Taexalia

wild.life

Mistle Thrush and Dominance

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) - Amber Status

Yesterday I ramped up the bird feeding opportunities in my garden. This "cold snap", which has brought us our first real winter for as long as I can remember, has brought birds in about who would not normally come so close. At first I thought it was luck, being on the very edge of town, but I have since seen some of these species (Redwing and Fieldfare) near the High Street. The search for food is intense ... read more

Snow Brings…

Camera Phone Sunset Punctuated By Greyhound Lunging At Snow Sniffs

I settled in my new reading den, nestled under a woollen patchwork blanket that may have seen better days, but still keeps the winter chills out as much as it did when Grandma first knitted each square from yarn oddments and sewed them together. The new reading den was claimed from the back of the the living room by moving the small sofa right back to the window in-between bookcases and ... read more

Highland Spring

The days between Imbolc and Ostara are, for me, the time I feel the Quickening. Tempestuous and unpredictable weather matched by the rampant behaviour of animals and birds, and the persistent appearance of plants like the snowdrops and crocuses. Always, the long dark days of Winter ebb seemingly too slowly into the shorter days of Spring and we find ourselves always seeking definitive signs that Spring has arrived. This is something that has been with us for thousands of years and something ... read more

Poised

How To Begin The Day

[caption id="attachment_503" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Crow"][/caption] As I sat down at my desk to begin work this morning I looked out the window and was taken with the scene outside. The sky was a crisp, clear blue colour with a few cotton wool clouds drifting gently. The clouds were tinged pink by the sunrise, as was the frost on the rooftop opposite and there was a slightly unreal feeling to it all, as if I had arrived a little too early and the Dreamworld was still at ... 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

Crow King

...Crow is raucous and I look up to see what the fuss is about today. A black shape slinks off the fence and under the Sparrow Bush sending the sparrows into a panic. Crow and Magpie dance up onto Skeleton Tree and Crow continues to scream.Cat appears from the nettle bed and walks across the lawn. Crow is relentless and flies down to stalk her. Cat seems unimpressed but unwilling to take on Crow and they test their boundaries for several moments. The energy is tense and Birds and Squirrel ... read more

Glimpsing Spring

I've covered a fare bit of ground over the past week really. My folks took us over to Lomond Shores which is basically a shopping centre at one end of Loch Lomond. It wasn't as awful as it might sound, but since I'm not a stuff buying addict I was more interested in the scenery. I'm also still trying to forget the cloying stench of perfume that permeated the air - I hate perfume and can't see the attraction of a) perfume shops and b) walking around with a chemical cloud for an aura. We ... read more

When you feel down, go up

I awoke this morning feeling depressed and harbouring a sense of dread that today will resemble yesterday. The only positive thing about my waking was that I awoke by myself without any outside influences. I lay there dreading the idea of trying to write, or think, or paint, or do anything creative and being repeatedly disturbed by unpredictable, unwelcome interruptions.It is not good or healthy to wake up feeling like that, it doesn't exactly move the day forward, so just for today I put my ... read more

Romancing The Stone

Can you tell the difference between these two pictures?They are both pictures of the Bass Rock, an extinct volcanic plug, which rises from the Firth of Forth just off the coast of North Berwick. Regular viewers may recognise it :)But can you tell the difference between the pictures??Well the top one was taken on a beautiful day in December and the bottom one was taken today. The difference is that in the second one there are Gannets!!! Yay! We are proud to present the beginnings of this year's ... read more

City Life

[caption id="attachment_446" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Arthur's Seat"][/caption]It never ceases to tickle me that I can look at this standing in the middle of a city :) and this week @ and I have been taking advantage of the unseasonal weather and wandering about in the wilds of Edinburgh....Our wee loch in the park looks great in the low slung sunshine (as long as you can ignore the joyful things that most local residents seem comfortable dumping... shopping trolleys, dog poo, ... 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