Last swallow still hanging on around Craigmillar Hill. Still summer.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 8 years ago #
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Saw five on a line on Sunday night when out for a run,mnow were hugging each other, they will be off soon.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A dozen swallows lining up outside the Edinburgh Retired Greyhound Trust. Seems their Brexit planning is more advanced than etc etc etc.
CCE competition to spot the last swallow of summer?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Some red squirrels up in Perthshire today
Posted 8 years ago # -
While we were cycling along the NEPN at 11:30pm on Saturday we saw:
1) a fox
2) a badger! We chased the poor wee thing all the way across the big bridge over the Water of Leith until it finally managed to escape off to the side of the path. I've never seen a badger before.Posted 8 years ago # -
I've seen dead badgers often enough on Craigleith Crescent. They come out of the woods nearby and are knocked over by cars.
I don't suppose even the most rabid anti-cyclist would finger us for roadkill.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I'm sorry to say I have killed a rabbit and a squirrel while cycling.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Bike wheel-indented rats on the towpath are a regular occurence.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I once cycled into a flock of toads crossing Cluny Gardens in the moonlit small hours. I stopped and got off but the damage was done, though I didn't look too closely.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I should have said, I've never seen a live badger before.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Spotted a leaflet about sparrowhawks in Edinburgh on the notice board at the Balerno end of the WoLpath - 124 birds, 20 nests, all tagged with white clip and two letter or letter over number - they want you to record any spots. Edinburgh sparrowhawk study, been going since the 1980s
Posted 8 years ago # -
Cripes! Blood on their wheels! Machines of death!
I had to stop to wait on a baby rabbit that was running in front of me on the Balerno path instead of diving to the side into the undergrowth. It sat there and chewed grass. It hadn't got the hang of survival strategies.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@gembo
Yes, I know these people. They were dispaying their sparrowhawk sighting map in the Inverleith visitor palace once and discussing its meaning with passers-by.
I tried to explain to them that all it showed was where their members lived - the leafier quarters - but the chap seemed not to grasp the point and I left him to it.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I think the map showed two things, a distribution of sparrowhawks linked to a distribution of sparrowhawk spotters of course.
Poor chaps (though maybe some will be women) they just want to run the project following up the 1980s project.
The website has details of the hawk that deserted pigeon killing duties at Holyrood for the crags. A Harris hawk called Tweed.
Many many years ago I was somehow made a judge of some education awards and the bird watching club at St Saviours School of Hard Knocks was a loser/commended I overheard another judge long gone now whispering to his PA (A Kestrel For A Knave)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Last Monday at thriepmuir my friend thought he spotted a peregrine falcon. I let him know today that IWRATS pals at the Edinburgh hawk watch view this as very feasible. He said he had also spotted one going into Scotmid I. Balerno. I have asked him what Perry was buying in Scotmid.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A Siamesey (maybe not pure breed) cat trotting along the edge of the parapet of the Meggetland road bridge over the canal this morning as I was cycling underneath. A decapitated vole (or a similarly tiny rodent) near the Calder Road bridge a little later... Four buzzards, at least one of which was mewing insistently, circling at various heights above the Heriot-Watt Millennium Garden as I sat and ate my lunch in the warm sunshine just now.
Posted 8 years ago # -
a black cat and a 'too late to brake' moment this morning near the bottom of Milton Rd East.
lucky for both of us, I thought i was going down.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Just dead young rat on towpath this affy.
Cat and white rat stuck up organ pipe in st pat's pro cathedral Dublin (on Facebook)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Goshawk devouring a Red Squirrel as one of the many wonderful entries in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in the New Museum of Scotland.
And a flock of Red-legged Partridges near Danskine Loch on our way up Red Stane Rig yesterday.
Cheers
ColinPosted 8 years ago # -
Canadian geese. Two massive v formations flying over Falkirk.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A large v of geese was being blown around as they flew noisily over Heriot-Watt campus in the wind on Thursday.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Swallows still hanging on at Loch Leven yesterday. Will they bother going to Africa or just stay on for the winter?
Also a crow chasing a small elastic-winged falcon, but no time to get binoculars on it. Athletic kestrel more likely than one of the handful of hobbies in Scotland.
Posted 8 years ago # -
small elastic-winged falcon,
Could have been a Merlin?
Posted 8 years ago # -
@Min
Ah yes. Hadn't thought of that. Could well have been. Probably was.
I've seen hobbies in France and merlins here, and reflecting on it I believe you are correct.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I saw swallows yesterday near Selkirk. And a skein of geese flying between feeding grounds. Also two dead roe deer and loads of pheasants.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Was joined by two buzzards on Saturday morning who leapfrogged down the telegraph poles ahead of me. Was then the target of a dambuster pheasant who flicked a big piece of dirt off the wall straight into my mouth as I cycled past. I was just glad it was dirt and not something else!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Two buzzards being mobbed by exactly four magpies and two jackdaws as they soared in the clear azure skies over south suburban Edinburgh yesterday.
I still get a thrill seeing these raptors in the capital. Can't wait for the kites to make it across the upland heather death zones from D&G or Argaty. Or Luton.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I remember the thrill of seeing some of the then rare kites (only about 30 pairs?) when cycling near Tregaron in the early 80s. Then last weekend I was walking on the side of the Thames in Reading, watching many just floating above the tree tops. They are beautiful.
Posted 8 years ago # -
We seem to have a new resident-somewhere-near buzzard in Duddingston. Certainly we're used to seeing them, but this is virtually every day at the moment.
Yesterday morning I was fettling in the garden at about 7.45am and the chooks free-ranging around my feet suddenly stood to attention at a crow's alarm call. Look up, and a Buzzard is being mobbed jus 10 feet above my head.
The crows later saw off a Sparrowhawk as well.
Riding the path from Peebels to Innerleithen and back yesterday was remarkably devoid of interesting wildlife.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Could lead to a highlight...
Posted 8 years ago #
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