Well timed for the good weather - 5 moorchicks and 4 ducklings in the Figgy yesterday.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 8 years ago #
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I was weeding away at the allotment just after the first big rain-burst this afternoon when I heard a whisper from the people sheltering in the shed. A fox and its chick were quite happily snurfling about a few feet away.
PSX_20150705_151912 by wingpig, on FlickrPosted 8 years ago # -
Zoolife highlight of the day. Yang Guang smacks himself on the bum. Whatever you think of the pandas being here, they are still adorable.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Lots of slugs, snails and even a few leeches making a break for it over the canal towpath in the wet weather.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A few days ago leaving a provincial park campsite early in the morning - a bona fide black bear showed up and cough/grunted at me as I was ferreting for my camera to take a pic of the view! Rather closer than either of us wanted to be to each other as s/he was right on the side of the road, so when I'd finished saying "0h! S**t! Shoo, bear, shoo!" I pedalled off downhill at some speed. Afterwards I rather wished I'd thought to take a photograph but at the time I just shoved the camera back into the bar bag...
Posted 8 years ago # -
@unhurt exciting/yikes! I suppose it's safer to cycle away from a bear than run away from it (which isn't advised)?!
Posted 8 years ago # -
That sounds 'interesting', but glad you remain 'unhurt'!
Altogether more benign, the local fox kits have been out around us most nights. Lovely to see them discovering the world. Have to excuse the photos and the 'noise' on them - cranked up ISO, orange streetlights, shooting through a window, manually focusing, 1/30th of a second on the shutter, does not make for an easy time....
These guys are roughly half the size of the adults at the moment.
Kit2 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Kit1 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
Awwww fox puppies! And thanks - I am happy to remain uneaten too!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Not entirely clear if it's just on STV GLasgow, or Edinburgh as well, but a new 'CitySafari' show starting up tonight. I do believe I suggested something like this to them aaaaaaages ago - but I'm not as pretty as the presenter they have. Bitter? Me? ;)
Fox kit last night being very suspicious indeed of a plant pot (there was a wee bit of leftover meat under it).
Posted 8 years ago # -
Not a highlight as such...
This morning a black feathered creature flew up at me from the undergrowth and without hitting my chest exited through the gap underneath my left arm with my hands still on the handlebars.
Gave me a bit of a fright.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Thousands of toadlets?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Wow. That is a lot of toadlets.
That reminds me - on the overnight Dunoon Dynamo last weekend there was (what I thought was) a lot of (individual) toads on the road down the side of Loch Long.
It was a good test of your lighting to see them in time to miss them.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A long, long time ago, when I was a student at KB and given to working in the wee smalls I had the misfortune to cycle through the toad exodus on the way home. A skid mark made of mashed toads is not a thing I wish to be responsible for again.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Was abandoned by mass of wee black frogs when I marshalled the midsummer pentlands triathlon, right over towards loganlea. Such was the rain. Stair rods In fact.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Large minorcan eagle quite close overhead, spotted from finca we have hired for the week. It is belting hot.mthe French tour pictures come with Spanish commentAry and at the end you get a lot more shots of the presentations etc
Tons of road cyclists in Minorca. Or menorca. There is a cycling club and they were out this morning.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Foxling trotting through the allotment again. It may also be responsible for the strange smell on my cap, which had been left on the ground by a child in the area the fox loitered in for a time.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Took a trip out to the Isle of May today
Posted 8 years ago # -
A vole scuttled over the towpath in front of my bike as I emerged from Gogar Station Road bridge this morning. A little further to the west, a small rabbit emerged from the undergrowth to the right, ran in front of me for a few seconds and then darted back into the undergrowth.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Usual allotment-foxes (now suspected to have their underground house under a shed two plots over) nibbling our onions rather than the slugs which feed thereupon and an heron being chased away by a seagull over the WoL.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The horse farm we were staying at in menorca had donkeys, geeses, turkeys, chooks, as well As horses of various sizes.
Overhead, very close at times red kites. Also kestrels, and I think ealenora's Falcons.
In the garden, in aviary, parakeets, quails, and pigeons. In the shade tortoises.
Was like bleeding animal magic. The estate owner had many trophies for horse riding but also for pigeon racing. My discussions with the young guy who did all the work (pool cleaning, gardening, horse grooming and riding) suggested a lot of money in pigeon racing. Not the kites but some of the other birds of prey, which he called Milano, kill the pigeons.
Menorca also very big into cycle tourism. Many tarmaced roads with speed limits of 30 km. many separate paths. Some slightly narrow non segregated paths but with traffic giving the bikes a wide berth.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I think milano is Spanish for kite.
Menorca sounds great for a break. I think DaveC went
Posted 8 years ago # -
Thanks amir, sounds like I understood even less of the conversation than I thought. He was a lovely chap though and happy to chat.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Big group of shallows on a telephone line by Cousland today. I think they're fed up and off back to Africa
Posted 8 years ago # -
Red kites largely scavengers as have small talons. So mostly carrion, road kill etc and Will also eat worms. Maybe a small rabbit.
There is a rabid daily telegraph article about them eating squirrels.
DaveC big fan of menorca. Me too know. Island is quite small and only one big hill but where we were in the South east there were lots of quiet roads to cycle on. Very hot in middle of day but early morning and late afternoon saw tons of cyclists.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Red or grey squirrels? Clearly very important
Posted 8 years ago # -
Tufty was red
Posted 8 years ago # -
Red squirrels from a woman's garden in the Isle of Wight. But think she was on the pink gin. They can eat smaller mammals but only baby rabbits, hares or squirrels.
Truly the telegraph is full of garbage. Journalist trying to argue that the RSPB giving carrion and worms as the diet as a lie. Journalist felt carrion is removed from farms and no worms when dry. But in reality, when wet they will eat worms when there are worms, carrion,mroadkill etc when available and mice and voles if they cannot get anything easier.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"
City leaders say they are working hard to curb the spread of the invasive green weed, which breeds prolifically and is extremely difficult to kill.
However, botanists believe it is “unlikely” that it will ever be completely wiped out after an epidemic that has seen it spread from riverbanks to roadsides, pathways and parks.
"
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/warning-as-poisonous-plant-invades-the-capital-1-3835241
Same every year- in short it might be simpler to repeat/emphasise 'don't touch Giant Hogweed' message than pretend that they can be eliminated(?)
I think they look great.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I have been reliably informed that there is an albino squirrel in Harrison Gardens....
At home, it might not seem like much, but a shift of food in one of the feeders seems to have brought back Greenfinches, which I haven't seen here for ages, and even some Goldfinches (which we've hardly ever seen here). Sitting out early evening tonight brought those, plus a Chaffinch, the two juvenile Blue Tits that I assume fledged from our nestbox, a gaggle of Spuggies, and a very welcome Collared Dove (as well as a vocal Starling, and the usual Woodpigeons, Crows, Magpies and Gulls - rather pleasant all told).
Posted 8 years ago # -
Just foxes. Loads of foxes of late.
Posted 8 years ago #
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