
Posted 3 years ago # -
A quick brown fox jumping over the low fences in the front gardens of the houses opposite my girlfriend's flat last night towards the start of the more serious part of the storm. I don't think the storm was a highlight for it.
Posted 3 years ago #
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