"Can I put up just three more Waxwing photos?"
I think you need a site of your own.
Oh...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7221 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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On the subject of waxwings, text this morning from the old man saying a flock of at least a hundered have descended on the locality of Hillview Road in Corstorphine. Must be some tasty berries going.
Saw a tree full of fieldfares on Saturday on the Harlaw Muir road.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Hurrah - I have just seen one!
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Hurrah - I have just seen one!"
Just one?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yes - I presume that when it flew off, it was to find its buddies.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Whereabouts? Yeah, so I've seen them this year, but they're cracking birds and I wanna see more!
Posted 14 years ago # -
This was out west in Gogar, quite near the motorway on a Sorbus. The light meant it was pretty much in silhoutte, but the crest was very noticeable.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Almost flattened a squirrel this morning. It ran out then ran back and up a tree hilariously fast. I love when animals get fast-forwarded.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Sparrowhawk on the Canal at lunchtime today (after the brake cable trauma)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Ooooohh. Handsome fellow. I saw one apparently flying into one of the tower blocks in Moredun the other week through an open window.
Posted 14 years ago # -
When I was a kid I found one on the carpet having smashed through a double glazed window!
Attacking its reflection?
Posted 14 years ago # -
I don't think so, it seemed to just swoop in. I don't know if the flat is unoccupied and has been left with the window open. Might pop back for another look sometime.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"I don't think so"
Was meaning my experience, seems unlikely that it was chasing something and didn't 'pull out of the dive' soon enough.
But we'll never know!
Posted 14 years ago # -
"... seems unlikely that it was chasing something and didn't 'pull out of the dive' soon enough"
Actually... They were talking about this very thing on Autumnwatch (I think it was last week) and apparently Sparrowhawks get so zoned in on what they're chasing that they have complete tunnel vision and it's apparently quite common for them to fly into windows while hunting.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Posted 14 years ago #
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"it's apparently quite common for them to fly into windows while hunting"
Doesn't sound very evolutionary successful!
Presume they fly into walls just as often then(?)
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Doesn't sound very evolutionary successful!"
Sparrowhawks have been around a lot longer than windows though. Perhaps one day they will evolve into something which can avoid windows (but which is quite incapable of drinking coffee).
Posted 14 years ago # -
it's apparently quite common for them to fly into windows while hunting.
They way I had it explained to me is that a window often doesn't appear to be "there" to a bird, particularly one that lives and hunts in a wooded environment. It sees the positive space (of the wall) around it and assumes the negative space (of the window) is therefore a gap, like any other gap in a bush or between trees, and therefore aims for it.
It's the same thing that caused the death of so many Capercaillie in this country; they flew between the posts of the deer fencing and straight into the wire and met a cheesecuttery death. As a low flying forest bird, it flies between and around things (usually tree trunks and shrubs) rather than over them.
I rescued a sparrowhawk that had flown through our front hedge and straight into the retaining wall behind when I was at uni. It spent a few hours in a box in our hallway getting increasingly fidgety and aggravated (obviously was beginning to recover!) Nice people from the SSPCA came and took it away.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I think I just saw a small flock of waxwings on the roof of the house opposite (central Musselburgh).
Posted 13 years ago # -
I saw three red legged partridges today, and not one of them was in a pear tree, there were two fat ones and a smaller one, were they a family? Beautiful birds, wonderful plumage and markings.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Saw a Kingfisher in Figgate Park yesterday. Light was fading and he was a wee distance away so all I got was a blue and orange fuzzy blob on the camera. I was stalking closer when two dogs running amok spooked it. Ah well. Was chatting to a chap who works nightshift and has seen it a handful of times in 11 years of walking through the park at odd hours of the day, but he's seen it 2 or 3 times this week - snow obviously driving it to different hunting grounds along the burn.
Planning a mini-stakeout at the weekend.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"
Winter visitors find it hard to survive
A species of bird which migrates to Britain to escape the harsh winters in continental Europe is struggling in the freezing conditions.RSPB Scotland said it had received reports of the woodcock, which flies in from Europe during October and November, arriving in gardens starving or appearing sluggish as they battle to access food supplies.
Keith Morton, species policy officer, said: "The only practical way to help woodcock and similar species ride out the big freeze is to try and avoid disturbing wildlife out in the countryside.
"There are things that can be done to help wildlife nearer home, such as providing food and water for the birds that visit your garden."
"
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/From-island-bays-to-motorways.6653372.jpPosted 13 years ago # -
Wee bat in the Innocent Tunnel this morning. Pretty certain he should have been hibernating by now.
We've got a hibernating butterfly in our garage as well.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"We've got a hibernating butterfly"
Must admit - didn't think they did!
Butterflies in Winter
http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/asp/winter.asp
"If a butterfly wakes up from hibernation, then it will need to eat something if it is to survive till spring. If you find a sleeping butterfly in your house, and it wakes up, give it some sugar water and then put it in an unheated, sheltered place so it can continue to hibernate."
http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garden/wild006_butterfly.htm
Posted 13 years ago # -
Most birds seem to have problems with windows. I've seen pigeons bounce off several (a friend of mine had a perfect imprint of a pigeon on their window for years at their student flat; and not so long ago there was something similar at work, complete with - how shall I say - liquid evidence that it was taken by surprise by this invisible barrier).
Friends who have two windows on either side of their kitchen say they often got birds bouncing off one as they try to fly through. That stopped when they fitted a blind.
Similarly there was evidence that the Grizedale forestry visitors centre has not been designed with feathered visitors in mind when we visited in the summer. A dead siskind was lying on a path underneath the corner of the cafe there where the corner of the building is made up of two glazed walls - poor chap had presumably thought he could fly right through...
However, we shouldn't take this as conclusive confirmation of the expression "bird-brained". Other species suffer from it as well: I've got a scar on my eyebrow that was the result of me running into a patio door when I was 5...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Putting cut-out "bird shapes" on windows - particular the ones CB mentions that are opposing windows - seems to be quite an effective way to to deter strikes. I'm not sure if it matters if they are bird shapes though.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Spin to The Bike Chain brought about more Waxwings
A gorgeous Song Thrush
And a male Goosander
Posted 13 years ago # -
forget about waxwings on a stick, that's waxwings on a toasting tray!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Oh look at them all with their little heads cocked!
I have a new plan for spotting Waxwings. I will just follow you around everywhere until I see some.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@anth
You have a duty to put sightings immediately on Twitter...
Posted 13 years ago #
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