Redwings breeding beside the magnificently named River E. I didn't know they bred in Scotland at all, so eyes on stalks a bit.
Also a young eagle nearly getting hold of the raven trying to drive it off its patch.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7221 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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Wow. That must be pretty unusual.
Just got up to open the window in order to listen to the Blackbird more closely so he could cheer me up. And all I can hear now are LBB Gulls. Bah.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I think I almost ran over a newt on the canal towpath this morning. As I was heading west around Kingsknowe I spotted movement on the towpath ahead of me and jinked to the right to avoid what initially appeared to be a small lizard, but which I decided in retrospect was likely to be a newt, which was crawling slowly towards the water.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Newts have a ruffle on their tail. Darkish gray brown black. Lizards I have spotted though they move very quickly green
Posted 8 years ago # -
Big Saltoun Wood has a pond that for a couple of months a year is crawling with newts. Their tadpoles have frilly bits that make them easy to distinguish from frog and toad tadpoles. And they spend the majority of their time well away from water, they only come to ponds etc. to breed it appears (wikipedia was my friend after first spotting the pond)
I did, one particularly rainy night, just avoid stepping on one on my front doorstep. Right time of year for mating, a few gardens with ponds, so assumed it was following some pheromone scent.
Newt by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Saltoun Newts_3 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
My wildlife highlights for today's ride included an otter, a kingfisher, several geckos, crabs scuttling across the road dodging our wheels and a toad that was, I jest you not, the size of a small cat! For full disclosure, I should point out that I was riding with the Pune Cyclers Club [sic].
Posted 8 years ago # -
Just cos I know chdot likes them.... Watching a heron this morning having a good long preen. Then folded out his wings and curved them in front to catch the sun. I presume this is similar to sunbathing we see our chickens doing, apparently the UV rays kill off various parasites and bugs.
Heron Sunbathe_1 by Anthony Robson, on FlickrOh, and ducklings. A flotilla of 7 ducklings.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Ta
That is such a weird photo!
(Doesn't everyone like herons?)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Big frog and little frog hiding in the wall when I was cutting the grass there.
Little mouse flushed out of its house by the rain yesterday. Scampering behind the hose pipe picking up leaves etc. Took the bait from the trap I left it but not caught yet.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Not my highlight, but my brothers were up the Pentlands and saw a peregrine after a crow - either trying to get the food it was carrying or possibly attacking it because it had taken one of their chicks (the food in the crow's beak was waving little feets and wings...). I suspect the latter as I don't think peregrines are into piracy. They even managed to get a video clip on a phone!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Swifts over the house :)
Swift by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Swift_1 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Swift_2 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Swift_3 by Anthony Robson, on FlickrAnd one of our regular foxes, scavenging bird seed, last night.
Fox_2 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
A muntjac pottering around my parents' garden and stealing spilt birdseed. It's been doing this most days for several weeks, usually at the same time.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I've not seen a muntjac. Is this on Scotland?
The Flora is in fine fettle up at Red Moss near Balerno lots of heath spotted orchids and variations.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Muntjac native to Lincolnshire.
Three egrets, big brown buzzard, maybe marsh harrier, geese, lapwings, oyster catchers, curlew, and more including two rather dirty samphire collectors pushing their bikes along the Norfolk coastal path near Burnham norton
Posted 8 years ago # -
An adder, neat an old airbase, not in Scotland, not far from where I saw a barn owl a year ago.
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Posted 8 years ago #
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Love the open beak shot.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Family of shelduck, sheldrake and four shelducklings in a big puddle near north creake, Norfolk, also two beautiful hares ten feet from me pretending to be statues.
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Posted 8 years ago #
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My daughter is currently ploughing her way through the Mr Gum books (if you haven't seen them, a strange mix of the bizarre and humour which kids seem to love, although the author seems to have hit on a winning formula of how to fill pages with very little and still manage to call it a book). There's a scene in one of them where Mr Gum is unhappy about something and is described as 'scowling like a fireplace'.
So from now on, anybody exhibiting qualities of unhappiness in our household is immediately named 'Scowly McFireplace'
Posted 8 years ago # -
@WC excellent pictures of Kingfishery McKingfisherface!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Little owl skreeking away in the woods on the way back from the cinema.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Mountain hare last week in the Cairngorms. First sighting for us.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A jay, stealing the finches' food from my parents' birdfeeder.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Sparrowhawk tacking into the wind over Blackford Glen Road pursued by swallows.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Marsh harrier from George Washington bird hide, holkham. Imperious atop a bush.
On the beach some curious stone trees. They were props from the new Natalie Portman film annihilation which is being filmed on holkham beach.
Last night dragged three out of four possible unwilling accomplices down the coastal path from Burnham overy staithe to the very far end of holkham beach. It is the number one beach in the uk according to Sunday times (they say wells by the sea but it is the same beach). When we reached the sands there was a request to go to the sea which was far far away. When we got there my son spotted the largest seal I have every copped a load of about twenty feet out in the surf. Big bull grey seal.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@gembo I thought you were going to claim that the seal was twenty feet in length for a moment there. That'd be some seal, although it sounds like it was anyway...
Posted 8 years ago # -
@jdanielp
Gembo is intoxicated. We're lucky it wasn't a giraffe.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Giraffes can't dance
Posted 8 years ago # -
Near the windmill at Burnham overy staithe a little sparrowhawk about two days dead, fresh flowers and a cross made of twigs and black tape. Certainly longer dead than the hare on the road out of Burnham Thorpe (birthplace of Nelson). I think I saw the soul of the hare depart this realm and assume the car I stepped up on to the verge to avoid had taken it from us.
One Rapha clad pinarello cyclist taking the road to walsingham. NCN route 1 is around here
I am not cycling at the moment due to the housemaid's knee. Picked up in Dumfries and Galloway. However, after physio did zilch, when I was bending down to unplug the stereo I dispersed the fluid back into myself. I wonder if it will come back.? Managing fairly long early morning walks whilst the family sleep using one f those sticks from tiso. Family find the stick too much.
Posted 8 years ago #
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