CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Wildlife highlight of the day

(7221 posts)

  1. jdanielp
    Member

    @gembo it would certainly have had to be a very big frog if it was to use a strimmer.

    The swifts were still swooping in the blue skies above Nice just now when a solitary bat fluttered by the balcony of the house I'm staying at up a hill to the northwest.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. unhurt
    Member

    Peregrine up above the nest site in the Green Cleuch, and a cuckoo calling in the Bavelaw woods.

    ETA just scrolled back and saw the goosander chicks. Setting a high cuteness bar!

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. gembo
    Member

    Either swifts or house martins inches above our heads last night at dusk. Shrieking like swifts but heading into eaves to presumably feed chicks. Nest inside the eaves not a wattle and daub attachment.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. unhurt
    Member

    A very hopeful cat!

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    A slow worm on the bank of Loch Rannoch.

    Also two ospreys, a cuckoo and a mysterious flock of greenfinches in the middle of Glen Garry. Not auspicious ground for them you wouldn't think.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  7. Min
    Member

    Ooh, that is super cool.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Min

    Cheers! I was all excited as I've never seen one before. Got camera flustered...

    Posted 8 years ago #
  9. Min
    Member

    What a wee cracker. I have not seen one either but my hope has now been rekindled.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  10. Stickman
    Member

    I had a fun day yestersay at a "Secrets of Wildlife Photography" workshop with Tom Langlands. My camera skills aren't up to much but he gave some really helpful advice and it has made me keen to get out and improve.

    He showed some of his fantastic photos and gave the stories of how he took them. It's a lot of work just to get one good photo!

    http://tomlanglandsphotography.com/

    Posted 8 years ago #
  11. gembo
    Member

    Maybe spotted a redpoll on a fence out on the Lang whang. Or maybe a sparrow with small red beret

    Posted 8 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Ben Dolphin (@CountrysideBen)
    29/05/2016, 10:10 pm
    10 mins ago, just outside my back door. A hare suckling 2 leverets for 6th night in a row. Can't quite believe it!

    http://pic.twitter.com/yvLzrsKSfb

    "

    Posted 8 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    More wildlife from yesterday.

    I should have asked the slow worm to check my ankles. (Madame IWRATS has just declared that 'slow worm' is 'nul à chier' as a term for a couleuvre as it is neither slow nor a worm.)

    Vote Leave to preserve our traditional British animal names.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  14. gembo
    Member

    these limbless lizards are common in the Eu

    Orvet ~~ Anguis fragilis ~~ Slow worm

    (Syn. Française: Serpent de verre)

    German - Blind Creeper (trans)

    THey seem quite tricky to name.

    Found in Countyu Clare despite St Paddy casting out the snakes and limbless lizards, Dragons and dinosaurs

    Posted 8 years ago #
  15. unhurt
    Member

    Is that tick embedded & sooking? If so: ew! Hurrah for slow worm pictures - I have never seen one either.

    @gembo - a sparrow honouring Prince?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  16. gembo
    Member

    Sparra more likely in the Paras

    I just said that for the rhyme, maybe Royal Marines have red beret. I must google

    Posted 8 years ago #
  17. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @unhurt

    It is alive but about to suffer the Tick Twister. I was reliably informed last night that if you want to see a slow worm go to Ailsa Craig and look under stones. I don't know if you can cycle to that island.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  18. I scratched an itch when I was on Lewis only to realise I'd left half a tick embedded. Gah!

    Posted 8 years ago #
  19. My new highlight is the heron which appears to have taken a shine to the Water of Leith down at the Shore. In the 26 years I've lived down there, I've never once seen a heron in this section of the water - but in the last three weeks I've seen one many times between the Sandport St bridge and the Commercial St / Bernard St bridge.

    This morning it was in the WoL right outside the flat at 6am, and there was a photographer already set up and getting some cracking shots of it in the early morning sun.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  20. gembo
    Member

    Lyme's disease very debilitating, twist those ticks

    Ailsa Craig or paddy's milestone sits way out in the firth of Clyde. Occasionally visited by the Waverley paddle steamer, sometimes goes around,sometimes docks. No roads it is a big rock with A lighthouse and a granite quarry for curling stones

    Posted 8 years ago #
  21. Four fledgling Wrens being attended to by their parents in the Figgate Park tonight. The very definition of cute.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  22. jdanielp
    Member

    Seven newish cygnets with their parents on the loch at Heriot Watt this lunchtime.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  23. Stickman
    Member

    Four newish cygnets being shepherded by both parents at the canal by the Kelpies. Managed to get some decent (for me) photos of them.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

  25. Min
    Member

    A baby Magpie with a very short tail wandering about on my way home. It toddled off under a parked car (they are useful sometimes) amd was last seen peeking out from under it. Hopefully it will do well.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  26. gembo
    Member

    i saw a red dear with little antlers in the riverbed west of colinton the other morning. It was beautiful and picking its way across to the other bank

    Posted 8 years ago #
  27. Rosie
    Member

    @ Min - cars do provide cover, just like motorway verges are havens for wildlife.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  28. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    At the risk of sounding like one of those people who claims to have found an odd looking cat, then posts a picture of a skunk, yesterday I saw an ivory coloured weasel. Or was it something else?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  29. Sounds like an ermine-coated Stoat (which are a fabulous sight), but would be decidedly odd to have one in that coat at this time of year.

    Possibly a genetic quirk weasel which is lacking a colour pigment? Or escaped domestic of course...

    Posted 8 years ago #
  30. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Yes WC, I think it might just be a genetic quirk. An albino or escaped family pet. No black tip on the tail so not an ermine.

    Posted 8 years ago #

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