I'm not fully convinced that it's the swans being removed there.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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I do like the idea of there being holes with some kind of valve at the bottom of the boat, and all those swans are paddling forcefully, while, of course, looking perfectly serene.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“
'It was unmistakable': Edinburgh man maps big cat sightings in area after his own close encounter
“
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/it-unmistakable-edinburgh-man-maps-19170281
Posted 4 years ago # -
Good to see that the Dunsapie Otter is still at large even after my extended trip away from Edinburgh, although I was mildly disappointed not to witness it take down a seagull.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Won’t take on the swans though
Posted 4 years ago # -
Yes, today
Posted 4 years ago # -
Buzzard out the back of the RIE. Just caught sight of it before it leapt off a post.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Goose replaced by Eagle on my bottle of Sriracha condiment
Posted 4 years ago # -
Lot of hawk action above innocent path today. Clocked chap watching them at the usual spot but didn’t stop. Looked like at least three birdies.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I disturbed a buzzard which I assume was eating it's dinner neat Philipstoun. It sat on a nearby fencepost looking at me until I had a camera at which point it decided that a tree was a better option.
Posted 4 years ago # -
A pair of goosanders in the Water of Leith in Roseburn Park.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Huge waft of well-arranged geese heading east above Seafield Street yesterday afternoon.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Low and melodic honk-beak squadron over Findhorn Place, heading east to Duddingston.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Small mixed flock of redwing and fieldfare at the bottom of our garden just now, lunching on the hawthorn and rowan berries :) Likely just arrived from the continent. There was a ♂ blackbird hanging around on the periphery as well but I'm not sure whether he was part of the same party or one of the locals checking out the visitors.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Possibly two otters in Dunsapie Loch this lunchtime. The usual otter was doing its thing as I was watching when something else emerged from a bush at the far side of the loch and swam out a little, accompanied by some distant squeaking noises. The otter responded to this by swimming over and both disappeared from view into the bushes. I was stood with my bicycle near to someone with binoculars who remarked to their child that there were 'two of them' at one point, although they then moved away before I had the chance to confirm that they meant there were two otters.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Distracted from work by a lesser (probably) spotted woodpecker flitting around the trees behind the house.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@urchaidh: Sorry to disappoint, but it was very unlikely to have been a Lesser Spotted. They are scarce enough in the UK as a whole anyway (only 1,000-2,000 breeding pairs) and neither the RSPB nor the BTO distribution maps admit to it occurring north of the border. The adult Lesser Spotted is about the size of a large robin whereas the Great Spotted is more blackbird sized. Note that juvenile Great Spotteds (which are smaller than the adults) have a red crown to the head quite similar to that of the adult male Lesser Spotted. This has been known to cause confusion.
If you sure that what you saw was a Lesser Spotted then I'm sure the BTO would be interested to know. You can report it through their BirdTrack web site, or they have an app for it too.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@ejstubbs - thanks for info. I wasn't really sure and didn't know the lesser wasn't seen in Scotland. It was noticeably smaller than ones I've seen previously but that just my be the distance[1] or, as you suggest, that it was a juvenile bird.
[1]
Posted 4 years ago # -
Llamas a plenty on way up to torduff reservoir. Had my walking meeting at Clubbiedean then walking back down the hill we saw a beautiful deer, maybe 30 yards away. It let us watch it for a long while then toddled off elegantly. Lovely
Posted 4 years ago # -
@ejstubbs and @urchaidh
May I urge caution? It isn't really enough in birding terms to say 'this is not the range of bird x therefor that is bird y'.
Otherwise no one would ever see a red-flanked bluetail here. And the Derbyshire lammergeier would have been a mirage.
So go through the evidence of the observation and key it out. The result may be 'inconclusive, spotted woodpecker of some type' but let us not rush to conclusions.
All birds can potentially be seen in all places.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Prancing deer in foggy field, Glenmorangie road 10a.m. Boy could it prance
Posted 4 years ago # -
Three deer on a little road near Pencaitland - they were trying to get over a gate... the first one succeeded but the other two were having a panic - one of them disappeared but the other one had a go at getting over the gate, got its back legs caught and scrambled over somewhat inelegantly.
Posted 4 years ago # -
spotted nr WOL on Saturday, 5yr old Storm Trooper in the background is unrelated.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Not today but said hello to a hedgehog Saturday night on my way to the bins. He wasn't there when I came back.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Encouraged by reports on this forum and elsewhere, at lunchtime today I cycled out to Holyrood Park and up the closed-to-motor-vehicles road to Dunsapie Loch to see if I could spot the otter. I'd remembered to pop my binoculars in my backpack, but I really needn't have bothered: said creature was larking about within about ten feet of the roadside shore of the loch, apparently oblivious to the attention it was drawing from human passers-by (and a few of their canine companions).
I just hope that it's not getting just a bit too blasé, in case some ne'er-do-well happens to decide that it would be fun to indulge in a bit of mustelid persecution... :(
Posted 4 years ago # -
The otter was working its way along the near bank of the loch again around lunchtime today, despite a reasonable number of people stopping to watch and take photographs.
Posted 4 years ago # -
A bird making a sound I can best describe as that of a deck of cards being shuffled. I think it was a starling.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@frenchy was Paul Daniels nearby? Starlings talented mimics
Posted 4 years ago # -
A bird making a sound I can best describe as that of a deck of cards being shuffled. I think it was a starling.
Magpie also a possibility - they make some excellent rattling churring noises at times.
I cleaned my bird feeders and once again I have all the tits.
Posted 4 years ago #
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