@fimm: Most likely candidate would be a wheatear. Some good photos showing the tail colours here: http://shropshirebirder.co.uk/wheatear.html The description and pictures in the Collins Bird Guide are good, if you have access to that. Often seen in upland habitats sitting on fenceposts - the males, at any rate - and sometimes follow you, flitting from post to post, to make sure you leave their territory.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7221 posts)-
Posted 5 months ago #
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@ejstubbs Yes! That's what I saw. Thank you - I'd have never got that on my own.
Posted 5 months ago # -
A sparrow just flew into my living room window. Half a second later a magpie picked it up and flew away. I will assume the magpie is returning the sparrow to the sparrow's nest so that it can recover in peace.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Yes the magpie will do this after removing the sparrow’s loose change, jewelry and eyes
Posted 5 months ago # -
A kingfisher flying along the canal at Kingsknowe last week (I only spotted it because it flew past me).
Posted 5 months ago # -
I spotted a single cygnet with the swans on The Loch at Heriot-Watt today. They certainly nested late this year but that still seems like a low survival rate assuming there was more than one egg of course (impossible to see since they nest on an island).
Posted 5 months ago # -
A sparrowhawk carrying breakfast this morning. First time in a few years I've noticed one.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Badger the other night about 22.45 WoL path ran off
Was scared as Rev. Ollie had a badger on the Harlaw road at similar time of night that took a backie off him
Posted 5 months ago # -
There are currently four buzzards circling over Liberton. Don't often see them within the bypass.
Posted 4 months ago # -
One of those "buzzard close by/eagle far away" birds on Arran. I was cycling round the island. I first thought it was an eagle, then wasn't sure. But I'm rather cautious about saying "eagle". There are definitely eagles in the area.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I wondered if I had spotted one or two kingfishers flying away from me along the canal on Monday evening between Gogar Station Road Bridge and the Scott Russell Aqueduct, but they were too far ahead of me when I noticed them to be sure (although one of them certainly flew like a kingfisher) and then I couldn't spot them again after they landed. However, I definitely spotted one last night just east of the railway bridge at Kingsknowe. I did also spot one kingfisher twice or two separate kingfishers last week on the Lancaster Canal and the Ribble Link down in Preston.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Two or three swifts flying around in our home area yesterday and today. Also spotted some swifts heading out along London Road (us, not the swifts) earlier today. Was beginning to think I wasn't going to see any this year but now my swift desire has been at least partially sated.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Last month ago I mentioned to someone that I hadn't seen a sparrowhawk in several years. I've seen three since then!
Posted 4 months ago # -
“
“It’s not even just about the whole community that they support but a lot of them support really important individual species that are now declining,” she said. “My particular area of interest is pond insects and lots of people will have heard about the tadpole shrimp, which is a species pretty much unchanged since the dinosaurs were around.
“They used to be quite widespread but are now reduced to just 10 ponds that we know about. That’s out of about 500,000 ponds across the UK.”
Studies have shown that ponds can support more biodiversity, including greater numbers of threatened plant and animal species, than larger water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. However, very little information has been gathered on their whereabouts.
“
Posted 3 months ago # -
A goosander on the canal yesterday evening. I thought that I may have spotted one a few weeks ago amongst a group of ducks, but I forgot to report it at the time. This one was one its own and it was definitely a goosander (unless it was actually a merganser).
Posted 1 month ago # -
Also lots of wildlife on and near Rum last week, including lots of rutting deer, some seals, golden and white-tailed eagles, a few feral goats only spottable using binoculars, dragonflies, a random vole, and two surprise pods of dolphins (or one pod that appeared twice!) seen from the ferry between Canna and Mallaig.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Do goosander turn into merganser mergansers in the summer when they cant be spotted? The Minch providing nature in spades
Posted 1 month ago # -
Goosander are Mergus merganser, and according to my Collins bird book as approved by the BTO are present in the northern half of the UK all year round. Red breasted merganser are Mergus merganser and are present around the western coast of Scotland and the northern isles all year round, and apparently also breed in the Grampians.
One thing I didn't know until I checked the book is that smew are also classified as sawbills, You learn something new every day. Now all I have to do is add smew to my "life list" (I don't actually keep a life list).
Back in June 2021 we saw a female goosander with 13 goosanderlings in tow on the River Avon west of Linlithgow. Which was nice.
Posted 1 month ago # -
I don't think I've posted this before, from our garden in Fairmilehead back in August this year (the day after we got back from our trip to Shetland, in fact):
This makes the third visit to our garden by an otter this year. That we are aware of, anyway. Even the foxes look surprised.
(Sorry about the rather ropey video quality. The 2s breaks between are because otherwise the skips between the original 20s clips captured by our trailcam were a bit confusing.)
Posted 1 month ago # -
Alpaca and goats on the 5 v county trip that developed on the road today. Wind was not where the forecast said it would be but everntually found it in its usual place on the Whang and proper Sou’Westerly the close passing HOGs gave us more space rthe second. Time the passed us. The little radge who rolled his window down and said Hope you pay road tax when we were not in his way and causing no issue is lucky not to have been skelped. I was in bad mood as paid £18.55 for 2 coffees 2 cakes and an apple juice at Red Barn.
Anyway in better news The right fork at gladhouse has been resurfaced at some point. Love;ly road then along the cycle path to Eddleston then the Meldons were spectacular in their autumn plumage.
Posted 1 month ago # -
A first. I am compelled to correct El Stubbserino Red-breasted Merganser are Mergus serrator.
A colleague feels you dont see the goosander. On the canal in the summer. They aren’t migrating just hiding. She saw a mum with babies on its back. I like that both male and female have beautiful plumage.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Sorry about that: typo due to my better half attempting to distract me as I was composing my post. You are of course quite right.
I definitely saw a single female goosander on the canal a couple of weeks ago. There were two of Wester Hailes' fine upstanding young adult male citizens watching it with some interest as I passed by. Maybe they also retarded it as a rarity for the time of year?
Posted 1 month ago # -
Please ignore duplicate post: Saturday evening finger trouble.
Posted 1 month ago # -
We started our meeting saying what is a good thing about autumn. I said I can drink more red wine. The colleague said they get to see the Gooseanders again as they didn’t see them as they hide.
Posted 1 month ago # -
I've been in Somerset. Saw loads of egrets on marshes there. I've only ever seen one before.
Posted 1 month ago # -
@gembo: The Collins book says goosander are "gregarious except when breeding", which could well correlate with your colleague's observation. You do see them in groups outside the breeding season (see below), but if they separate into pairs to breed then they could very well give the impression of having disappeared during those months, especially if their preferred breeding sites* are away from the areas they like to congregate the rest of the year.
Checking my own (far from conscientious) records of goosander sightings, all the groups were spotted late autumn/winter, whereas the spring/summer sightings were of single adults or pairs, and usually in wooded areas. I'd never noticed this variation over time before, generally just regarding any goosander sighting as a bit of a treat. Please pass on my thanks to your colleague for providing me with another learning opportunity!
* Bird book says: "Breeds on lakes and slow rivers in forested areas requiring...mature trees with holes for nesting."
Posted 1 month ago # -
In the last year I have seen egrets of some variation (probably little egrets) both between Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Lindisfarne, and also at Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve, both of which seemed surprising, having only previously seen them near Christchurch (although, saying that, I have quite possibly also seen them at RSPB Leighton Moss at Silverdale at some point in recent years).
Posted 1 month ago #
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