Cycling through Fauchledean this mornin a domestic moggie performing a dive, of artistic merit, that Tom Daly would have been proud of. A dive, not into water, but into th edge of the verge, the moggie remerged with a mouse in its jaws. Success, well from the cat's perspective!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7166 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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Fair bit of carnage on Lang Whang this a.m. Dead deer on the way out starting to honk on the way back.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Should have honked earlier, might not have got run over.
Posted 9 years ago # -
A stoat watched me as I climbed up Hermiston House Road this morning before scuttling away into the undergrowth.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
The nomadic cat – called Kipper
"
(So sort of wild)
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/blackness-castle-s-kipper-the-cat-is-online-hit-1-3520601
Posted 9 years ago # -
@jdanieldp
Lovely spot on the stoat! You'll be pleased to hear that as I helped my eleven year old nephew to 'dam' a highland stream last week I was surprised to find a weasel watching proceedings from some nearby long grass.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Weasels are wearily recognised
But
Stoats are stoa tally differentPosted 9 years ago # -
Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar, rescued from the road.
Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar on road at Cousland, East Lothian. by Cycling Mollie, on Flickr
Posted 9 years ago # -
There is a photo of a poor wee leper squirrel on the BBC. :-(
Better news is two new species recorded in a wood in East Lothian. I see comma's quite often in Edinburgh. Nuthatches are super cute.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Lawyers wigs on the lawn outside the office today;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinus_comatus
Autumn cannot be far off.
Posted 9 years ago # -
A tiny rodent (presumably a mouse) took the opportunity of a gap between commuters to cross the towpath this morning just North East of Harrison Park where the wall runs alongside the edge of the path. As I approached it scuttled rather quicker before performing an acrobatic leap into the verge between the towpath and the canal.
Posted 9 years ago # -
LOWlight
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/three-dead-otters-found-trapped-in-net-1-3531237
Posted 9 years ago # -
Another lowlight. Scotland's petrel crisis. :-(
Posted 9 years ago # -
I made another stoat spotting this morning as I walked out of town along the canal towpath. A little before the Scott Russell aquaduct something un-noteworthy caught my eye, causing me to look away from the path ahead. When I looked back I was quite surprised to see a stoat in the distance, running towards me along the path... It decided that this was a bad idea, stopped briefly, turned tail (I got a good look at the black end of its tail), then ran away from me, veering off the path into the undergrowth on the right.
Posted 9 years ago # -
On Saturday I sat and watched a hobby chasing swallows over Aix-les-bains. Incredibly agile bird, and a shame we don't get them here.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'm sure Wilmington's Cow took some shots of a hobby on Duddingston Loch a little while ago.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wow! I guess climate change is moving the range north, but I've never seen one closer than the south coast of England....
Posted 9 years ago # -
Sub buteo range certainly south coast of England. Can be confused for eleonora's falcon in Mediterranean.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Fox on the NEPN this morning, close to the red bridge.
Posted 9 years ago # -
A murder of crows (just looked this up) playing in an updraught by the scrap yard on Gogar Station Road today.
They were definitely playing. They'd found an updraught where the wind hits a group of conifers, and it let them hover without flapping. They'd hover for a bit, then fold their wings and zoom down, round and back up into the hover again. There was a group doing it in the wind earlier in the week and they were back doing it today.
It's the kind of thing I'd do if I could fly, and they're certainly intelligent enough to enjoy it for its own sake.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Butterflies and bees enjoying ivy in the sun -
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wildlife lowlight; Adult fox very neatly flattened 'Will E Coyote meets steamroller' style on Craigmillar Park this morning.
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's a great time to visit Aberlady, especially at dusk when you'll 15,000 odd geese flying in. You may also see plenty of waders, ducks, egrets, deer ....
Posted 9 years ago # -
Ridng up to drop kids (5&2) off this morning and stopped to see ~100 geese flying overhead in wonderful formations. Heard them long before we saw them. All of us transfixed. 2 year old "look Daddy birdies" I told her they were geese. "Honk honk"
Posted 9 years ago # -
On a nice rumble around East Lothian I saw lots of geese, a jay and huge dense clouds of aphids. Quite painful to cycle through and I was covered afterwards.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Strange tiny black flies infesting the canal this morning by the lungfull. A wren also flew across the towpath an inch in front of my front wheel just where the late lamented Kingsknowe rat used to manifest.
@amir
Most intrigued by egrets at Aberlady. Did not know they had come this far north at all. On the mudflats I presume?
Posted 9 years ago # -
The egret I saw was on the mudflats by the footbridge. Apparently quite a few have been seen in recent weeks. I think they've been seen at Loch Leven as well. More generally egrets seem to have been spreading relatively quickly. Perhaps we'll get other types soon.
Posted 9 years ago # -
A plump rat, scampering across the path at the top of the slope down to Restalrig Railway Path from the Road of the same name. Further investigation revealed five or six rat-sized holes in the undergrowth.
A fox, not bothering to scamper away into the bushes a wee bit further along the path, later the same Saturday, but as I'd just been to the shop along bike paths I hadn't bothered to switch the camera on.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@amir
Great news. My mother-out-law lives in the Dombes region just north of Lyon, which is covered in agricultural ponds which in turn attract all kinds of egrets and herons. I'd love to see them here - great birds.
Posted 9 years ago #
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