Water vole sort of thing scuttling across the towpath near Cutlins on Sunday.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7221 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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More of a low point actually - being thwacked by an infuriated buzzard
Posted 10 years ago # -
I saw a Heron on the way to work. Cycling ( how else) along the prom east into work and it was stood paddling it's feet in the water ~4m from the water's edge. Could almost have had a knotted hankie on its head.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Heard (but didn't spy) a woodpecker in the trees near the NHS offices in Chesser yesterday evening.
The aerodynamic flow over my windscreen and roof when on my way back from Aberdeen on Sunday evening fortunately buffered a swooping buzzard enough to stop what would have been a nasty impact for the bird at 70mph. The downy underside of the bird's wings was clear as it swooped into my path. I'd have been upset if I'd have hit it so was glad when it was buffeted over into clear air behind my car.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Heard (but didn't spy) a woodpecker in the trees near the NHS offices
Drumming or calling?
Posted 10 years ago # -
It was my very great pleasure to be distracted from marvelling at the first golden oriole I've ever seen by the sight of a hobby flying overhead pursued by swallows. All this whilst sat in a comfy chair this weekend in my mother-out-law's back garden. Some things you just don't see on the canal towpath....
Posted 10 years ago # -
There is the perfect imprint of a tawny owl on one of my office windows. Wings outstretched, you can even see the eyes. Must have been a sore one for the poor bird last night....
Posted 10 years ago # -
It may just be me, but I was delighted to disturb a four centimeter common frog when tackling three weeks of lawn growth last night.
Hard to believe it had avoided falling prey to the herd of local cats. I put it in the safest place I could think of.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Last night there was a buzzard circling majestically in the clear blue over Craiglockhart Hill, a sight that would have been incredible when I came to Edinburgh but which is now commonplace.
On the way in this morning I finally had to admit that the 'water vole' I see from time to time on the towpath at Kingsnowe is in fact a large, glossy brown rat. Perhaps the buzzard and the rat could get together for a meal?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@IWRATS: last Saturday afternoon there were three buzzards over Craighouse calling to each other.
They reminded me of the metaphorical birds of prey circling over that site.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Greenroofer
Buzzards are one the two species in the UK that sometimes engage in ménages à trois for breeding purposes. I did wonder if such a trio had set up a nest on my local hill - Craigmillar - last year. Do you know if there's a nest on Craiglockhart?
The other species is the dunnock, or hedge sparrow, which has a byzantine sex-life completely out of keeping with its dowdy demeanour.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Typically for this CCE IWRATS carefully uses the plural for ménage à trois, and he knows how to get the accents to appear (which is more than I do)
This reminds me of a discussion I was on the periphery of some years about the correct plural of modus operandi.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Greenroofer
You have to be careful on here because their such a bunch off pedant's.
Posted 10 years ago # -
IWRATS too obvious
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Gembo - insufficiently pedantic
Posted 10 years ago # -
Gotta say that the sage flowering in my garden is buzzing with bees. Also the paving is streaked with slug and snail tracks. .
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
Unesco world heritage committee discards Abbott administration's request to open 74,000 hectares to logging
"
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/23/un-rejects-australia-tasmanian-forest-heritage
Posted 10 years ago # -
Last night on the canal a female sparrowhawk was 'prospecting' over the houses at Wester Hailes. They use a flight path that looks like a childs drawing of smoke coming from a steam locomotive - circling, but moving steadily at the same time. This allows them to plan the low-level rapid dash through gardens and hedges that actually gets the prey.
The sparrowhawk is probably my favourite bird. Once you get tuned in, you see them everywhere in Edinburgh, but in thirty years and hundreds of sightings, I've only ever seen four males. They are tiny and very discrete.
In Morningside there was a very indiscrete human female. She flicked her fag butt away, fished a bottle of Torres Vina del Sol out of a carrier bag, cracked the seal, sniffed it and took a big swig at the Balcarres Street lights. Bourgeois looking too. Saw me laughing and gave me a big grin-and-shrug.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Rats - I did a double post.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A roe deer on the Berwickshire side of the Dunglass Burn which I saw from 24 metres above on the New Bridge (which is the old A1 bridge).
Posted 10 years ago # -
In the grounds of Astley Ainslie hospital, a Herring gull was confused by its reflection in the glass door of the Occupational Therapy unit. Quite amusing watching it peck its adversary's beak then trying to figure out how the stranger was able to mimic its every move. A good couple of minutes or more before it got bored. :-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
Cycling home last night the Kingsknowe Court Rat made another appearance on the towpath. Same place as ever, I think it has a burrow on the landward side and crosses over to feed in the water. It is a big and shaggy beast seen up close.
I chose to run in to work this morning and was rewarded with sights that I might well have missed otherwise;
* A male bullfinch swooping into a shaft of sunlight so that its white rump patch shone like a laser pointer
* A huge school of six inch and upwards perch basking in a patch of sun in the canal at Wester Hailes
* A school of two centimeter small fry in the shallows at Sighthill
* A buzzard circling lazily over the M8/bypass intersection
I can't wait for red kites to make it through the wall of central Scottish gamekeeper death to join our urban buzzards.
Just noticed I've mixed Imperial and S.I. units in the same post.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Just noticed I've mixed Imperial and S.I. units in the same post."
Should CCE have a rule on this?
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Should CCE have a rule on this?"
This error famously led to a NASA spacecraft ploughing into Mars. In my book units should be absurdist S.I. (sunny days should be described in Einsteins per second per square meter) or mediaevel (rainfall should be in grains per acre between Martinmass and St Swithins' Day).
Don't get me started on rim sizes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Definitely no rule on that one - I have my Garmin setup in miles (distance) and metres (altitude)! If anything says you're British (rather than specifically Scottish)... ;-)
Posted 10 years ago # -
My boardman speedo is an all or nothing affair. As it measures temperature I've gone metric all the way with Celsius, metres and Kms.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I was Fahrenheit for years, but seem to have got converted.
DEFINITELY miles.
Posted 10 years ago #
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