The mix of old trees and dense shrubs make Cairnhill Woods a great place for nature.
To help celebrate Westertons centenary, local members created a list of 78 birds that have been seen in,over or around westerton. We topped it to 100 with butterflies and animals.
We also now have bears, come and visit if you can believe it!
Cairnhill Wood gets a mention on Jim Coyles fabulous blog http://glasgowswildsbetter.blogspot.co.uk/.
Local botanist turned local horticulturist Paul Jelf helped 13 hardy souls find a wealth of plants 25th April in a biting sub zero windfactor. His list included the biggest patch of wood sorrell he had ever seen near Glasgow, and a resurgence of wildlife friendly natives since rhodedendron clearance.
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A site visit with Alex Hogg from Butterfly Conservation Scotland found carder bees, honey bees and white-tailed bumblebees enjoying Tansy and Ragwort. Also speckled wood butterflies.
Mistle thrush in the Woods at New Year 2015, thanks to Jim Coyle for the photo. We watched him feed with around 20 redwing.
Other good local birding spots:-
The Garscube Estate (between the bridge between Beatson / main sports centre and Maryhill Rd / Renault Garage. That stretch of river is a really good place for dippers, kingfisher and also sand martins.
Sparrowhawk regularly visit the Garden suburb, often flying near Westerton Tennis Club. There has also been buzzards breeding in Garscube / Dawsholm - been at least 1 chick the last few years.
Kilmardinny Loch can also be a lucky spot - young owls seen in the last 2 years (big stumpy tree on the Kilmardinny Ave. slope near 2 Scots pine trees) Also little grebe, coots and ducks (mainly mallard and tufted duck).
A guided walk looking for fungi and mushrooms with Mugdock Ranger Alan McBride was popular despite the weather being better for fungi than humans.
The species that we found were as follows:
Deceiver (Laccaria laccata)
Amethyst Deceiver (Laccaria amethystea)
Purple Jellydisk (Ascocoryne sarcoides)
Candle-snuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)
Black Helvella (Helvella lacunosa)
Common Yellow Russula (Russula ochroleuca)
Common Inkcap (Coprinus atramentarius)
Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)
Puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme)
Coral Spot Fungus (Nectria cinnabarina)
Birch Polypore (Piptoporus betulinus)
Many-zoned Polypore (Coriolus versicolor)