2014 - February BTO waterbird count, Linlithgow - Philpstoun

 

My monthly BTO WeBS count along the Union Canal, Linlithgow to Philpstoun.

 

 

As part of efforts to improve screen vs. canvas balance I'm going to try to keep most of my canal-count blogs much shorter in the past. Just the basics of what I saw, perhaps primarily as a record for myself. If anything really exciting comes up I'll try to include it. Like January's mole.

Friday 21st Feb

Start time 8.20am
turnaround time 10am

End time 11am

 

Weather - cold and windy from east to west. Sometimes a little rain.

The flood field - quite extensively flooded - 119 wigeon making use of it. On my route this is a very hight count for any species.




Waterbirds seen: 

Curlew 2 - on flood field
Goosander 5    
Mallard 3    
Moorhen 5    
Wigeon 119 - on flood field
Black-headed Gull 2    
Common Gull 2    
Dipper 1 - zoomed past on stream below canal bridge just east of Philpstoun. I heard rather than saw it.




All birds seen:

Black-headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Coal Tit
Common Gull
Curlew
Dipper
Dunnock
Feral Pigeon
Goldcrest
Goldfinch
Goosander
Great Tit
Greenfinch
House Sparrow
Jackdaw
Magpie
Mallard
Moorhen

Pheasant - a black one, as you sometimes see. Other than the red facial wattles it's whole body was in iridescent greeny, purple-y, blue-y blacks.

Robin
Song Thrush
Starling
Treecreeper
Wigeon
Woodpigeon
Wren
Yellowhammer

32 species

This is spot the black pheasant. The black spot is this pheasant.

identify the fungi. on an uprooted tree

lots of them. growing from earth around the now air-exposed roos