The Inner Forth Futurescape is centred right on the Firth of Forth Special Protection Area which is a truly fantastic place to see all sorts of birds. It is designated for its assemblages of wintering wildfowl and waders and naturally much of our work does focus on trying to create new habitats for these species. However if landscape scale conservation is going to work we need to look wider to make sure this landscape is flourishing with biodiversity. The first step is to find out exactly what is out there, and that is what Chris has been doing this month...
With a great deal of help from Sarah, a local volunteer, I am carrying out large mammal surveys at several sites on the Inner Forth. At one of these sites on the southern shore near Grangemouth we found plenty of signs of badgers – sort of. You see while some of the tracks and signs indicated badgers, the lack of latrines, setts or anything else made us wonder if we were merely tracking a burly fox, or perhaps a baby bear?
Speculation was clearly getting us nowhere and so we put out camera traps (just like in Autumnwatch on the telly) and of the 69 photographs taken over 12 days 30 of them featured actual mammals, well... birds and mammals.
There were clear images of blackbirds, rabbits, roe deer, pheasant and some not so clear images of... maybe a badgers bottom.... or maybe a baby bear.
Figure 1. To and fro... a baby bear?
So the camera trap is now back up, but this time it is set to video... hopefully to reveal all in time for my next blog.
Elsewhere this week I paused to enjoy the sight of my favourite wildflower in greater abundance than I’ve come across before, so to mark the occasion I’m sharing it here in place of my usual saltmarsh plants.
I love the towering grandeur (it grows up to 2m high), the ‘dinnae mess’ exterior (every bit of every part of the plant is intensely spiky) and the Mexican wave of flowers (the tiny purple flowers appear in a narrow band around the spiky head, then as those flowers die back, the adjacent flowers show forth and the cycle repeats until the band reaches the tip of the head).
Figure 2 Teasel, with a close up of water retaining leaves.
It is stunning to see flowering in summer, but once dead the plant may stay standing for some years and can become even more of a spectacle then with it’s twisted leaves and candelabra crown. The shapes remind me of a Tim Burton creation, and true to that form teasel has a darker side too. Studies have shown that when insects become trapped and die in the small wells of water that accumulate at the base of teasel leaves, the plant is able produce a greater number of seeds...which suggests a bit of bug-munching occurs.
As ever, I’m keen to hear about other local sightings, or from anyone wanting to get involved in survey work – so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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