Snowdrops are out, seen in the undergrowth outside Cameron Toll shopping centre on Saturday.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7166 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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There are snowdrops at Heriot-Watt campus. I also heard a woodpecker pecking away in the woods and a heron flew slow-mo over the sunken garden, departing from the loch.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Two otters playing about six metres from me in bright sunshine in the river Dee at Garthdee this lunchtime. Suburban Aberdeen...
Posted 9 years ago # -
Any bat experts out there?
On the Dalmeny estate diversion I've a couple of times now, around dawn, seen quite large bats flying into the trees. Difficult to say accurately but they seem to be significantly bigger than the wee ones you can see quite commonly around the cycle paths of Edinburgh - maybe blackbird-ish size.
Unfortunately no better description than that available but any suggestions what species they might be?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Any water around? daubenton's bat often skimming the water for bugs. If not your pipistrelle.
However, there are fifteen other breeding types and one type which declines to breed in UK, just not his scene man.
That is a lot of bats
You can buy a sonar thing quite cheaply which detects bats and their frequencies which when consulting a wee bit paper allows you to identify.
We were out last summer at the footbridge twixt Balerno high and rugby club and my pal JOE had such a device he was pointing it and saying the device was positively identifying bats and I said yes, my special eyes are also looking at them flying up and down the river.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Could be Brown Long-Eared. They are bigger than pips and are the sort of bat to hang around a place like Dalmeny.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Bats appear to be quite tricky to categorise. You might think the brown long eared one would stand out? But they all have big lugs, they are not all brown. Around the world with over 1100 types, e mega class of bats does have smaller types than some of the mini category. World of bats website.
Flipping estates we had a mixed reception at hopetoun on Sunday. Eight Lycra louts (we were the wildlife?) seeking coffee. Very nice young woman at the farm shop directed us to the garden centre. Very posh chap declined to let us take bikes through and suggested we chain them to trees.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Three Long-tailed Ducks juuuust over the sea wall between Musselburgh and Cockenzie today. They'd swum a bit further out by the time I had the camera, but lovely hearing them calling in an "I'm better than you" way to each other. Hadn't been prepared to see them cos it was low low tide and they tend to prefer deeper water....
Long-tailed Duck_2 by -blackpuddinonnabike-Rock Pipits galore too. Everything is starting to come to life a bit.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Lots of geese in the air this morning (and yesterday).
A honking, low-flying 'V' of about 10 above the canal at Meggetland this morning.
Large numbers high in the sky yesterday and this morning, heading south-west in huge V formations. I stopped to admire (and listen to) the spectacle.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Honk. Heading north over Seafield.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I spotted an impressive V of geese that appeared to be heading North-East around dusk as I was walking into town from Fountainbridge on Friday a week before last.
This moring I spotted the cormorant fishing on the canal a little beyond the bypass. Still no regular kingfisher.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Back 'home' in Aberdeenshire, had to go see the local seals. Roughly 400 hauled out.
All Photos-142 by -blackpuddinonnabike-Nice singing Yellowhammer too.
All Photos-103 by -blackpuddinonnabike-Red Squirrel the day before.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Here's a really crap photo of the aforementioned Owl. (Apologies to the folk who are actually good at photography)
Posted 9 years ago # -
OK I'm crap at computers to. Here's a link:
https://twitter.com/DaveOsborne/status/566964488357052416/photo/1Posted 9 years ago # -
@Schemieradge
Crap at computers you may be, but I really like that photo. Quite spooky. And certainly a tawny owl.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Crap be damned. That's fab!
Posted 9 years ago # -
Afraid I am rubbish at bird identification, but saw a large black long beaked bird spearing a fish on the canal this morning.
Also saw a Heron on sunday flying above Marchmont.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@nelly, that will be the cormorant. Often spotted on the canal. But only jdanielp spots the kingfisher, longish beak, fish spearer but small and blue.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Gembo, definitely not a kingfisher, I did think cormorant but my lack of birdwatching skills made me think that was only seen at the seaside !
Posted 9 years ago # -
Interesting bird the cormorant as happy in fresh or salty water. Pair up at Harlaw reservoir perch on the railing out into the water, quite pleased with themselves.
Posted 9 years ago # -
There's a cormorant (I think) that sits in a very specific spot on an island in the middle of the Esk in Musselburgh. See it quite regularly doing the big-wings things cormorants do.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Just be careful not to get caught rubbing linseed oil into the school cormorant.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Really nice walk through the south side of Holyrood Park just now.
Pair of kestrels clearly getting a nest site in order, then down on the loch the heronry has taken shape, while on the water loads of goldeneye, tufties and coots clumping together, a little grebe out in the middle, and mixed in with the usual canada and greylag geese, what looked very very like a white-fronted. Oh, and then a buzzard sauntered over quite low.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cycling back up WoL path today at Currie with no 1 son in. Front and no 2 daughter behind I stopped to watch a buzzard fly across to me and sit in a branch of a tree next to the river. Not seen this before. Was big but plumage suggesting juvenile. So maybe a bit lost. Then at the south fork ranch swimming pool just after the Kirk and the wee bridge, a big penguin. Fake though.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Interesting / strange thing about the kestrels. I'd been watching one on a high ledge, and 5 minutes or so later another flew by. Got some nice shots, happy with that. 5 minutes further on and it appeared again, then landed, the two appeared (from the pics) to mate straight away, then sat together.
On checking the pics, though, the first fly-by one wasn't the same as the one that landed - the reason I can tell is the first one (on blowing up the pics) appears to have stirrups, whereas the second doesn't. I thought it was a ring at first, but definitely looks like leather bands on each leg, with little brass holes... And... It doesn't look like a kestrel anymore, but I'm not confident enough to say what I think it is!
(these are massive crops)
Flying Kestrel Stirrups_1 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Flying Kestrel Stirrups by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 9 years ago # -
Would maybe want a bit of red for a kestrel on back and top side of wings?
Sparrow hawk but then the stirrups? Merlin? They are similar size and similar markings
Tricksy
Peregrine a bit bigger? What size do you estimate? The black tears going from eye down the throat is more peregrine for sure.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Too big for a merlin (I think, though I have seen one there), and the sparrowhawk doesn't have the black eye stripe. Thinking peregrine - size would be right, and it was also a lot brighter underneath than the kestrel, and a bit bigger (adding to the not-merlin thoughts - no idea why none of this struck me as I first saw it).
The stirrups / jesses are odd - either escaped, set free, or someone out of sight giving it a bit of a fly to round up pigeons?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Looks like convergence on peregrine. Nice. Saw them on Tate modern a few years back.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The plot thickens.
I popped onto LothianBirdNews after someone suggested Saker Falcon on FB, but we don't get them wild here. Turns out falconers do cross-breed them with Peregrines, then there's a report from last year of a cross Lanner / Peregrine in Holyrood. Not sure whether it's an escapee or not, but going to pop the question on there!
Posted 9 years ago # -
Saw that on FB and the juvenile saker incollins bird guide of Britain and Europe looks like the one in the photo. The lander described in that book as saker like. They sometimes come with a bit more brown.
The Gyr is more grey and gets mistaken for a peregrine again non native and bigger.
The cross breed has legs. The stirrups suggest to me falconry rather than a wild kestrel for a knave.
Posted 9 years ago #
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