CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
"Commercial growers incorporate a juvenile hormone into the feeding process to keep the mealworm in the larval stage and achieve an abnormal length of 2 cm or greater."
Presumably they're given an extra dose before despatch just in case they spend a few weeks stuck on a shelf in a sorting office, unless the commercial growers don't like delivery entities and quite like the idea of them being punished for non-delivery by suffering a beetle infestation.
Mealworms being ordered, thanks Min!
Yesterday down at Woodhall Dean there were no Adders to be seen, but heard a Cuckoo there for the first time, as well as a Tawny Owl, and spotted a great twiggy little Oak Beauty Moth caterpillar.
Today at Big Saltoun Wood, still loads of newts in the newt pond, as well as a Great Diving Beetle, and spent a wonderful 5 minutes watching two Treecreeper adults feeding three young fledglings.
At home just Starlings galore. We would occasionally see maybe half a dozen around the garden, but whatever the neighbour is feeding them (she says it's just a pound bag from Lidl!) they love it. Dozens started arriving, then for a little while this afternoon there were about a hundred. Every now and then they'd spook into the trees at the bottom of our garden and onto the telephone wires. Adults and fledglings, so lots and lots of calling. Fabulous sight.
Fledgling Treecreeper with a gob full of crane fly
Fledgling Treecreeper Crop eating at Crane Fly by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
I was buzzed by two or three bats while walking home late on Friday night. They really are amazingly agile flying up and down a 10m stretch as fast as my eye could keep up.
They would fly directly towards me until I flinched before a sharp uturn took them back to the start.
Baby Treecreeper! Cute overload!
(and you are welcome)
I love starlings - especially when they "bubble".
Blairgowrie beavers showed up on demand, and we spent a happy evening with Bob the beaver boy (well, man...). He took this video of a yearling in the water then the male coming back down the bank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=15&v=lAxUPK6kImY
He's taking nibbles back to the female who will just have had kits. No kits in evidence, sadly, but still ace!
Nice pic, WC!
I remember folk "complaining" about the high numbers of starlings when I was a lad. They are now red-listed.
That's it, I gotta go see the Beavers!
On red listed species, our house sparrows seem to be making a slow recovery as well. Huge gangs of them when we first moved in, dropped massively, especially when next door cleared their garden completely, including a MASSIVE bush they used to shelter in.
Closer to home (no beavers, over 50 bird species.)
"
Wildlife Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park is home to over 350 different species of flora and fauna including Sparrowhawks, Kingfishers, Scots Pine Trees, Bats and Foxes. For a full list of the different species that have been recorded in the park over the years, click here.
Big shout out to Wilmington's Cow for Woodhall Dean. Took Madame IWRATS there for her birthday stroll on Monday. Unexpected and lovely. No adders though, as it was freezing and I've no idea how to see them.
Ringed plovers on the beach at Dunbar. They always look like they're wearing cosmonaut helmets to me.
Wilmington's Cow, this is the contact for the chap, Bob, we went with - he was lovely, and also had loads to say about other birds/wildlife (apparently you often see otters there too, and he knew his warbler identification, which I consider to be a Black Art):
https://wildlifewalks.wordpress.com/beaver-tours/
"Contact us on theswbg@gmail.com or r.smith50@sky.com or visit our website http://scottishwildbeavers.org/ or via phone 07468 020305 (Bob)"
He also recommended beaver watching at Bamff estate: http://www.bamff.co.uk/
chdot - no beavers YET, surely?!
Both the adders I've seen were just hanging out by the side of the cycle path south of Drumochter Pass.
unhurt: thanks for those links we've just traded our car in for a campervan and are planning trips round Scotland. This has gone to the top of the list!
Killer Whales in the Forth!
unhurt, I am so totally doing that later in the year!
IWRATS, Woodhall Dean is one of my favourites, along with Big Saltoun Wood and Hopes Reservoir. All have their particular species and views etc etc. Oh, there's a lovely river walk near Gifford as well.
Blue Tit with a fecal sack....
Fecal Sack by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Best of luck beaver spotting to you both!
(Mentioned above)
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/killer-whales-hunt-for-seals-in-firth-of-forth-1-3793644
Nice. I like a good ABC (alien big cat).
This was in 2012. Three times the size of WPC. That is a big cat. Never to be seen again.
Next polis will be asking for better heat source kit. Mob by told me he was sent to scene of assault by helicopter and no one around. Heat source still there but no people. This was 3 a.m. In Livingston and he happened to glance at flat across road where person doing the dishes. Heat source was the hot water going down the pipe.
The Robin has been voted Britain's national bird.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33090043
I voted Blackbird but Robins are very cute too.
Wildlife lowlight of the year for me:
Our wee cat was put to sleep today. End-stage kidney failure. He will be sorely missed. :-(
Sorry to hear that Stickman. Min I'd have gone for the blackbird because of its song. My wildlife highlight this week was seeing two dolphins from the cafe at Crail Harbour.
@Stickman very sad news :( It's almost exactly ten years since the last of our family cats suffered the same fate.
Sorry about your cat Stickman. Very sad when that decision has to be made.
On a slightly lighter note, I had to laugh at the Guardian response to the Robin vote.
This was yesterday, but was too traumatised to post then...
This was "wildlife" I didn't spot until too late - a seagull took off from behind a bin, right under my front wheel. Don't know who got the bigger shock!
A bit of a nasty snap as I ran over the wing (hopefully just a feather), but it flew off so seemed ok.
I don't like "came out of nowhere" as an excuse, but this seagull clearly didn't learn the green cross code.
<=3 heron and a rat in Lochend Park.
Following from Tuesday's seagull incident, I had a squirrel try to end his nut-gathering life in my front spokes last night on the NEPN. No idea how I missed it, but it sure got the heart pumping.
I've turned into some kind of pied piper.
At least four cygnets with their parents on the canal near the Scott Russell aqueduct this afternoon. Not sure where they were nesting, possibly hidden away in the 'lagoon' at Wester Hailes, but it is nice to see cygnets there again.
Oh, and I almost had a squirrel under my bike at Heriot-Watt just before setting the cygnets. Luckily it changed direction and nipped back into the undergrowth in time.
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