Ah, yes, that's them... Ta. :)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 10 years ago #
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Ooh, nice kingfisher picture! :) I saw one on the canal again this morning. It was lurking amongst some branches and took a bit of spotting after my initial suspicions that there may be something there. Typically, just after I decided that it was indeed a kingfisher, it flew away.
I happened to be leafing through a bird guide to Africa over my New Year break and was amazed at the number of varieties of kingfisher (and most birds) that exist...
Posted 10 years ago # -
I had a little potter along the canal at Hermiston this afternoon but no kingfisher just a few bullfinches. But I'll keep looking.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Whale stranded at Joppa at the moment. Big one apparently, and possibly already dead unfortunately. :(
Posted 10 years ago # -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63612807@N02/11886231994/lightbox
@WC. Afraid it is. Little bit smelly too.
ADMIN EDIT This is the link to page, to post photos here you need the actual photo url (usually) ending with jpg and put in the "IMG" option.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Saw a large crowd and police, coastguard & wildlife rescue vehicles gathered at the sea wall on my way outbound on today's ride at 12:45, so I stopped to investigate. Very sad sight to see the whale. There were huge gashes in it's side/belly region (more graphic than the EEN photo suggests. I wonder if it had been hit by a ship (possibly a tanker) after maybe swimming closer to investigate. Still a lot of people there 3 hours later on my way back.
Posted 10 years ago # -
14m long adult male sperm whale apparently. According to a Porty FB group plans to lift it by crane at high tide tomorrow (about 11am). Might take a ride by earlier.
More pleasant down at Gifford with LOADS of yellowhammers, 6 soaring buzzards at one point, and a little (Britain's smallest bird) goldcrest....
Yellowhammer_4 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Buzzard_3 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Buzzard_2 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Goldcrest by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 10 years ago # -
Just a young sperm whale that one? Cut up by propellor maybe? A bit out of usual waters, I will google, goldcrest tricky to spot
Sea watch foundation states sperm whale occasionally found in west of Ireland, north west of Scotland and round to Banff and Buchan. Casual or absent from rest of UK waters. Adult
Male 18 m, adult female 12mPosted 10 years ago # -
I think different resources list different lengths. Someone posting on a Porty FB group yesterday reckoned males only grew up to about 15m. Either way, it's still ver very big!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Morning garden visitor just an hour ago...
Fox Visit_6 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Fox Visit_2 by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 10 years ago # -
A swarm of bluetits and a couple of greenfinches spent ten minutes investigating the garden hedge and bush which usually only gets visited by a couple of chaffinches.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A diipper singing on the WoL this morning.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@WC, tht fox is after your hens.
Bizarrely found myself on daily mail website as had good pics of the whale. The same site cited different lengths.
I saw adult male as 15, 18 or 20 metres. Female adult as 12m. Claim pod of multiple speed whale spotted in forth couple of years ago and also the beached pilot whales in fife.
Posted 10 years ago # -
We had a very enjoyable stroll at Museelburgh. There were lots of sea ducks & grebes (goldeneye, scoters, lt duck, eiders, wigeon, slavs) and waders hanging out on the weird floating island that were present today. We popped into the cafe restaurant Saison on the racecourse for a nice cuppa with an impressive view.
Posted 10 years ago # -
There's some debate on at the moment about some rare scoter's off Musselburgh. Either white-winged or Stejneger’s but both are similar to the velvet (which is locally common).
I like the eiders - easier to identify (at least the males).
Posted 10 years ago # -
Lowlight more like.
Feel quite bad, hit a squirrel in the Meadows this morning. It went partially under my front wheel and then was carried round it against the spokes. It ran off and up a tree, so I couldn't see how bad it was hurt.
Nothing I could have done about it, but sh*t all the same. :(
Posted 10 years ago # -
Nothing I could have done about it, but sh*t all the same.
Could have been worse (not safe for squirrel lovers).
Yesterday I was doing the bit of the WoL at the back of Balgreen Library. A rabbit ran out close in front, made it across safe, no problem I thought. Possibly it was dazzled by my lights, as it decided to dart back across the path right in front of me. I actually thought I'd hit it with the front tyre and was about to drag it under but it escaped, just.
As a member of the wildlife lobby it should understand the responsibilities that come with using shared infrastructure. Time to license, tax and insure all rabbits etc....
Posted 10 years ago # -
Had I spotted the kingfisher this morning then I would have seen it on half of my morning commutes so far this year, although 40% is still pretty good going so far...
I wouldn't normally mention spotting a heron, but today I saw one fishing from reeds by the side of the canal just next to the towpath, and just before the aquaduct over the bypass (heading out of town), which was unusual.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@jdanielp - I saw that heron too. You headed to Gagarburn by any chance?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Heriot-Watt...
Posted 10 years ago # -
I have spotted kingfishers twice on the canal and once early in the morning at Cragside in Northumberland, we had been staying in the bothy you can rent allowing you to have the entire estate to yourself after closing time and before opening time. Accommodation basic but scenery great. The kingfisher flew under the high bridge we were standing on, quite spectacular.
I saw a heron catch a fish once when walking back along the causeway from crammond island.
I also spotted what I presume to be an escaped parakeet of the green variety down near dean village one morning.
that is about it for bird highlights unless you count the backside of a booming bittern, though spoonbills, avocets egrets and marsh harriers so often to become common place on holdiays to east anglia
Posted 10 years ago # -
W.C's picture of the fox and the hen coop is on BBC Scotland's photographs from the week on the web.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Kestrel hovering over the waste ground adjoining the Wester Hailes Education Centre playing fields this afternoon as I headed east along the canal.
Posted 10 years ago # -
^ I saw a kestrel there today as well, about 4.30 as I rode home. Kestrel numbers seem to have plummeted since my YOC days in the 70's.
(Young Ornithologists Club, the junior section of the RSPB, symbol was a kestrel)
Posted 10 years ago # -
A busy morning for wildlife today... First of all, I spotted a cormorant flying in and then landing on the canal as I was joining the towpath at the lifting bridge, which I didn't think too much of since I semi-regularly see a cormorant at various places on the canal. I narrowly avoided having my path crossed by a black cat prior to the short aquaduct over Slateford Road although, by braking just in case, I ended up scaring it back into the adjoining bushes/gardens instead. Following the longer aquaduct I then spotted a pair of cormorants ("pair" suggests that I can determine their gender, which I can't, but I can count...) which was a first, and indeed the first time I have seen more than one cormorant in total during a single trip; I wonder if there is any chance of seeing cormorant chicks later in the year? Finally, I spotted the kingfisher near Hermiston House Road bridge again just for good measure.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A few times I have noticed a vast column of mixed seagulls at dawn, streaming east to west over Moredun. Yesterday I happened to be out and about at sundown and noticed the stream of seagulls all heading back east, with a small flock of something else (probably starlings) mixed in.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Min - the seagull horde comes over our house every day at sunup and sundown. I'm guessing, by the direction they take, that they roost on Duddingston Loch and feed...who knows where?
There's an equivalent movement of jackdaws, usually fast and low, but which sometimes form a towering cloud over Craigmillar hill before moving on North East.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Rubbish dump? They usually seem to sleep on rubbish dumps though, presumably to keep warm. I don't actually know where Edinburgh's rubbish is dumped.
Posted 10 years ago #
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