CONSERVATION MANAGER’S NOTES
Here we are well on the way to another summer with blue skies, sunshine and plenty of rain on Bankhead Moss. I spent a couple of glorious hours out at Kilminning Coast Reserve the other day, the view was fantastic with Eider duck and Cormorant just bobbing about in the sunshine and Oystercatchers piping away on the shore.
The past couple of months have been very interesting and quite hectic, working with Convenors, volunteers and the Fife Conservation Training Team to carry out site management tasks and to keep up with all the associated paperwork! Bankhead Moss has had new scrapes to benefit waders dug in the Marsh Field in front of the hide and the pond has been enlarged. Cullaloe has also got a bit wetter with a new pond having been dug there. The viewing screens over the loch have also been renewed.
A few interesting opportunities are available for people who want to get out and about and involved in practical tasks and surveying.
I am organising a weekend volunteer work group to carry out a range of tasks across all the reserves in Fife. We will meet on a monthly basis and I can supply details of tasks and dates to anyone who is interested.
As part of the LBAP process, a Central Scotland Squirrel Group has been established and we are looking for people to carry out surveys in their local woods to collect information on the Red and Grey Squirrel populations. Much of the current work is focussing on the Fife/Clackmannanshire border area but anyone interested can get in touch with me here at the Jupiter Centre.
I am also interested to find out if anyone is interested in carrying out butterfly monitoring transects on some of the grassland sites. This can be fun or frustrating depending on how warm the butterflies are and how rapidly they whiz past your head!