Skylarks near Garvald. First I've heard this year. Lovely.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Got in yesterday evening and saw this bird behaving rather strangely on the privet hedge at the top of the garden, and thought initially it was a wood pigeon, but after a couple of minutes watching it realised that it was rather larger than a pigeon...got the bins out and saw it was a sparrowhawk eating what I think was a starling. This perhaps sounds a little unkind but I was glad it was not one of the blackbirds from my garden. She was an old bird with lots of white feathers...she was also looking rather plump and well-fed so she has not been doing a bad job hunting. She was there for ages until my cat showed rather too much interest in her and she flew off with the rest of her meal.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Always amazing to see the raptors at work. Had a Sparrowhawk catch a pigeon in our garden once. Tried to carry it off when it flew off as I appeared at the window. Wasn't going to give up that easily though and did come back a few minutes later.
The Figgy on Sunday morning was bursting with life. The birds are going a bit doolally at the moment with spring coming. Had got some nice shots of a Dunnock singing; a Long Tailed Tit; more foxy stuff... And then walking round the pond a Great Spotted Woodpecker started drumming [oi]directly above me[/i]. Followed him round the park a bit - astonishing to watch them drumming, both the speed and the force.
Got some shots, but they were fleeting and from a distance. Spent too logn just watching... ;)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Dead roe deer near Pencaitland yesterday. I think I should have moved it from the roadside but I don't really like touching things like that.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Stewart Stevenson (@zsstevens)
2/28/12 6:48 AMTue: Red Squirrel conference - a day after seeing one at Aviemore - a good omen. Then Ministerial paperwork.
Sunny and warm out there. #fb"
Posted 12 years ago # -
Walking the dog from Burntisland to Aberdour, about half way along on the rocks there were 3 seals just chilling out. There were another 2 bobbing about in the water just beneath them having fun.
Stood and watched for about 5 minutes, pleasure to see.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Two live roe deer this time, near the dead one by Oxenfoord Mains. The dead one has gone. And a buzzard and a skylark.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Water of Leith Trust (@WOLCT)3/6/12 9:08 PM
Have you seen the Kingfisher?
"
http://www.waterofleith.org.uk/blog/2012/3/6/have-you-seen-the-kingfisher.html
Posted 12 years ago # -
Very recently dead badger on Lang Whang this morning, possibly struck by the car ahead of me. Poor critter. Then a wee dead chaffinch. carnage.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Coming along the wooded track in the woods on the South side of Heriot-Watt, I was surprised by a buzzard bursting out of the trees above me and then flapping lazily out across the playing fields. 10m further on, another did the same - possibly the mate of the first. A little way down the track, a group of rabbits scattered, oblivious to the taloned assassins that had been lurking above them.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I surprised a cormorant on the Scott Russell aqueduct this morning. It took flight along the aqueduct as it saw me, hauling itself slowly into the air a bit like a pterodactyl taking off from an aircraft carrier.
I've seen quite a few cormorants on the canal this year. The easternmost so far was at Craiglockhart.
There was a memorable one earlier in the week (or was it last week?) on that really still morning. It again hauled itself into the air and flew low along the canal. The canal was like glass, and the downdraught from each wingbeat left a pair of expanding ripples on the water's surface.
Posted 12 years ago # -
There is never a camera around when you need it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Night-time safaris will meet demand from eager beaver fans"
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Fur coat and nae morals
Tom ShieldsWhat I like about
cities is the
concrete and the
relative safety
it provides from
attack by feral creatures such as
snakes, stoats, deer, cows, sheep
and rabbits. Which leaves us the
humans who carry knives, swords,
axes and tomahawks to worry
about.
This peace of mind
on the wildlife front is
diminished by news of
a man being mugged
by a fox as he carried
the messages home
from Tesco. The
attack happened
last week in the
mean streets of
Orpington in
Kent.
A Mr Seb
Baker was
pursued up an
alley by a fox,
which circled him
and jumped up
trying to get at his
shopping bag. The
beast would not be
chased away. Baker
said: "Eventually I opened the
bag and gave it the garlic loaf. He
grabbed it and ran off."
I have noticed that urban foxes
are getting more gallus. They used
to run away when encountered.
Now they trot on, pausing only to
give one of those Who-Are-You-
Looking-At-Pal stares.
How to keep foxes at bay? Wear
a red hunting jacket and toot on
a horn. Walk around with a small
pack of foxhounds. Or just carry
a loaf of garlic bread to bribe the
animal to leave you in peace. A roll
on square sausage might be better.
A west end fox might demand a
slice of game pie.
You can see why le petit renard
is getting into city food. The diet in
the wild includes small mammals,
reptiles, grass, berries, spiders and
dung beetles.
It's not just the fox I'm worried
about. Squirrels in the green
bits of Glasgow are increasingly
aggressive towards other species.
And they've been spotted eating
cast-off pokes of chips.
It's only a matter of time before
bands of marauding squirrels are
stealing the fish suppers from our
very hands."
Sunday HeraldPosted 12 years ago # -
Gulls in St. Ives pretty much steal chips and pasties from the hands of beachfront tourists.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Gulls in Ayr squawking from 4a.m. Onwards this morning. Oystercatchers and cormorant from championship tee of the 9th hole at turnberry at dusk last night.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Woodpecker drumming in Carberry woods
Posted 12 years ago # -
Feels like I'm hijacking here, but you might appreciate this Amir - I love hearing the Woodies drumming, and there's a Great Spotted getting seen a lot more down the Figgy recently. My only annoyances are that every time I see it the weather is dull and overcast giving me no light on him, and also that the 500mm lens is off being fixed, so I've been relying on a much smaller lens and cropping...
Woody_1 by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 12 years ago # -
Nice!
Many moons ago when I was a student in Sheffield, I had a room right next to a wood. I used to regularly see GS woodpeckers just a couple of metres away. The red can be spectactular, almost like spray paint.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think I might have seen the Holyrood Park Peregrine on the way in this morning. It flew off before I could get close enough and there were a lot of crows messing about but it had much narrower wings, a longer tail and was not a Kestrel.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Now that would be cool!
Posted 12 years ago # -
I rode home through the woodland path (75) in Dalment last night and can reports its bumpy in places, but they have cleared a lot of the dead wood and undergrowth out. I also saw lots of braizen (sp?) phesants just strutting round like I wasn't there. If I passed too close instead of flying away they just sat down and pretended they weren't there. No photoies thought, sorry.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
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A rat on the towpath by Hailes Quarry park.
Definitely a rat. Definitely dead. It was surprisingly large and stretched out very neatly. I wouldn't be surprised if it had been hit by a bike, actually, as it was a bit mangled and in a slightly unusual place for a rat to choose to die.
Not sure this counts a a wildlife highlight, but it was quite unusual.
Sorry if I spoiled your lunch.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well I meant a brave phesant, just lieing there and not scared or flying away or owt...
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
David Miller (@BBCDavidMiller)3/16/12 5:43 AM
Scottish Natural Heritage reckon there could be as many as 100 beavers living on the Tay. Scot Gov has decided not to use "lethal control".
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
Scottish Government (@scotgov)3/16/12 8:20 AM
Tay beaver watch: Minister announces three-year monitoring programme before final decision is made. bit.ly/xArCPn
"
Posted 12 years ago # -
perhaps highlight and one not so ! In work vehicle today, on A7,down to gala, couple of hares squaring up, hills near Stow ,just at the wind farm thingy entrance,lovely !
Not so, small hamlet just before Torwood (?) descending into Gala, a small very dead looking thing, possibly an otter,very short, no tail in evidence, but more fawn/brown colour on road,dont think it was a cat,i didnt contribute more to its damage (just felt wrong !) but dont imagine ittle stay there long, what colour are mink?or sable,are these animals evident here ? Also another few badgers, lovely animals, but so many dead !Is the work on the borders railway perhaps disturbing them ?
ScottPosted 12 years ago # -
Lyndsey saw a kingfisher on the water of leith today! Just at the bit where it gets wooded, above the big waterfall.
I'll have to start detouring via that path to try to see it too!
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Just at the bit where it gets wooded, above the big waterfall"
You mean in Colinton Dell?
Posted 12 years ago #
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