@gembo
A bird of that ilk, yes. I could not identify it further.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
(7223 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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Pair of linnet just outside the kitchen window
Posted 8 years ago # -
Another pair of hrumps (lovely red bills) along with some gannets, fulmar, seals and some weird coastal plants that I don't recognise
Posted 8 years ago # -
Golden samphire
Posted 8 years ago # -
Golden samphire
Coolio. Today I saw two different mulleins: moth mullein and great mullein.
Moth mullein by Tom Orr, on Flickr
Great mullein by Tom Orr, on Flickr
Posted 8 years ago # -
Rock samphire, marsh samphire and golden samphire all totally different species.
Marsh samphire also known as glasswort as used in olden days in the glass making process. But also good eating and the first scavenged food original freegan Richard Mabey ever ate. I recently collected some, cooked it and good percentage of the family ate it.
Rock samphire which ends up more like a relish was John Evelyn's favourite veg back in the seventeenth century. More likely to find this in Scotland than marsh samphire. Also known as crithmum, and passper in scotland
Posted 8 years ago # -
Got a very close view of a stoat today neat East Saltoun as I rode to the East Fortune Arishow. Came within a whisker of my front wheel, the squeaking as it dived into the undergrowth was most cute.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Robin doing some hovering at the allotment. Rat on the WoL near the sandport on the way back.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Wild raspberries growing by the roadside on way back from torphicen on what was a very soggy morning. I had to clean the seat at cupcakes cafe before leaving. Appears to have been a bit less wet further east.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A jet black rabbit running across the road as I cycled by in Kintyre.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Today,the carcass of a basking shark washed up just along the coast from us. Very decomposed.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A ripe blackberry - time to start Christmas shopping
Posted 8 years ago # -
Wildlife highlight of my recent coast to coast was probably the family of feral greylag geese I disturbed at Loch Garry. The adults flew over the landrover track to to the water, but when the half-fledged youngsters tried to follow they took off and bounced off the road rolling into the heather head over heels like they were drunk, the adults honking blue murder all the while.
Posted 8 years ago # -
More of a wildlife lowlight.
Waiting at the traffic lights to turn into Torphichen St, I felt something on my head (I am follically challenged) in one of the vents in my helmet. Next thing I know, >>ouch!<<
Didn't see the blighter amid my subsequent fluster and rapid helmet removal, but I assume it was a wasp.
Certainly woke me up.
Posted 8 years ago # -
We were on Islay last week but it was too hot for the seals and the wrong time of year for the geese. I did see lots of fledged guillemots though and on the Big Strand there were a lot of large spider crab carcasses washed up.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@panyagua Snap. On towpath this morning, just after Meggetland where the verge cutters have made it along to, I felt sharp pain to the ankle. Never saw anything either Have applied vinegar and taken anti-histamine. Still sore.
Maybe it is the Pokemon?
Posted 8 years ago # -
On way into work, did a loop of Dundas Castle Estate which was lovely - saw deer, hare, squirrels, rabbits crossing my path.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Greater knapweed and five-spot Burnet moth at Yellowcraig last week.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@panyagua @gembo I was also stung by a wasp for the first time in ages as I was cycling into the Heriot-Watt campus one morning last week. I felt something moving on my leg and looked down to see a wasp, which promptly stung me. I brushed it away before pulling over to attempt to squeeze the puncture wound and remove some of the venom, although the sting was surprisingly sore in the short term and was irritating me on and off most of last week. It's gone now.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Roe a deer, a female deer. Actually an antlered male in Craigmillar Castle Park yesterday.
Posted 8 years ago # -
There's a fake stag in the garden of a recently refurbished/extended property across from the canal towpath near the less iconic of the Slateford aqueducts.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A very vocal buzzard soaring over Craiglockhart just now.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"
One of the Lothians’ most valuable wildlife havens is set to receive a boost under plans to restore a disused part of a former power station.
The final two ash lagoons at Levenhall Links have been unused since Scottish Power shut down the Cockenzie facility in 2013.
"
Posted 8 years ago # -
I live in Murrayfield (yes I know)
I feed the local birds with mealworms in my small front garden. There is a small flock of sparrows living in my neighbour's hedge who are regular customers & who remind me about their dietry requirements every time I come out of the garage.
I was rather horrified today to find that one had been brutally murdered. I had the front door open & I could hear a commotion outside with a kind of 'kyui, kyui' sound. Went outside & found, standing on the body of one of my sparrows a bleedin' sparrowhawk, who glared up at me for several seconds (about 3 feet away) & then took off with his prey. I feel sad for one of my boys, but happier that if he had to go, at least he was taken by a natural predator, rather than by a cat or run over by a car. But a sparrowhawk, so close to the centre of town???Posted 8 years ago # -
@stiltskin
At the last count there were 35 breeding pairs of sparrowhawks in the City of Edinburgh. That was the early nineties and they have done well since.
There is a pair hunts around Princes Street - the female sometimes takes feral pigeons....yuk.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The garden with the fake stag now also has an outdoor hot-tub, which I fear may lead to unintentional spots of the wrong kind of 'wildlife' when cycling into town...
Posted 8 years ago #
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