The (deceased) Kingsknowe Rat is still visible on the canal towpath just west of the bypass, but it's now just the tail and a few bones.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Wildlife highlight of the day
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Pretty sure there are more than 3 otters along the WoL.
Maybe so, and I don't believe that I said otherwise. But otters are territorial animals and a female otter's range is typically ~20km (pretty much the length of the WoL path). So I don't think the population density is likely to be particularly high. And given that the run of the river between Longstone and the bridge to the Gallery of Modern Art is about 5km i.e. roughly 25% of a typical female otter's range, I think it's not all that unreasonable to assume that the same family would be observed in both locations.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Interesting!
“But otters are territorial animals and a female otter's range is typically ~20km (pretty much the length of the WoL path)”
That’s a massive area to ‘protect’ as a territory.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I saw two otters making their way upstream from Currie Brig on Friday morning. I wonder how far up the river they'd go? If an otter took the Bavelaw Burn branch they'd get up to Harlaw Reservoir, stocked full of tasty fish.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Have they been tagged? They are more photographed than Princess Di was.
Posted 1 year ago # -
2 Buzzards, a kestrel?, a red kite and and a red squirrel with a red tail between Lanarkshire and the borders today.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Red and grey squirrels in the Ochils on Saturday, and a stoat. Got the Ember bus to Bridge of Earn, and cycled back
Posted 1 year ago # -
A couple of barn owls in the Ettrick valley on the way back from Longtown on Saturday's ultrawet audax.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Two kingfishers on the canal just before Gogar Station Road Bridge (when heading out of town) this morning. They should be increasingly spottable as the last of the leaves fall off.
Posted 1 year ago # -
This a good idea?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Kingfisher and otter (at Kingsknowe) on the canal this morning!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Yesterday en route to a 75 mile Dreva circuit with lashings of leek and potato soup at the Broughton stores
A quick brown Fox on the Whang
Leapt over the high fence beyond Auchinoon Brae near the Kelly Syke and ran over the A70
It then j7mped the equally high fence on the other side of the road and ran into the long grass, a mighty Fox in all its pomp, magnificent and fantastic. Up to no good no doubt but still sublime,
Posted 1 year ago # -
Walking to the shop earlier I was taken slightly aback by the size of a crow, which also had a greyish beak.
Decided to finally try and learn the difference between crows, ravens etc., and am wondering if that this one might have been a rook?
Less of a highlight, but fairly sure the victim of a trap in the Moorfoots I saw yesterday was a mink.
Posted 1 year ago # -
As has been taught to me on here @frenchy, dem rooks have the white/grey beaks.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Not me but on WoL Facebook page Red Kite over Saughton, then drifting towards Pentlands. concerns expressed.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@gembo: Concerns about the kite, or for the kite? If the former then people should be aware that are basically scavengers so unlikely to predate any of their furry friends.
(Couldn't find the WoL Facebook page - is it a private group or something?)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Might turn out to be a wildlife lowlight but...speaking of raptor predation: walking through the old explosives factory site in Roslin Glen the other day we noticed a pile of feathers by the path and concluded that it was probably the remains of a sparrowhawk's recent kill. A few minutes later we came across another one. And shortly after that we spotted what looked like it must have been more than one kill - complete with clear wing remnants visible through binoculars - on an inaccessible shelf just above the waterline on the other side of the Esk just downstream of the remains of the old weir.
We began to think that the size of each patch of remnants suggested that they all came from larger birds such as pigeons or magpies. I know that sparrowhawks will take pigeons (we had one do just that in our garden once) but for every prey item to of that size seemed to suggest a larger predator such as perhaps a peregrine. I've seen a peregrine over the Pentlands north ridge so one in Roslin Glen wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.
However, by the time we completed our walk (up to the old railway, then up on to the road at the old Rosslyn Castle station, then back down to the Esk a couple of hundred metres downstream from the old carpet factory site) we'd counted half a dozen or more of the "kills", which seemed to us to be unlikely to be the work of a single predator in what seemed to be a shortish timescale. I'm now wondering whether it might be evidence of (possibly illegal, possibly officially sanctioned) shooting of larger birds perceived to be 'pests'. Has anyone heard of anything like this going on?
Posted 1 year ago # -
We went to Kielder observatory on Tuesday night. Saw a fox, badger and deer crossing the road at night all within about 10 minutes. Some unknown pair of eyes watching us from the trees as well.
Yesterday I saw a barn owl flying over the park in Stow too.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@stubbsie
Concerns for the kite
As you say has very small talons, eats voles etc or carrion.
Was public but maybe went private a couple of days back?
Has fabulous video of a heron eating a very big trout but neglecting to kill it first. Boy did that trout try to escape the thrapple and gullet. To no avail.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Probably an owl flying in front of us when we were out in the dark on Wednesday. Certainly heard one or more owls.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well yes but
Posted 1 year ago # -
Two herons on the bank of the Water of Leith near Murrayfield. Each with a fish, or portion thereof.
Not particularly elegant eaters.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Saw photo of one of those herons eating a water rat.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Double kingfisher spot on the canal on Monday morning this week.
A colleague of mine has also spotted the canal otter recently.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Kingsknowe Rat (alive) getting its messages from Cameron Toll
Posted 1 year ago # -
I think it's a juvenile cormorant in Roseburn Park which I have seen a few times.
It is cormorant size and shape but is brown mottled on top of its breast, and white further down.
The Water of Leith Edinburgh's river FB page has a picture.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WaterofLeith/posts/10159766221504690/
Posted 1 year ago # -
Charlotte from Water of Leith Visitor Centre is on Winter Watch Now. If you deal in BBCI player?
Posted 1 year ago # -
An otter fishing in the canal at Wester Hailes this morning.
Posted 1 year ago #
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