SWSEIC share short articles about events, activities, local sites and species – in fact anything related to wildlife recording – on these blog pages. Contributions come not just from SWSEIC staff but also from local wildlife recorders. Examples include
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The southerly airflows hitting the UK in June brought an influx of migrant species, and some are easy to look out for in gardens. The Humming-bird Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum gets its name from…
We have been visiting the community owned Tarras Nature Reserve annually to help establish a baseline of what botany exists. This year six of us met to continue this effort…
The wildlife recording day at Moffat Community Nature Reserve and Dyke Farm Nature Reserve where well attended with eight recorders coming to help us find things on the day. All…
SWSEIC held our fourth Kirkgunzeon village community moth trapping event in on Saturday 17th May. The village has tasted the fun and excitement of moth-trapping in previous years and…
We visited Dunmuck by kind invitation of Laura and Alan Jones. It is a 90 acre farm on the western slopes of Criffel which their family have owned for over…
A group of 12 of us gathered at Kirkdale Bridge on yet another glorious sunny day as this spell of fine weather continued. Our aim was to record NX5152, last…
A group of 12 of us met at the Monument car park just outside New Abbey for the first meeting of the season. Our aim was to record the monad…
For June, our species of the month is one for gardeners, and one that may not always be a particularly welcome find. The Lily Beetle Lilioceris lilii is a leaf beetle (family Chrysomelidae),…
A small group of four met on a warm day at the bottom of the track up to the Warb Law transmitter. While Warb Law is not very high at…
Our first field meeting of the year saw eleven of the group meet on a warm day at Stenhouse Wood SSSI and SWT Reserve. The reserve is an ancient woodland…
The first SWSEIC recorder’s day of the year was at Glenmidge where ten recorders joined us on the day. Collectively we gathered 298 records for the site, totalling 232 species.…
Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina, also known as Townhall Clock, is a typical flower of mature and often ancient deciduous woodland, but may also be found in riparian woodland and along hedges. In many…
Rooks Corvus frugilegus belong to the Corvidae family and are the most gregarious of our resident crow species in the breeding season. They can be most easily distinguished from other black…
The Common Frog Rana temporaria has been emerging from brumation and as many will have noticed begun to spawn. Our only resident for species of frog, the Common Frog, is easy to…
The Twenty Plume Moth Alucita hexadactyla is one of our most unique looking moths. It measures around 15mm across in its fanned resting position, and despite its name it does in fact have…
The stormy weather meant that we had to rearrange the meeting at short notice, and despite the forecast promising a dry day and even some sunshine, it was disappointingly damp…
After a prolonged wet spell, sunshine arrived at last with a very warm day for our last meeting of the summer. Nine of us met for a walk through the…
The Wigeon Mareca penelope is a familiar duck that winters in the UK in important numbers. Most of these birds travel from Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia, and numbers usually peak in December and…
Ladybirds hibernate during winter and often cluster communally in places relatively frost-free and with steady temperatures. It has become clear that many species have adapted well to the human environment…
You may be surprised to see a butterfly for the species of the month in November. Until fairly recently this was one of our most difficult butterflies to record due…
Our final SWSEIC recording group day of the year was held at Hannahston Woodland, Drongan. Five of use turned up on the day and whilst the day was quite cool,…
Our latest recording group visit was to Castle Loch, Lochmaben. We were greeted with good weather which was a welcome occurrence this year. Thirteen of us patrolled the southern and…
Out latest recording day was at Dalskairth, a site west of Dumfries, which is being managed for wildlife by the site owner. Eleven of us scoured the site and we…
Our recording group at Cairnsmore of Fleet NNR was held in partnership with the Kirkcudbrightshire Botany Group where we surveyed The Knee of Cairnsmore, The Clints of Dromore and the…
Our latest SWSEIC Recording Group visit was to Williamwood Farm near Brydekirk. This was one of our best attended days yet with 12 local recorders coming to support us on…
The SWSEIC recording group visited Dunure for our next visit. Six of our local recorders came on the day and the SWT’s local volunteer group also came to lend a…
A small group of recorders braved the unpromising weather forecast to visit the wonderful habitats of the Craigengillan Estate in East Ayrshire. The overnight moth traps yielded a small catch…
Autumn sees the return of migratory birds which breed in the subarctic regions and return to the relatively mild conditions of western Europe to spend the winter months. Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus are…
A familiar species of gardens, compost heaps and woodland debris it may come as a surprise that the Green Cellar Slug Limacus maculatusis is a non-native species. There is a very similar closely…
Four of the group met on a warm day in the Dalveen Pass to explore some squares that had few records in the system. The Dalveen Pass is one of…
A group of nine of us met at Polmaddy Settlement, the ruins of a traditional Galloway farming village abandoned over 200 years ago. It is a beautiful setting with the…
On a dry fine day eight of us met on the northern edge of Wanlockhead. We aimed to record in two squares along the Southern Upland Way down the valley…
Nine of us assembled for the 10-minute walk down to the bay – which took us the best part of two and a half hours! No wonder, as we passed…
On a dry though largely overcast day seven of us met just south of Cooms Farm on the Tarras Reserve east of Langholm. We had checked the date with the…
A group of 12 of us, including staff and volunteers from the RSPB, gathered in the Mersehead car park on a lovely sunny morning. We were fortunate to be allowed…
The Short-winged Conehead Erebia aethiops is one of five species of native bush-cricket that have been found in SW Scotland. First recorded in SW Scotland in 2011, this species has since…
A group of 10 of us assembled at Trostrie Motte Farm by kind permission of the owners. The part of the farm that we particularly wanted to survey was the…
Seven of the group met at Burnfoot with kind permission to survey the Springkell Estate grounds from Rachel Johnson-Ferguson. A route had been discussed with Rachel before the visit and…
Despite a meeting at Southerness in September 2023, this area was substituted for the original Tallowquairn site due to difficulty with access. The intention was to go as far westwards…
As we gathered, a Lesser Whitethroat Curruca curruca was rattling in the scrub nearby, the first of the year for most of us and a great start to the day.…
The RSPB Ken-Dee Marshes reserve, probably best known for its wintering populations of Greenland White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons and for its breeding Willow Tits Poecile montanus, is a complex and diverse…
This large and colourful hawker dragonfly is a recent colonist to SW Scotland. It is superficially similar to other hawker dragonflies, but can be readily distinguished with a good view.…
Five of the group met on a warm day in the valley of the Scaur Water to take a closer look at the plants growing in the Chanlockfoot SSSI by…
Our second SWSEIC recorders day of 2024 was held at Port Logan where we were greeted by wonderfully sunny weather. Nine recorders came to lend us their expertise on the…
On a day with a forecast of occasional rain eight of us met in mid Nithsdale. In the morning we parked at the rest area by Glenairlie Bridge and recorded…
A streaky greyish-brown bird of woodland edge, parks and mature gardens. Spotted Flycatchers Muscicapa striata are migrants, spending the winter months in Africa. They are typically one of the latest summer migrants…
Those of us who arrived a little early took the opportunity first to check out the Perennial Flax Linum perenne in the dunes at the back of the beach. We…
The Green Tiger Beetle Cicindela campestris is a distinctive species of ground beetle, the commonest and most widespread of five species of tiger beetle found in the UK. They are approximately…
A group of 11 of us met at the car park by the Kippford Community Hall on a rather grey morning, but we were lucky that the dry weather held…
Long Robin is a long, thin strip of woodland along the eastern edge of Kirkcudbright Bay. The woodland runs directly down to the shore and provided an opportunity to record…
The groups first outing of the year was based at Brydekirk on the River Annan. Seven of us met on the high street under cloudy but dry skies in reasonable…
A group of twelve of us visited this woodland with the kind permission of the landowners and with David Hawker’s help in making the arrangements for us. It is a…
The SWSEIC recording group’s first survey day of the year was held at SWT Ayr Gorge Woodland on 24 April 2024. We were blessed with glorious weather and we welcomed…
The Currant Shoot Borer Lampronia capitella is a rare moth in the UK with only a handful of known sites. There is only one know Scottish site in the Scottish Borders near Peebles…
This stretch of coast is partly designated a SSSI for its awe-inspiring geological features. This includes 60 million-year-old volcanic rocks and glass including the iconic Judd’s Dykes. The rocks between…
In the heart of Galloway, the Merrick Kells is a fantastic example of habitats carved by glaciers during the Pleistocene (the last Ice Age). The area is home to important moraines which…
A group of nine of us met at Southerness car park and spent the required three hours looking for plants in flower. Only those open enough to show stamens/ stigmas…
VWT’s National Polecat Survey Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT), a mammal research and conservation charity, is appealing to members of the public for sightings of polecats for its fourth National Polecat…
Located just south of Dalry in North Ayrshire this site is of considerable geological interest. The 320 million year old limestone formations have been carved by the water exposing a…
A quick history of Kilsture Forest Community Group (KFCG) In 2018 when Kilsture Forest, a 204 hectare even-aged mixed woodland on the Machars Peninsula, was put up for sale by…
This Nith Estuary is one of the most significant sites in the region for wintering waders and waterfowl. The Solway is famously home to the entire wintering population of Svalbard Barnacle…
This stretch of coast is internationally significant for its geodiversity and is particularly known for its volcanic and palaeontological interests, including the fossilised remains of ancient spores dating from 360-350…
Castle and Kirk Lochs, Lochmaben, are nutrient rich lochs with siginficant ammounts of emergent vegetation, providing an important wintering habitat for birds. Wintering birds to look out for include Goosander Mergus merganser, Wigeon Anas penelope,…
A group of eight of us met at Palnackie and then drove down the private track to the shore with the kind permission of the landowners. It was a beautiful…
Six of us met in the car park by the park in Moffat. There was an early Autumn feel to the day with rain to arrive later. We planned to…
Five of us met at the Gilnockie Bridge at Hollows by the River Esk. It was a very pleasant warm day though with the threat of heavy thundery rain arriving…
Not so much a site this month as a journey. There are a number of ferry crossings in SW Scotland, all of which offer wildlife recording opportunities, but Ardrossan-Brodick is the…
We had a fine warm day for our meeting at Lochmaben. Seven of us explored the north end of the Castle Loch and the southern side of the Mill Loch…
This meeting took place with the kind permission of Natural Power and the landowner, enabling us to drive up their track to the summit, saving both time and an arduous…
During the rather wet August we were lucky to get a breezy day with no rain in Upper Nithsdale. The visit was to a largely unrecorded area of the upper…
The purpose of the meeting was partly to continue our ongoing coastal survey, but also to gather botanical data because there is a proposal to increase the number of caravans…
Hannahston, at Drongan, has a history of coal extraction with opencast mining in operation until as recently as 1996, when reclamation of the site into a community facility began. As a…
On a fine day we gathered under the broad open skies at Powhillon Farm at the kind invitation of Dave Pickett the WWT Caerlaverock Manager. Dave stayed with us all…
Wildlife enthusiasts, both young and old, gathered at Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve on a showery July morning to see what they could find. The event was organised and…
The Coleopterists Society of Britain and Ireland (ColSoc), held its first Scotland field visit, to Wigtownshire (Vice County 74), in June this year. We chose Wigtownshire because the vice county’s terrestrial…
We were lucky enough to have two members of the British Pteridological Society join us for the day: Alison Evans and Roger Golding. Alison is studying the Dryopteris affinis group…
The SWSEIC team took a morning excursion to Aucheninnes Moss in search of one of the regions rarest insects, the Bog Bush-cricket Metrioptera brachyptera, which is only found on two sites in Scotland.…
Having chosen the best night of the week, by moth trapping standards anyway, the community moth trapping in the village of Kirkgunzeon was without a doubt a success. Trapping on…
These two sites, together with a number of others in the Castle Douglas area, are of particular significance for their fen vegetation which demonstrates similarities with sites in the Borders,…
Heather moorlands are at their most colourful in July and August and the Lowther Hills are some of the best in our region. The moorlands around Wanlockhead, on the the…
A party of 6 of us met at the parking area beside Morton castle on a fine morning. Morton Castle which dates from around 1260 is rather hidden in this…
Those who arrived early were tempted to wander along the loch shore from the car park and were delighted to see abundant flowering Cowbane Cicuta virosa amongst the Reed Sweet-grass…
Seven of us met at the car park just north of Tarras Lodge on the northern section of the Tarras Nature Reserve. Langholm Initiative had been able to complete the…
Our meeting was held at the kind invitation of RSPB. The main objective of the day was to count the clumps of Elongated Sedge Carex elongata (also known as Gingerbread…
The wildlife of South Ayrshire is not as well recorded as other parts of SW Scotland, but there are some fantastic habitats to be explored, most notably along the coastline between…
The group had the opportunity to visit and record in the Duncow Estate by kind invitation of Yvonne Clark and her family. They are in the process of refurbishing the…
The Balloch Wood Community Project is a charity which was set up in 2016 to manage this woodland for the benefit of the local community. A 25-year management agreement with…
On a pleasant warm day a group of seven of us met at the riverside car park Langholm. The plan was to record in and around the town and record…
Ten of us met at Comlongon Castle on a fine windy morning. We had been invited to survey the site by the Estate Manager Kay Kingstone with the permission of…
A group of 13 of us assembled at High Portling. By good fortune it was a fine sunny day and, with low tide at midday, we had the perfect conditions…
Six of us met at Annan harbour on a warm dry day. The plan was to explore the early flowering species on the southern edge of town and along the…
Our aim was to record the two monads NX 4364 and NX 4464, but thanks to Jim, who walked into the furthest and wettest part of the wood, we also…
Mabie is a large forest on the edge of Dumfries, owned and managed by Forestry & Land Scotland. It has a network of footpaths and bike trails, but the best area…
The first meeting of the spring took place at Torr Farm Auchencairn by kind permission of Lee Paton. We were indeed very fortunate to be able to use her barn…
Threave Estate was donated by Major Alan Gordon to the National Trust for Scotland in 1948. Just two years earlier, Sir Peter Scott, a friend of the Gordon family and…
Ness Glen is a narrow, steep-sided wooded ravine of the River Doon, situated approximately 3km south of Dalmellington. It supports a rich and diverse moss and liverwort flora, more typical…
Wigtown Bay is the estuary of the River Cree and the River Bladnoch. It consists of extensive areas of saltmarsh and mudflats, which are best known for large wintering flocks of wildfowl and…
There was frost still on the ground when a group of seven of us met by Carlingwark Loch in Castle Douglas. However it turned into a beautiful sunny morning and…
The confluence of the River Garnock and the River Irvine encompasses a range of interesting wildlife sites, some of which are difficult to access, but others that can be viewed easily…
Eskrigg Reserve is on the site of an old curling pond within walking distance of Lockerbie town centre. It is managed by the Lockerbie Wildlife Trust as a seven acre nature reserve…
Loch Ryan is a large sea loch, best known as the departure point for ferries to Northern Ireland, but is also a very important wildlife site. Its marine life has been studied over…
On a fine morning with light rain arriving only at the end of the day ten of us met at the car park beside the river at Nunholm and walked …
Wow, I did wonder if I would make it to the top. And I did, accompanied by Mair and Jan. Worth it though, and hopefully so did the other 40…
Ballochmyle Gorge, a spectacular sandstone gorge of the River Ayr near Mauchline, is densely clothed in broadleaved woodland. Ash Fraxinus excelsior and Pedunculate Oak Quercus robur are the most frequent mature trees, but with significant amounts of Beech Fagus…
Six of us turned out and had an excellent day which went beyond all expectations. This glen is a gorge within deciduous woodland, parts of the burn being contained within…
On a fine sunny late August day the group met at the south CP to Heathhall Forest just off the A75 Lockerbie road roundabout. This is a Forest and Land…
On one of the last of the very hot days in August we visited Powhillon Farm courtesy of Dave Pickett, Manager for the WWT Caerlaverock Reserve. We were met by…
Six of us met at the overflow car park at Wanlockhead to explore another section of hill ground with no previous records. The weather was overcast with little breeze and…
Muirdrochwood was bought from Forestry and Land Scotland in March 2021 by Carsphairn Community Woodland Ltd on behalf of the Community of Carsphairn. Community ownership of the woodland will provide greater access to the countryside, create…
The southern half of the merse, part of the site managed by RSPB, has not been grazed recently and we surveyed much of the site with RSPB personnel in attendance. …
During the sunny days of summer, you may be thinking of visiting a beach? In south west Scotland we are spoilt for choice, but on the Rhins of Galloway peninsula,…
On a fine day ten off us met at the cemetery and walked across Skippers bridge to access two squares on the SW slopes of Whitta Hill. This is now…
Fellcroft Loch falls completely within one monad which is very handy for recording. The slopes below Suie Hill would probably warrant further investigation but the loch and its immediate border…
We returned to this hill block as last years visit to Craigturra and Tynron Doon had suggested the grasslands are interesting. The hill rises to 372m and is an area…
Kirkconnell Flow, near New Abbey, is a raised bog owned and managed as a nature reserve by NatureScot. It consists of a large expanse of peat with pine and birch woodland around…
This has got to one of the top three grassland sites in the Vice-county, the others being SSSIs (The Cleugh near Dalry, Skyreburn Grasslands near Gatehouse). And it certainly lived…
The meeting was attended by four of us on a fine day. Most of the Beef Tub is owned by Borders Forest Trust as part of their Corehead property. In…
When we embarked on this series of site accounts, we promised to concentrate on sites that were under-recorded. Knockdolian, a hill in South Ayrshire, certainly fits the bill – of…
What a wonderful site! Not only for the plants and insects, but for the fact that it’s a deep kettle hole [1] and its surrounding ring of floating vegetation, called…
A different kind of meeting with a focus on recording on the site of the 55 acre Crawick Multiverse. We were invited by the team running the site to undertake…
Continuing the theme of visiting woodlands this early in the season 9 of us met at Blackaddie Bridge on the edge of Sanquhar with the aim of visiting the wooded…
Eglinton Country Park at Kilwinning is a great place to go for a walk, visit the cafe, or let the kids enjoy themselves on the adventure playground, but it is also…
The first field meeting of 2022 took place on the southern end of the new Community owned Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. Unlike last years visit to the open moorland north…
Warned you all that it was difficult to get in and out of the site! Despite that, 5 of us descended the cliffs by another, “easier” route down the cliffs…
The first site in our new series of guides, describing where to watch and record wildlife in SW Scotland, is Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. As one of our newest nature…
I chose this site because there are very few records for the River Urr between Old Bridge of Urr and Corsock and it looked in passing as though it should…
This blog is written in response to a recent paper by Lee Raye of the Open University and published in Mammal Communications, the journal of The Mammal Society, which describes…
It hasn’t taken long for wildlife recording to embrace the power of the smartphone technology at our finger tips. Visit the android or apple app stores and you will find…
On a fine sunny day following government guidelines six of us met from 4 households, with no car sharing allowed between households. Ranald using local knowledge had suggested where cars…
On a windy and showery day following government guidelines six of us met from 5 households, with no car sharing allowed between households. Ranald had arranged access for us which…
On a fine sunny day following government guidelines five of us met from 4 households, with no car sharing allowed between households. We parked at a layby in the forest…
Finally after a frustrating summer and following government advice for groups we were able to hold our first Dumfries Botany Group meeting. Seven of us met from 5 households, the…
Given the current lockdown on movements during the Covid-19 outbreak, it seemed like a good idea to seek out what aspects of the region’s wildlife was on show via the…
Ten of us met for the final field meeting of 2019 which took place under dry but cloudy conditions at Loch Ettrick at the top of the Pothouse Burn. The…
Will it, won’t it? Rain morning (BBC)? or afternoon (Accuweather)? or evening (ITV)? In the event it held off till we got back to the cars mid-afternoon. First a march…
Fine weather greeted us for this the penultimate meeting of 2019. Six of us drove up a tiny, steeply uphill road to the quarry site which sits above the obvious…
The weather was again kind to us with sunshine and no rain, although it wasn’t that warm. 9 of us turned up and walked from the minor road to the…
This meeting was to replace one scheduled here last year but cancelled following days of very heavy rainfall and the threat of flooding. But this time we were in luck…
Guest blog by Alison Robertson As someone interested in moths, particularly micro-moths, I spend a lot of time staring at trees. Sometimes a slight movement or a flash of colour…
With permission from the Buccleuch Ranger Team, nine of us met at the front of the impressive Castle on a bright though initially showery day. The aim was to explore…
It was a cool damp windy day that promised to brighten up but which in fact by the end of the afternoon deteriorated. Eight of us met on the Kirkcudbright…
In fine and warm weather a group of 9 of us met at the car park at the western end of the village. Our objective was to record the square…
In the week that we were all celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landings the group set off to do their own little bit of moon exploration. The weather…
Seven enthusiastic wildlife recorders joined SWSEIC manager Mark Pollitt at Ringford to learn about our local dragons and damsels. The morning session was indoors with a little theory before putting…
The group met where the Spoon Burn goes under the A708 between Moffat and Selkirk. The square for the day includes the Moffat Water Valley and the steep slope down…
The long weekend meeting was planned to record in urban centres as part of BSS Urban Flora of Scotland Project, given that Dumfries and Galloway had to date received little…
The field meetings this year just get better and better with rare or scarce plants recorded – the Nationally Scarce Carex elongata last meeting, and now this is surpassed and…
The theme for the day was to try to relocate three species, the nationally scarce Elongated Sedge Carex elongata, and the locally scarce Purple Iris Iris versicolor and Wood Small-reed…
Urr Water, Glaisters Bridge and Glaisters 11th May 2019 Despite a change in the weather, 7 of us assembled at Corsock before driving up to the first monad at Glaisters…
Guest blog by RSPB’s Ed Tooth, Black Grouse Project Officer – Galloway Glens Spring is well and truly here. It’s absolutely the best time of year to be up and about…
On Tuesday 30th April, ten people joined staff from SWSEIC and Garnock Connections’ Wildlife Recording Assistant Elouise Cartner at the Dundonald Links golf club (just south of Irvine) for an opportunity…
Loch Ken 12th April 2019 This meeting was unusual in that it was just a half-day, despite which there were 10 of us attempting to find the aquatic fern, Pillwort…
There were nine of us who met up for the first field meeting of the season at the church at Dunscore on what was a very warm day for April.…
A bright sunny day welcomed 10 of us to the RSPB’s Ken-Dee Marshes SSSI, with singing Chiffchaffs and, later on, a Willow Warbler’s sibilant trill to herald the spring. First…
by Bruce Philp, Apr 2019 I have had an interest in the Scottish Oedemera species (False blister beetles) for some time. Their relative distributions of the two main species found…
Four sites for Wilson’s Filmy Fern Hymenophyllum wilsonii are known for this burn from around the 1980s and the intention was to re-locate the populations. 10 of us met at the…
Almost 10 years ago a petition was submitted to the Scottish Parliament calling for “integrated local and national structures for collecting, analysing and sharing biological data to inform decision-making processes…
An additional meeting was arranged and this took place at the Barony College covering the Square NY0286 taking in part of the Barony College grounds and part of the Ae…
Trust me to choose a difficult area to survey, although this was partly determined by a desire to cover the two lochs and the rail bed. The area covered 5…
Eight of the Dumfriesshire Botany Group met at Castle Loch, Lochmaben on Sunday 2 September. Contrary to the forecast it was rather cloudy and there was drizzle for much of…
This was a lovely warm sunny day for 7 of us to explore a crag section on the edge of the Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve, a site last…
Kinmount House stands in an extensive landscaped estate. The present house dates from 1815 and the loch from about 1820. The woodland on three sides of the parkland is older…
Given the very wet forecast for the previous Sunday we moved the meeting a week and had a very pleasant and dry day to botanise in and around Thornhill (NX8795).…
After weeks of dry very sunny weather, Friday turned out to be cool, cloud-shrouded and rainy. Despite this 11 of us met in the converted barn of the farm to…
We met at the church at Durisdeer on a warm day with just a threat of a shower which did not materialise. Durisdeer is a tiny picturesque village on the…
At the invitation of the Kippford Community, we were invited to do a botanical survey of their newly acquired ground, 48 acres or thereabouts, on the outskirts of the village.…
The threatened thunderstorms didn’t materialise which is a great bonus on exposed hillsides! Despite the original intention of going straight up to Loch Valley (NX4381) some 4km distant and 200…
The dry warm weather provided perfect conditions for SWSEIC’s community moth trapping in the village of Kirkgunzeon on 1st and 2nd June, 2018. A small group gathered at the village…
With the forecast looking hopeful, 16 people decided to chance coming along, and we managed to engineer the day to be the start of the current hot spell (as at…
Just three of us, in brilliant and very warm weather, covered one monad (NX8171) along the lochside very thoroughly and another (NX8271) not so thoroughly, also along the lochside. In…
Three brave folk met at Newbie shore in a stiff wind on Wednesday morning. The day improved and by the end of the afternoon the promised warm weather had finally…
The first meeting of our new Dumfriesshire Botany Group was held on Wednesday 28th March when 6 of us gathered at Gilnockie Bridge, Hollows on the river Esk south of…
This was to be the second filmy fern hunt for VC73, on a day forecast to be dry at first, then very windy and eventually rainy. As fortune had it…
The first visit of the season, hoping for Wilson’s Filmy Fern Hymenophyllum wilsonii before the explosion of vegetation made it difficult to find this tiny fern. To aid us, the…
Osmia bicornis in a trap nest in Eglinton Park © Iain Hamlin There are over 120 species of solitary bee and wasp in Ayrshire. Some are…
We have recently been in touch with one of the organisers of the Hoverfly Recording Scheme (HRS) about the possibility of running a training course in SW Scotland on this…
A great day out was had in the magical grounds of Craufurdland estate just outside Fenwick with the Clyde and Argyll Fungus group . The day started at 11am and we…
A great day was had by Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire at the Biological Recording in Scotland (BRISC) annual conference, this year held in Ayrshire at the field station on Cumbrae. …
Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire and the East Ayrshire Coalfield Environment Initiative joined forces for an afternoon of investigating and identifying bog wildlife collected from a bog in East Ayrshire. Samples…
On the previous visit in September 2016, we’d got washed out by rain after 2 hours then – sound familiar to those who came this time? I promised a return…
As is the trend with Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire, it rained on the last of our dragonfly ID training days….not just a little, but it poured, twice! However this did…
Finally the sun made an appearance for the last of the three butterfly ID training workshops at Auchalton Meadow. This flower rich meadow certainly did not disappoint, giving us a…
Here at Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire we are beginning to think that the project is cursed, as every training event we run, it seems to rain! However, the somewhat chilly…
Once again the Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire sun dance did not seem to work, and our butterfly ID training day in East Ayrshire was rather drizzly and chilly for our…
There is a hidden world of danger and mystery tucked away in North Ayrshire. A world that is forbidden to visit, save by the abundance of wildlife that calls it…
Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire had the pleasure of welcoming Bumblebee Conservation Trust to Belleisle estate in Ayr for a day of Bumblebee identification. Helen Dickinson, survey and GIS officer from the…
In the first of our three Dragonfly ID workshops we explored the stunning grounds of Craigengillan estate just outside Dalmellington in East Ayrshire. The session was lead by the very…
The somewhat drizzly and windy weather did not dampen out spirits on the first of three butterfly ID days in Ayrshire. For the morning classroom session we used the newly…
The wind and rain along the sea front at Ballantrae did not stop people coming out to experience the amazing range of food, drink and music on offer at this…
The 5 am wake up did not deter any of our keen folk from joining us in Barrhill to go exploring Feoch Meadows for reptiles. After meeting at Barrhill primary…
The Where’s Wildlife project has been running for 8 months now and we have been gradually collecting records from across the region. We will very soon be launching the recording…
In perfect reptile weather we headed out at 8 am to the Scottish Wildlife Trust site at Shewalton woods in North Ayrshire. Lead by the excellent Rennie Mason, a ranger…
The good weather continues! Nine of us turned out to explore this great example of a raised bog which is surrounded by both birch and pine woodland. It’s part of…
by Alistair Murdoch Location Bogside Flats SSSI (centred on NS3039) is an extensive area of mudflats, salt marsh and grassland adjacent to the Ayrshire coastal town of Irvine. The intertidal…
A sunny morning at Auchincruive provided us with an array of beautiful moths from moth traps placed in the woodlands on Auchincruive estate. Traps were placed at various locations at…
Another glorious day for the 10 of us, bright, sunny and warm. As is usual we spent the first half hour only metres from the cars, recording the plants in…
In the last of three amphibian training days, we spent an evening in the beautiful ground of Culzean castle torching for amphibians after dusk, and were even treated to a…
It might have been a day for the ducks, but that didn’t stop us braving the elements in the name of newts! After a great and informative morning session lead…
by Bob Merritt, SRS Area Organiser for VCs 72, 73 and 74 The recording of spiders in Dumfries and Galloway has picked up a lot in the last couple of…
On a cold January morning, the Where’s Wildlife in Ayrshire project ran its first training course in Catrine, East Ayrshire. This course gave an insight into the world of biological…
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