Garnock Futurescape team cleans up at the racecourse!!

No, sadly we didn’t win bags of money on the horses! However, we did clear a monumental mountain of rubbish from the estuary at Bogside’s old racecourse near Irvine last weekend with the help of sixteen fantastic local volunteers.

Above - (left) the gang of wonderful volunteers that help out with the clean-up and (right) the floodplain grasslands adjacent to the estuary – a managed racecourse until the 1960s that once hosted the Scottish Grand National http://ssa.nls.uk/film/0576. Photo credits - Jo Kingsbury.  

This was certainly no ordinary litter pick! None of your crisp packets, poly-bags or takeaway cartons here. This, was EXTREME LITTER PICKING!!

Within just a few of hours of combing the high-tide strandline we amassed 24 cubic yards of waste. Two skip-full’s to the layman! A bounty that included fifteen tyres, nine gas cylinders, seven traffic cones, two fridges and one, huge water storage tank amongst a myriad of other odds and sods.

Much of this waste would have been washed in from the Garnock and Irvine rivers during storms. Many items probably fly-tipped further upstream along river banks. We all found it sad to see the collective impact of this waste affecting such an important local wildlife site, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and home to a hefty diversity of birds, mammals, plants and insects.

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Above (left) – The huge pile of waste we gathered form the strand line and marsh and (right) the full skips at the end of the day. We could have easily filled several more!. Photo credits - Jo Kingsbury.

Volunteer effort was assisted with invaluable help from Bogside Golf Course who shipped many of the heaviest items out for us by tractor along a long trail to the main road. North Ayrshire Council’s district rangers service pitched in too, ferrying waste back and forth and provisioning expert skills to identify some of the abundant wildflowers growing along the sea shore.

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Above – The site is only accessible by foot so we had to ferry the waste out to the main road in by tractor and four wheel drive. A volunteer said packing it into the cars was like “playing giant rubbish tetris”. Photo credits - Jo Kingsbury.

Wildflower highlights on the day included sea rocket, an attractive edible succulent plant, common on Scottish shores and sea aster, a purple daisy-like plant typical of the salt marsh and estuary habitats found at Bogside. Sea mayweed and vibrant red orache were also abundant. Some of these plants can be seen in the before-and-after shots we took of the estuary strandline below.

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Above – The strandline along the top of the marsh before (left) and after (middle) the clean-up. Sea rocket (right) - It felt great to see the amazing wildflowers liberated from all that junk! . Photo credits - strandline - Jo Kingsbury / sea rocket - Andy Hay.

The project was well timed for seeing other wildlife too. On the day we spotted large flocks of curlew and lapwing, tortoiseshell and small copper butterflies, huge common garden spiders and roe deer. Together, the surroundings, wildlife and weather made cleaning the site a pleasure. 

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Above – On the day we got to catch a glimpse of some amazing wildlife including roe deer (left), common garden spiders (middle) weaving webs amongst the gorse and this wee toad (right). Photo credits - Roe deer – Ben Hall (rspb-images.com) / Garden Spider + Toad (Jo Kingsbury)

This time of year is particularly good for birdwatching at Bogside. In autumn the site can become a real spectacle, as many species of wading birds and wild ducks begin arriving at the flats to spend winter, or to refuel on long migrations south after a summer breeding in the Arctic. The rich estuary muds and saltmarsh here are full of vital foods that help them survive winter, like marine worms and shellfish. Importantly, the muds here don’t freeze so the birds can feed even in extremely cold months when the ground elsewhere is inaccessible.    

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Above – some of the wading birds and ducks we might expect to see arriving at Bogside at this time of the year include redshank (left) and widgeon (right). Photo credits – redshank Andy Robinson / widgeon Andy Hay

The clean-up will have gone some way to helping improve this important site for the wildlife. Litter can be a real hazard for animals which can easily become injured or entangled by it. We hope that it will also make the site a more pleasant place for wildlife enthusiasts to visit this winter.

This event was kindly funded by marine conservation charity Seachangers and is part of RSPBs Garnock Valley Futurescape project. Through this project, RSPB aims to work at a landscape scale with local partners, communities and landowners to help restore and enhance our important habitats for wildlife. More information of the project and how you can get involved can be found online at http://www.rspb.org.uk/whatwedo/futurescapes/garnockvalley/index.aspx.

RSPB would like to offer a massive vote of thanks to those who gave up their spare time to help out!