Your Wildlife Sightings!

For those of you in the city or the burbs in Glasgow and you want to see wild salmon.

Wait till almost the end of the fishing season - mid to late October - and especially after rainfall and drive to the David Livingston Centre in Blantyre. Park up and wander down to the footbridge over to Bothwell. Go on to the bridge and turn to your right and you will see the weir. A crescent shaped weir and to the right there is a fish ladder for the salmon too.

Take a zoom lens or binoculars and watch the fish try to go over the weir! You will see plenty go up the ladder, but the real beauty is watching these magnificent fish assault the weir.

You may also see the resident Grey Heron attempt to catch them and even the odd local thug with trebles and crossbows trying to snare them too.

The legal fishing boundary is the footbridge, you are not allowed to fish above that line.

My spot is on the Blantyre side a mere 100 yards downstream. With the right mid weight tackle you will never in your life feel power like it if you hook one of these specimens.

For the record, I let the fish I catch go free from de barbed lures.

 

Brilliant information there Cool Bhoy,oh btw I am not a thug and that was not my Crossbow

 

Thought I would fire this in here. An hour of timelapse into 30 seconds whilst I had my breakfast and coffee this morning. Glorious sunshine then the haar and mist rolling in and out.

 

Great Pics Johniebhoy

 

Brilliant memories good friend

 

Right got an idea and could be sensible for a change
So Cool Posters list your Top 40 Wildlife Bucket list for the next 10 years. Can be any type of living thing or place etc etc. Totally up to you.
Just take your time,i am really going to have a good think about my list.
Look forward to seeing your lists in the coming days or so

PS I wonder how many will say Unicorn

 

This wee guy was in Tesco Silverburn today, was good to see him social distancing.

 

And wee chick

 

This pied wagtail was flying about in the work yard yesterday

 

There was two of these fellas, one flew away as I approached



And this bee was on their last legs

 

Four I would like to see are , The Pandas , would love to see them before they go home .Ospreys and an Eagle , in full flight and a Killer Whale from a nearby boat dodgy I know .
To fill the rest of the list Cider , I,d like to see every animal , bird , reptile , ive seen before , but not in a cage or behind bars or behind glass . I know zoos and places are places for endangered species and breeding programmes , but still .

 

Bucket list?

I want a penguin. Mad * they are and I want one. I love them, utterly love them.

Beyond that, if I won the lottery I would have a wildlife sanctuary for injured and abandoned animals. I would have a massive orangerie type thing (like the back of The People’s Palace) and have rare plant, butterfly and parrot species and have dorms so that university students could stay, study and document their progress. I’d set up scholarships for disadvantaged children who may not have the paper qualifications, but they have the love of animals and thirst for knowledge in their hearts. Love of animals beats text book regurgitation every day (notwithstanding clever people and their love of wildlife too).

Needless to say I’d have ponds and aquariums all over the place too!

For native wildlife I would have planted gardens and vegetable gardens to promote wild bees and try to encourage as many different species as possible.

oh my bucket list would be never ending, but my dream is that humans just stop for a while and see the beauty staring them right in the face and for them to appreciate it, share it and get as much enjoyment from it as I do.

 

What a lovely Heart you have Cool Bhoy

Maybe slightly less of the Orange though!

 

Im not a big fan of zoos myself but they have some merits in breeding research and conservation. I’d recommend going to see the Pandas...

From a more ‘natural habitat’ viewpoint ... you can’t beat the Panda Base at Chengdu China (of course)... see them in surroundings closer to natural habitat and where the research is all based. They charge £100 to ‘hug a baby panda’ which I’m slightly uneasy with but it dies no harm and the income it generates is used to fund the research.

 

Re- wildlife wish list...

Im pretty lucky having traveled abroad a lot through work and leisure and always have a natural world element or ‘ wonders of the world ‘ purpose to my trips.

Ive crossed the arctic circle a few times (love to travel by boat) and seen polar bears, many whales and dolphins Including Orcas and bowheads.

Visiting the Rainforest in Brazil , seeing mountain brown/black bears in British Columbia and dogsledding in Greenland are particular highlights....

Having lived in the remote highlands I’ve seen the Scottish’Big 5’.Plus.. (Osprey, Golden Eagle, Wildcat, Pine Marten , Red Deer, red squirrel and harbour seal)

A few ‘ musts’ that spring to mind (hate that bucket list term) are....

Snow Leopards
Amazonian Jaguar
Hokkaido Snow Monkeys
Narwhal
Blue Whale
Komodo Dragon
Lemur

Trips to Galapagos, Madagascar and Nepal at front of my mind.. Would love to do a proper Safari (no shooting guns though) ... not the sanitized type .. Namibia/Kenya/Botswana.

 

Beautiful pictures Sioux, that Squirrels a cheeky wee Bassa.

 

Lovely pictures there Marty