(Though whether this is a highlight is of course debatable…)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Hummingbird hawk moth feeding on the buddleia next to our summerhouse just now. Not a hinseck we've noticed in our garden before, and a bit of a surprise visit on the evening if a rather changeable weather day in Scotland.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just been reading of two confirmed red squirrel sightings at Ninemileburn.
“If you live in or are visiting the area, especially the A702 north of Biggar/ along Lyne Water please keep a close eye out and report your sightings to us (photos especially welcomed!):”
Posted 1 year ago # -
Swimming back to the shore at Portobello this morning I found myself eye-to-eye with a Razorbill between me and the beach. I've only ever seen them from above, perched on cliffs, from a great distance away. Nice.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Nice close encounter!
We spotted quite a few razorbills bobbing around off the beach when we were at Porty a couple of weeks or so back. There were a number of obvious parent/juvenile pairs, with the juvs begging and the parents trying to show them how to dive for fish.
I've seen the odd razorbill off Yellowcraig beach in the middle of winter.
Edited to add: we had a juvenile sparrowhawk in our garden this morning. It flew in from a neighbour's garden, sending all the small birds diving for cover, and perched on the roof of #3 shed for a while before heading off. Not ringed.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I was out at lunchtime to photograph a vintage telephone box but spent a happy few minutes watching peacock, small tortoiseshell and small white butterflies enjoying the fruits of a white buddleia.
The more local butterflies are studiously ignoring my crop of sedum in my garden. That stuff is so slow growing that half the time the weather has turned cold and windy and wet before the stuff has even flowered.
Posted 1 year ago # -
We are getting bees on the sedum in our front garden, which gets a lot of afternoon/evening sun (when said sun is shining). No butterflies, though. Our purple buddleia is also noticeably devoid of visiting lepidoptera, although we did spot an elephant hawk moth on it a couple of weeks ago which was both a surprise and a delight.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted 1 year ago # -
Couple of days walking near Blair Atholl with the wee dog.
Dozen or so deer and a couple of red squirrels were lovely to see, but the highlights were:
Seeing a kestrel make a catch. I always stop to watch kestrels hovering, and have seen many an aborted divebomb and a few "not sure whether they caught anything there" occasions, but this was the first time I can remember seeing them swoop and then definitely come away with something in their talons.
Eagle taking off up Glen Tilt. My method of distinguishing buzzards from eagles is: if it makes me go "Is that a buzzard or an eagle?", then it's definitely a buzzard. If it makes me go "[Rule 2] [rule 2] [rule 2], look at the size of that thing!", then it might be an eagle. This was the latter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
An elegant wasp nest, like a Chinese lantern, on the ceiling of the shed. It held a sleeping wasp and a pupa.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Also someone on the Water of Leith Edinburgh's River facebook page said there were 6 to 7 kingfishers between Saughton Park and Leith - 1 kingfisher per mile.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My highlight yesterday was a sparrowhawk flying in to the garden. Unfortunately I had the back door open and I think my exclamation on spotting its arrival may have been what caused it turn round and fly off again :( I think it may have been the same juvenile one that paid us a visit a few weeks ago. It didn't hang around long enough to get a good look but if it was the same one then it's looking rather less juvenile and more grown up now.
@Frenchy: Similar to your criteria, I sometimes use "it can't be a buzzard because we wouldn't be able to see it so clearly that far away if it was". That does depend on being able to make a reasonable guess at how far away the bird in question is, though. It helps if you've seen it appear over a distant ridge or from behind some other kind of far away landscape feature.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Egrets, lapwings and snipe at Aberlady.
Posted 1 year ago # -
From my back window this morning: three whooper swans in echelon formation, flying in the general direction of the Pentland/Midlothian reservoirs.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The sparrows that come to our back garden are becoming increasingly bold and will come and munch from the feeder when we are standing less than a metre from it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Kingsknowe Rat was extremely active yesterday, running out onto the towpath in front of me on two occasions as I cycled through Wester Hailes on my way home from work, and I'm pretty sure I also head it rustling in the undergrowth a few times on my route. I also spotted what may have been the Wester Hailes Shrew darting across the path in front of me at one point...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Sei whale off Joppa this weekend
Posted 11 months ago # -
Some species of bat flittering along in the peripheral beam of my front light yesterday just south of the Craigleith/Sainsbury's turnoff on the NEPN. Maybe the milder weather had tempted it out of hibernation? Seemed to be a little too big for a pipistrelle, but I'm no bat expert, though I do enjoy seeing them around.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Yep, we had a bat fly-past at low level, heading straight towards us, near Craigleith last night. And another, with more random flying, a bit further along. They're attracted to the insects under the new LED lights.
Yet "best seat" wants to destroy this linear park to avoid upsetting drivers
Posted 11 months ago # -
Two deer crossing the cycle path just along from Straiton pond. They were very nonchalant about it, even after I suddenly appeared round the corner.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Large flock of fieldfares in the scrubby woodland behind the dunes at Gullane. Seemed to be scouting out a communal roost for the night.
(The local rangers had left a cache of litter-picking tongs and rubbish bags at the top of the path from the car park down to the beach, with a notice inviting people to do a bit of litter picking. So that's what we did while we were walking along the beach.)
Posted 10 months ago # -
Saw field fares in dribs and drabs out the Whang today. Two big herons in flight beyond Harperrig
Posted 10 months ago # -
Had to slow down on my way along the NEPN between tescos and broughton tonight to let a couple of badgers waddle across, will there be a den around there or are they out hunting/foraging?
Posted 10 months ago # -
Nick Beagley, 47 was. Out walking her dog when she spotted a badger waddling down a stairwell in the Craigentinny area. According to Edinburgh live Nov23
I think possible the Sett is down the bank fro. The NEPN Afro the Tesco Two.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Nearish no doubt.
Are/were some around Ravelston and Powderhall.
No doubt other places.
I’ve still only ever seen one and it was dead.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Only ever seen one dead badger? You can’t have ridden the Lang Whang much, badger graveyard. More than Fox or deer. Though some May have been dumped.
Posted 10 months ago # -
“You can’t have ridden the Lang Whang much”
That’s true.
“Only ever seen one dead badger?”
Well, ok, maybe a few verge-side bodies that I vaguely registered as I passed.
The one I mentioned was examined closely by one of the people I was with.
He then took it home in the boot of his car to practice taxidermy on it. No idea what actually happened.
Point is, I’m still waiting to see a live one. Though as they are now living in tenement stairs, who knows?!
Posted 10 months ago # -
Even growing up in the countryside, I can count live badger sightings on the fingers of one hand.
Most exciting was seeing two having a full on fight in my parents' garden. Heard them screaming from the house and thought something must be attacking the cat. Went out with a torch and got quite a surprise.
Posted 10 months ago #
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