CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 10 years ago #
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Golden eagle - tick; nightjar - tick. Top of my 'to do' list are pine marten and capercallie, along with that elusive kingfisher on the canal.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Heron on the canal this morning. It was just after the Kingsknowe railway bridge, looking hunched, wet and miserable as herons do. Worth mentioning because it was on the towpath side, I passed within touching distance, and it didn't budge. Maybe it was too miserable.
Earlier in the week I saw a huge sky-darkening flock of little birds on Gogar Station Road near the M8. I was too busy concentrating on traffic to see what they were, but there really were lots and lots.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Success ! I finally got to see jdanielp's kingfisher this afternoon. It was hanging about Hermiston Bridge just like you said it would be !
(Also, in about the same place quite a small looking female goosander. A female merganser perhaps).Posted 10 years ago # -
23 (yes!) male and female mergoosansers in the slack of the current beneath the bridge at Murrayfield Ice Rink at the end of Roseburn Park this morning.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Aha, it's good to hear that someone else has spotted 'my' kingfisher - I wasn't just imagining it then... I haven't seen it at all this week, which is the first week so far this year that I've not spotted it at least once. Oh well.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Just seen my first desplome. At Vane Farm. A beaut.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Don't usually post on this thread as I figure you folks are not so interested in what wildlife is around down here in Lancs.
Had a good one and a UK first for me when out riding on the West Lancs Mosslands the other day. Acres and acres of leeks out there at the moment - for miles at a time it was all you could smell. Somewhere near Downholland my pal Steve suddenly points and asks "what's that?".
I glance over and based on size, shape, type of flight, I reply " a heron".
"Not it isn't, it's white". He correctly points out. "Is it an Egret?"
Sure enough unless it was an albino heron I had to concede there was nothing else it could be but an egret. Must confess I didn't know they were resident in the UK but the RSPB website confirms there are a few thousand or so these days. I'd seen them abroad but never in the UK before so pretty chuffed with that.
Posted 10 years ago # -
In case anyone wondered, a "desplome" is in fact a redpoll as translated by my phone's spelling enforcer.
@bachgen we're getting the smaller white egrets along with a few large ones these days even in Scotland. Not sure if cattle egrets have arrived yet.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Look carefully - black on black not ideal!
Yep really a crow pecking (persistently) at a saddlecover.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Egrets fairly easy to spot in east Anglian. Never seen any in the north of Great Britain.
Minsmere near Dunwich of the dynamo fame is great RSPB reserve with egret, spoonbill, avocet and bittern
Posted 10 years ago # -
Here's a distribution map
http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-of-month/little-egretPosted 10 years ago # -
Skylarks!
Posted 10 years ago # -
I spotted what I think was a weasel on the WoL path approaching Slateford at the allotments this evening. The good news was I got an excellent look at it, the bad news being that was because it was dead, though not obviously run over or anything. It was sitting in the middle of the path right after the sharp left corner at Longstone and I first thought it was a log as it was suddenly caught in my lights. I initially rode on but figured I should move it to avoid anyone else possibly running into it, it was when I'd went back I discovered the weasely nature of the obstruction.
Picture here as I found it for anyone really interested. I did move it off to the side of the path so if anyone is heading that way you may still come across it.
Bit of a mystery now that I think about it. Could someone have run over it hard enough to kill but without it, erm, splattering everywhere, then kept going and left it?
Posted 10 years ago # -
That is not a weasel. Mink? Hopefully not otter. Mink are fairly predatory animals that have escaped into the environment and are eradicating water voles according to the Anti Mink Party.
weasels much smaller and very fast but a mink would still need to be poorly to be hit by a bike IMO.
Posted 10 years ago # -
To my untrained eyes that looks like an otter :(
There are apparently some urban living ones residing at Figgate Park but that's a fair distance away.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Think it is an otter, going by the snout and tail. They are known around that way. Maybe notify the WoL people who were keen to know about sightings a while back?
A nice big fat fox skirted round our allotment yesterday afternoon, possibly driven away by the sound of Oasis from a plot further upslope.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Alas yes, looking at it tonight that is definitely an otter. Shame.
Mink smaller. More pointy.
Stoats little bit smaller than mink and weasels the smallest.
Weasels are easily recognised but stots are totally different?
Posted 10 years ago # -
I guess I otter brush up on my wildlife identification skills.
.......
What's making that chirping noise?
Posted 10 years ago # -
I was overtaken this morning by a kingfisher which was flying along the section of the canal beyond the second bridge following the city bypass aquaduct when heading out of town. I think I've only spotted one that near to the bypass once or twice before... When it landed on a branch it looked distinctly smaller than the one I last spotted a week and a half ago, so I wonder if it may be a different kingfisher, or possibly if there may be some kingfisher chicks in a nest somewhere nearby. Intriguing.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Shame to see a dead otter, but somewhat counter-intuitively we should probably be grateful that we're seeing more dead ones as it is a sign that they are getting more plentiful. There have been reports of them all the way down the WoL now, at least as far as Warriston.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Too early for chicks. Male and female same colour and roughly same size, female wears red lipstick. Juvenile slightly greener looking.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Scrabbling about in the reeds by the canal just short of Calder Road - a hooded crow.
I have heard that the carrion crow/hooded crow boundary was on the way South - I'd love it if hoodies expanded their range to the Tweed - Solway boundary.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@gembo fair enough, it seemed like it would be a bit on the early side for chicks despite the mild winter... It was possibly just a matter of perspective, but if I ever manage to spot two kingfishers at one time then that may help to resolve the uncertainty. Thanks for the ID tips!
Posted 10 years ago # -
They used to be a lot more common - when I first moved here, Hoodies outnumbered carrions. There's a lovely hybrid Hoody/Carrion hanging around our building - I call him Robin, he's a lot less cautious than the carrions, and comes very close to get fed
Posted 10 years ago # -
@EddieD
That's interesting...I grew up in Aberdeen where they were unknown. Sure sign you were on your summer holidays was the first flock of hoodies, generally North West of Inverness.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Saw my first black headed black headed gull of the year today :-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
Saw jdanielp's kingfisher again today, around 5.15 at Hermiston House bridge.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Pintail well done :-) I didn't see it this morning and it'll be too dark now, but was it looking the same size?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sorry, all I can say was that it was about kingfisher size ! And the failing light and my failing eyesight conspired to prevent me from determining the colour of the bill.
Posted 10 years ago #
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