CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7240 posts)

  1. Rosie
    Member

    @jdanielp - I saw one off the Norfolk coast path and was quite excited.

    I looked them up and it seems they are increasing in the UK in the warmer climate.

    https://www.wwt.org.uk/discover-wetlands/wetland-wildlife/meet-the-family/herons-and-egrets-found-in-uk-wetlands/

    Posted 3 months ago #
  2. gembo
    Member

    Little Egrets found in Scotland, maybe even Great Egrets. Not Cattle Egrets. They are all herons. Eat fish. Our own grey heron will of course also eat a rat.

    I think there are storks in nScotland [need to check]. Ah no storks last seen nesting in Britain atop St giles. In. 1416.

    Cranes though we have 5 pairs and four chicks.

    I dont think there are Spoonbills in Scotland Norfolk/Suffolk teeming with all these birdies.

    Posted 3 months ago #
  3. jdanielp
    Member

    Goosander(/merganser) diving on The Loch at Heriot-Watt today.

    Posted 3 months ago #
  4. jdanielp
    Member

    There are loads of goosanders on the canal now.

    Posted 3 months ago #
  5. jdanielp
    Member

    And one otter! Spotted around 18:00 just east of the Scott Russell Aqueduct.

    Posted 3 months ago #
  6. jdanielp
    Member

    Bats whizzing around over the canal as I cycled home early yesterday evening.

    Posted 3 months ago #
  7. jdanielp
    Member

    A kingfisher on a high branch over the canal at Hermiston House this morning. I heard it chirping so scanned the far bank of the canal without success before looking up and finally spotting it.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  8. fimm
    Member

    One of fimm's occasional non-cycling-related highlights - large bird, which most people in the party seemed to think was an eagle, in the hills to the southeast of Loch Tay on Saturday.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

    Craig Bennett, the chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, told the Guardian: “Our vision is to create an absolutely astonishing national flagship for nature recovery. It will be around two-and-a-half times the size of the [rewilded] Knepp estate and we are very excited to get ecosystems working again. If we get the whole site we will be looking at 9,500 acres.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/29/wildlife-trusts-buy-rothbury-estate-in-largest-land-sale-in-england-in-30-years

    Posted 2 months ago #
  10. Rosie
    Member

    A kestrel beating the air over Roseburn Park - the first time I've seen one there. It perched on a branch and then a crow chased it off.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  11. jdanielp
    Member

    Reasonable sized skein of geese over Heriot-Watt this afternoon.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  12. gembo
    Member

    Bittern spotted. In Fife. Quite a rarity. Not bombing til Spring

    Posted 2 months ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    A lot of the problems, I’m told, started with Margaret Thatcher.

    In 1984, her Conservative government scrapped the three-mile inshore limit, which for nearly a hundred years had protected coastal waters from bottom-trawling fishing boats. That decision changed the world below the waves.

    “Initially, catches for the commercial sector went up because they had access to new grounds, but then they dramatically crashed - and basically that was the collapse of commercial fish stocks in the Clyde.”

    https://archive.ph/A4m94

    (Herald)

    Posted 2 months ago #
  14. gembo
    Member

    Most problems can be traced to THatcher

    Posted 2 months ago #
  15. Frenchy
    Member

    Disturbed a barn owl this morning, leading to it flying past my head, not quite at touching distance.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  16. gembo
    Member

    @Frenchy I blame THatcher

    Posted 2 months ago #
  17. Frenchy
    Member

    I will pass that on to the owl if I see them again.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  18. gembo
    Member

    @Frenchy, any word back from the owl. Owls are wise. THey will know about the troubles THstcher started or us all. They told me about Terry Wogan owning all the trees.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  19. Frenchy
    Member

    No word from the owls, but the sparrowhawk that's currently sitting on my neighbours fence says it was definitely THatcher.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  20. gembo
    Member

    Thanks @Frenchy, i had a sparrowhawk overtake me on the A70 flyover onto the canal also confirm this.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  21. jdanielp
    Member

    A kingfisher at Kingsknowe.

    Posted 2 months ago #
  22. jdanielp
    Member

    A kingfisher on a branch by the canal at Meggetland and what I assumed was a juvenile buzzard in a tree by Hermiston House.

    Posted 1 month ago #
  23. Arellcat
    Moderator

    The owls at the Forest Research station at Bush were very talkative on Friday last week. I was pleased to spot one of them in the trees and watched it fly around.

    Posted 1 month ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

    From new butterfly habitats in the Cotswolds to arctic willow planting in the Scottish Highlands, there are increasing numbers of places where humans are giving nature a helping hand to re-establish itself

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/15/it-absolutely-took-off-five-uk-biodiversity-success-stories

    Posted 1 month ago #
  25. stiltskin
    Member

    Walking throgh Roseburn Park at dusk I saw no less than FOUR Herons all sitting on the rooftops of Roseburn Crescent.

    Posted 1 week ago #
  26. fimm
    Member

    There was a Fieldfare in our garden yesterday. (According to our neighbour, who knows more about birds than I do)

    Posted 1 week ago #
  27. gembo
    Member

    Usually flock?

    Posted 1 week ago #
  28. Frenchy
    Member

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o

    Two lynx apparently released near Kingussie.

    Posted 1 week ago #
  29. gembo
    Member

    Released unofficially?

    Posted 1 week ago #
  30. fimm
    Member

    @gembo I believe so. I only knew about it because my neighbour messaged to me to say "There's a Fieldfare in your tree." It was quite big, about the same size as the magpies that were also in the tree.

    Posted 1 week ago #

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