Forgot to note that I have now also heard and seen a dipper in full "keep orf my bit of river!" song - on the WoL stretch downstream of the Stockbridge. Rather lovely!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 7 years ago #
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Dippers are great
Two twitchers with wee bins in middle of towpath meggetland. Surmise kingfisher in tree
Posted 7 years ago # -
@gembo I hope that you pointed out that it is 'my' kingfisher. I think that I spotted a mink emerging from the Lancaster Canal on a walk this morning but no kingfishers.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Yes @jdanielp I did. I think I saw the Lancaster canal. It runs down the side of the m6?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Just saw some reindeer flying over the house. Amazing!
Posted 7 years ago # -
:-)
Posted 7 years ago # -
@gembo ah, very good ;) Yes, the Lancaster Canal does indeed run alongside the M6 for part of its length and my parents' garden backs onto it in Preston. It is not well maintained for cycling, sadly, but I have done part of it on a MTB in the past and we even took a canal boat holiday on it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A Christmas kingfisher on the Lancaster Canal. After we disturbed it from its perch it took off and flew away from us before landing almost exactly where we spotted the mink yesterday... It then flew past us with a fish a little later as I was writing this and we followed it along the canal for a bit before it disappeared.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I looked for @jdanielp in Booths in Preston yesterday but he wasn't there.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Strange as I heard there was a resident kingfisher in booths but maybe up skipton way?
Jdanielp the kingfisher whisperer? Or the Fisher Kingfisher with Robin Williams and Jeff bridges
Never has one individual spotted more kingfishers in the history of humankind?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Only time I've seen a kingfisher outside Edinburgh was in Skipton - up the Spring's Branch.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@gembo
Booths does a cute oven-ready kingfisher roast for one, but they were all sold out. Perhaps @jdanielp had got there early?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@iwrats, that one where the kingfisher is inside a jay inside a grouse inside a goose?
My prediction for 2017 is that wait Rose is going to start selling birds inside birds. You heard it here first
Also checkout the kigfisher in the Montrose basin that is pinning sticklebacks to a branch by their spines, to air dry them for dinner
Posted 7 years ago # -
Last spot of the Lancaster Canal Kingfisher for the time being just now. We saw it catch and eat a fish this time.
Not sure about kingfisher roasts or multi-bird, but could be tempted by a fish in a kingfisher in a mink perhaps ;)
I haven't been to Booths this visit but was worth looking.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@jdanielp - kingfisher magnet
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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@Hankchief and I were heading towards Gretna this morning at dawn when we saw this in the distance...
...well, not this one, obviously, but something very similar. I didn't realise it was quite as famous as a quick Google search proved it to be. It was some way off, but rather splendid.
Most of the rest of the wildlife we saw on the ride was roadkill, unfortunately.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
“We have taken the scorpion to an exotic pet rescue in Peterborough.”
"
http://www.scotsman.com/news/train-to-edinburgh-delayed-after-scorpion-gets-on-board-1-4330267
Posted 7 years ago # -
A buzzard trying to get on with its buzzarding over Old Dalkeith Road, with a thousand jackdaws birling past to go and roost on Craigmillar Hill. Not even bothering to mob it, just all laughing and pointing.
Posted 7 years ago # -
fieldfares out in the west lothian fields.
two buzzards dancing for worms
third and fastest quickening of the festive season
Posted 7 years ago # -
It was my first commute of 2017 on the canal towpath this morning. Given that the route was fairly quiet, I had the opportunity to scan the opposite bank more carefully than usual, which resulted in my spotting a woodpecker (likely a great spotted) on the trunk of a small tree just beyond the Kingsknowe Road North Bridge. I had all but given up on spotting a kingfisher as I approached my turn off at Hermiston House Road Bridge only for one to alight from a branch above me, fly over the canal and land on a branch on the far bank as I was approaching the penultimate bridge... :)
Posted 7 years ago # -
@jdanielp
Purple-hatted kingpecker?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@IWRATS I wonder what name they have for my hybrid bike?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@jdanielp
The word that came to mind when I first saw your commuter was 'pearlescent'. Perhaps the canal wildlife regards you as an enormous ambulatory oyster?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Wild garlic bulbs just beginning to sprout by the side of the Howe Dean path.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A bird's nest made out of Heather twigs, and some small bones with nice sheep's wool lining on the foot platform at the top of a stile on the right of way from crosswood reservoir off the Lang whang to the covenanter's grave above garvald. We saw no people. So the Stile may be perfect spot for a nest or Andy golds worthy has been out.
the terrain from the a70 side is brutal. The path is found heading into the sun from a series of way posts. Easier on the garvald side where the grouse moor has landrover track. Easier to find path on return with sun behind. Plenty grouse not yet shot too.
Posted 7 years ago # -
My RSPB contact suggests we found the nest of a carrion crow.
Should have said I also startled a Jack Snipe which is smaller than a common snipe with a shorter beak. Horrendously. The toffs can still shoot snipe, small and endangered birds. Grouse they rear for shooting and pheasants ain't too bright but the wee snipe. IT's an injustice as Calamero used to say at 5.15 Mon-Fri just before crossroads
Posted 7 years ago # -
I came across a chap once who shot snipe. Said they were a 'challenging shot' because they zig-zag when flushed, unlike a jack snipe, which goes straight, lands again quickly and barely has enough meat on it to make a vol-au-vent.
Posted 7 years ago # -
From when I used to beat for a shooting syndicate in the borders, I recall the saying goes.....
"shoot a snipe before they shxxxte", as it's then they start with their ziggy-zaggy-ness.
If anyone managed to get a pair (left & right) then it was a big deal indeed. Back slapping & doubles all round. Chinless wonders.
Poor wee birds.
Posted 7 years ago # -
there is a petition to stop the shooting of the wee snipe. Young lad I know was out beating for pheasant the other day. Think 2nd Jan as cycling along lang whang I could hear a lot of banging that morning. Paid the little blighter with a pheasant instead of cash. This is why the rich spend less money than the poor (Boots Theory)
Lot of the birds that are shot just get buried I am also told.
Posted 7 years ago #
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