Taexalia

wild.life

Flying Solo

I gaze out at the hazy blue sky, relishing the bright sunshine after days of wind and rain. I am up early, getting things done, energised. A movement catches my eye and I am mesmerised by the sailing shape of a Buzzard. This is the front window that looks over the town to the Forth and I am used to watching Buzzards out the back windows. I relish this unusual sight.

Then a Crow flies into the ... read more

Nothing Is Useful

It doesn't look like much more than a scrawny patch of neglected garden - and in a way that's exactly what it is. The hedge-in-the-wrong-place was dug out a few months ago and still I haven't come up with A Plan for this corner, other than vague references to "a wildlife garden, or "a wildlife pond"... Yet this bare patch of soil has been as much a part of the circle as the Borage flowers, or the goldfinches. Can you see any holes? They were made by ... read more

Isle of May

A few photographs I had the pleasure of taking on the Isle of May yesterday...

Buzzard

Did you know every Buzzard has a unique pattern under it's ... read more

Birds

Bird Haiku

Perched Kestrel watches Frost holds the earth in stasis Five Curlew fly ... read more

Messages About Marking Territory

The birds that catch my eye just now are the birds marking territory. Is this a message, or a mirror, or an affirmation? The Buzzard is not hunting when it glides against the clouds. The Buzzard hunts from the vantage point of a fence post, a telegraph pole or a tree. No, when the Buzzards are tilting on the wind, soaring and circling, they are marking airspace and conversing over who can fly where. They may even be describing their home and territory to a potential mate. But they do not ... read more

Worrying Decline at Isle of May Puffin Site

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Decline at biggest UK puffin site Regular readers will know that I am a regular visitor to the Scottish Seabird Centre where I enjoy getting up close with the bird colonies that nest on the Forth Islands via some funky remote control camera links. Sadly the Puffins in the Forth are facing challenges these days that put their longterm presence in the Firth of Forth at risk. Volunteers have spent winters cutting back the non-native Tree Mallow plants that have ... read more

See Birds!!

Suspecting disappointment, we decided to abandon an attempt to sample the Hovercraft. We felt time would be better spent making our way out to North Berwick to take advantage of our new membership at the Scottish Seabird Centre. We arrived in time to discover that we had just missed a train and had around 50 minutes to wait, so we had a lovely cheese and ham bagel for breakfast in the station and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Waverley. The train wasn't very busy when we boarded and we ... read more

Puffling Hunting

10am saw the arrival of the Parental Units and the Prodigal Sister (mine this week). Yes, there was a reason for the busy-busy Saturday - parental visits in quick succession are great for the zen quality of my home. After cups of tea, some practical joking (PaternalUnit) and various gifts exchanges (none of which were to do with ageing) it was decided that we would introduce Prod to the delights of North Berwick. Time constraints meant we took the big road, rather than the much lovelier ... read more

What Goes Around Comes Around

I just have to share this! I'm an Aiberdeen quine so I am familiar with the brass neck of the gulls of the Granite City. The street my folks live on usually has one seagull "chick" each year and woe betide those who dare to try and walk to their homes when the "chick" is on the ground! Now the City of Aberdeen has been complaining about seagulls for years, they have even undertaken some pretty questionable actions to try and halt the birds from breeding. You won't need to have known me for ... read more

Not Hovering

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Grey Heron"][/caption] The best days are sometimes the ones that don't resemble the plan at all... The plan was to lend our support to the two week trial of a new Forth crossing - taking the hovercraft from Portobello to Kirkcaldy and back again. Fortunately demand was so high that our only option was to stand in a queue for 2-3 hours. I say fortunately because this is only a two week trial to see if the venture is viable, and I ... read more

One Hundred

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Pathworking"][/caption] To mark my one hundredth post to this blog I was going to post a list of one hundred things I want to do before I die - but so far I've only written down 86. I'm not sure what that says about me... either I'm happy with my lot, or lacking imagination or perhaps some of the 86 bullet points are cover-alls and I could be more specific. Writing one hundred posts to a blog is a small landmark in the big scale of ... read more