I was buzzed by a kingfisher as I cycled into town from Heriot-Watt early this evening by the playing fields at Wester Hailes. I initially spotted it take flight from undergrowth overhanging the far side of the canal and then appear to fly surprisingly high up and away from the canal, only for it to reappear moments later from above to my rear left, effortlessly overtake me, dip down over the surface of the canal before flying up high again, then disappear behind the trees. It is not impossible that 'it' was actually two kingfishers having a territorial stand-off...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7382 posts)-
Posted 3 months ago #
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This morning the Kingsknowe Rat crossed the towpath in front of me at Kingsknowe.
Posted 3 months ago # -
And again this morning, although it waited slightly later before running out in front of me today. If it continues with this pattern it will be flat by the end of the week.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Three days in a row now, but the rat was more cautious today after the close call yesterday.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Spotted the rat on my way home today. It was mooching around and scuttled into the undergrowth as I passed.
Posted 2 months ago # -
@jdanielp I think it is trying to get you to adopt it?
Posted 2 months ago # -
Or it is the Death of Rats waiting for an instance of the Kingsknowe Rat to have another "mishap". Possibly at jdanielp's hands. Or wheels
SNK SNK SNK
Posted 2 months ago # -
SQUEAK?
Posted 2 months ago # -
Kestrel sitting on the garden shed, eyeing the mice that run to and fro after the spilled bird food. They were too canny for him/her so after trying the ground, the wheelie bin (the toilet, evidently), the windowsill, the roof, s/he then flew off. Lovely close view of him/her.
Posted 2 months ago # -
A kingfisher on Duddingston golf course this morning. Sat on the edge of one of the wee bridges over the burn, contemplating.
Posted 2 months ago # -
The twitchers have ended themselves about a red footed falcon showing off at Aberlady
Posted 2 months ago # -
The Kingsknowe Rat was alive and well at Wester Hailes yesterday, scampering across the canal towpath between the water and the bushes as I approached it, startling a texting pedestrian in the process. It occurs to me that being on a bike reduces the risk of contact with a rat.
Posted 1 month ago # -
The Rat is risen. Praise be. You can still run over them but agree you are a bike further away from them than a pedestrqin. I was within a foot of one on Jacob’s Ladder the other spray but it Climbed up some ivy. The local vicar in Balerno once had a badger hitch a lift on his bicycle up Harlaw road one evening.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Badger by St. Mark's Park as I was heading back into town from Leith last night. It took a while for it to notice that I was watching, had a good look at me, then ran off.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Hiking up Allermuir in pretty sweltering 25°C+ conditions on Wednesday evening in order to have a shuftie at the eclipse* from a decent vantage point, I couldn't help noticing that the north Pentland ridge seemed to be much more purple then I remember seeing it previously. Maybe something to do with the *cough* extreme *cough* weather this summer making the heather all excited?
Oh, and if vegetation doesn't count as a wildlife highlight, there was also a very bonnie kestrel - I'd guess female since it was quite a big 'un - hunting all around the hill. I'd never consciously noticed before the way they can glide downwind and then do a a sharp 180° turn back in to the wind to attach to their invisible skyhook. Neat trick. Eat your heart out, Red Arrows.
As a closing highlight, there were lots of swallows still whizzing in and out of the Swanston Farm horse accommodation as we passed it on our way home.
* We did get to see some of it, though the 90 percentality which was the most we were ever going to get was largely obscured clouds. On the plus side, the clouds were quite pretty anyway, with the sun behind them.
Posted 1 month ago # -
A week or two ago I spotted a pine marten, in my parents' front garden in north Aberdeenshire. It was much bigger than I thought pine martens are, and not particularly shy; they've seen it quite a lot recently, apparently.
Posted 1 month ago # -
A weasel, flowing across the Roseburn on the slope up from the Balbirnie access point.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Posted 1 month ago #
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I think I saw a weasel bouncing across the canal towpath and the bridge access ramp at Hermiston House Road Bridge this morning. It was quite long and too small to be a stoat/no black tail tip.
Posted 1 month ago # -
The Wester Hailes Cygnets are starting to attempt short test flights. On Thursday morning last week I, and some pedestrians, witnessed one of their efforts between the lagoon and the totem pole. One of the pedestrians had a dog on a short lead, which, as the swans started to take flight, bolted away from the canal across the towpath and proceeded to swing up in an arc dictated by the length of the lead, before swinging back down onto the ground and immediately chilling back out again. Had I been slightly further ahead this may well have been even more dramatic.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Either an heron being mobbed by two crows and a seagull or an heron and a seagull being mobbed by two crows, all flying very low over Craigentinny Avenue.
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Kingfisher on the canal just west of the footbridge to Colinton Dell yesterday morning. First spot in a while for me at least. Two female goosanders at Wester Hailes.
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Hunners of red kites and a Ram on a lead being taken on a walk by some Doonhamers in a golf buggy. Some great quiet roads and cycle routes in D and G. (This weekend)
Posted 1 week ago # -
Lovely kingfisher this morning flying above the surface of the canal just west of the Scott Russell Aqueduct.
Posted 5 days ago # -
A scavenging of seagulls fighting for a substantial pile of food which had just been deposited on the grass by the canal towpath near the Water Hailes Police Station today.
Posted 4 days ago # -
“
Eva Wishart and Emily Smith bred several hundred harvest mice in tanks in their garages and released them on a nature reserve in Devon, south-west England, where the mice have begun breeding in the wild again.
The tiny harvest mouse, the UK’s smallest native rodent, is the only British mammal to have a prehensile tail, which can grasp or hold objects. It uses its tail to clamber up grass stems, which were once commonplace in fields, meadows and scrubland but have become far more scarce because of agricultural intensification.
“
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/07/children-harvest-mice-wild-release-devon-uk
Posted 4 days ago # -
Would have thought the local mice would have run them out of dodge? Just saw a weasel right up at the washing line in my garden. A first for Gembo Towers
Posted 4 days ago #
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