Birds on Linlithgow Loch

It was a wild and windy day today but we headed off to Linlithgow Loch hoping to catch the great crested grebes in their courtship dances! And we weren't disappointed (though they were slightly half hearted about it and probably won't build up to a crescendo for another week or so). There were at least six pairs of grebes on the Loch, two of which were displaying.

The Loch was covered in coots (see this one showing off its fancy feet)


A few moorhens too, competing with the coots in the fancy feet competition.

A flock of over twenty cormorants flew in and congregated around an in a tree on an island that we discovered is called (unsurprisingly enough) Cormorant Island.

There were around 20 pochards - beautiful ducks that we don't see that often. Then we were delighted to see a female smew. And this lovely duck that we were uncertain whether it was a female mandarin or a female wood duck, but Birding Lothian assure me its a female wood duck and she's been on the loch since last autumn - escaped from a collection as this is very definitely not a native bird!

So all in all, brilliant birding! Thanks Crafty Green Boyfriend for all these photos! I'll post some of my photos in the next day or so.

For Nature Notes and World Bird Wednesday

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