It is cold and windy, leaves are falling to the ground, the rain has been battering down all week and they have even started the skiing season in the highlands. This may be a signal to go in to hibernation, or at least find yourself the nearest fire and hunker down with a good book and a nice whisky. Before you retreat inside however, it might be worth putting on the woollies and going for a wee stroll outside, and if you live around the Inner Forth, there couldn’t be a better time to go and explore.
At this time of year the Inner Forth plays host to thousands of migrating birds who have left their breeding grounds in Iceland and the Arctic to head towards warmer climes. Big numbers of dunlin, shelduck and bar-tailed godwit are not unusual, and seeing huge flocks of knot dive and turn over the mudflats of the Forth is a sight to warm any winter’s morning!
'If you go down to Kinneil today'...... spectacular views of waders await if you take a wander to the River Forth, the above was taken at Kinneil Lagoons (Credit: Andy Robinson)
For most people that live around the Inner forth however, the river is not the obvious choice as a place to visit for a chance enjoy the natural world. In many ways this is understandable, the landscape is dominated by industrial structures and the facilities for experiencing the river are scattered at best. As such the river remains an unknown quantity to many local people and those dramatic flocks of knot are experienced only by the lucky few.
Through the Inner Forth Futurescape we are striving to change this. We want to alter the perception of the Forth from being simply a landscape dominated by man, to one where spectacular wildlife exists alongside industrial heritage. We want people to have inspirational experiences of wildlife and the fantastic thing about the Inner Forth is that this can be achieved right on the doorstep of local people.
The first steps along this road have already been taken with the recruitment of Joann Dempster as our community engagement officer (you can read a blog by Joanne here) and she is already doing some fantastic work. Just yesterday she had a group of school children form St Mungo’s primary school in Alloa down at our Skinflats reserve for the first day of filming on a new wildlife film, being created and starring the pupils. The first day of filming was apperently a great success, curlew, shelduck and the highlight of the day, a little egret, were all seen, will we see the next David Attenborough out of this group!?! The film will show the children learning about the wildlife of the Forth and will be premiered at a community event in the spring, keep an eye out on this blog for further information!
A special treat for our budding naturalists from St Mungo's primary school, a little egret was seen on our Skinflats reserve yesterday! (credit: RSPB Images)
Joanne is also organising a series of events around the Inner Forth and for you lucky people that live near Bo’ness there are a couple of guided walks coming up at the end of this month, a weekend wildlife walk and a wader watch. So dig out those binoculars and get down to the Kinneil foreshore for an unforgettable wildlife experience.
This is just the start of the story, through the Futurescape project we are working together with local councils, other charities and landowners to create fantastic new habitats and give nature a home right throughout the Inner Forth. We don’t just want these to be special places for nature however, we want them to be special places for people as well. Places where we can all get close to wildlife and experience the fantastic nature that the Inner Forth has to offer. Next year we will begin several projects as part of the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative that we hope will do just that and give us the opportunity to get closer to wildlife of the Inner forth than we ever have before.
So switch off Strictly Come Dancing (am the only one who has never watched that show?...), put on a hat and gloves, get down to the river and marvel at what nature has to offer (that whisky will still be there when you get in).