Linlithgow Loch

 

Yesterday we went to Linlithgow, primarily to walk round the Loch 

 and to hopefully see the Great Crested Grebes in their courtship displays. We only saw about three Great Crested Grebes, and they weren't courting yet, though the male did seem to be practising his moves. However, we enjoyed our walk and did see a lot of lovely birds. Here's just a selection:

There seemed to be a lot of Robins about and some of them were very bold - this one sang beautifully for us:

We saw a group of Bullfinches - three females and two males, the bird below is a male:

Also in the trees, we saw Treecreepers, Wrens, Long Tailed Tits, a Dunnock and a Sparrowhawk. 

There were plenty of birds on the Loch as well. As well as the Great Crested Grebes we saw a good number of Mute Swans:

Several Coots

a Grey Heron hunting for frogs

and (particularly lovely to see) a Kingfisher that didn't really want to have its photo taken 

The Black Headed Gulls were starting to get their Summer Brown heads - this bird below had the most brown on its head.

On the water, we also saw: Tufted Ducks, Mallards, |Goldeneye, Goosanders, a Little Grebe and Cormorants (some of which can be seen below hanging on branches with their wings outstretched to dry them)

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I was very pleased to find my poem 'A Landscape Viewed through Cataracts' in the responses to the painting Green Terrain, by Kelly Austin-Rolo on the Ekphrastic Review website. You can read all the responses here.