Archive of: 2016

We are pleased to be working in partnership with Doune Community Woodland group again this year to run more kids nature workshops over the summer holidays.

This year we are focussing on three areas that local parents though their children would be particularly interested in - trees, ponds and minibeasts. We are running seperate workshops for pre-school kids and primary school kids, and thanks to funding from Forestry Commission Scotland these are all free.

Anyone is welcome to attend these workshops, and you just need to book your free spaces via EventBrite - see attached poster for more information on how to book. The timetable is as follows:

Wed 3rd Aug: 

10:30 - plants/trees for pre-school kids

14:30 - pond dipping for primary aged kids

Thurs 4th Aug:

10:30 - pond-dipping for pre-school kids

14:30 - minibeasts for primary aged kids

Fri 5th Aug

10:30 - minibeasts for pre-school kids

14:30 - plants/trees for primary aged kids

A Nationally Scarce moss Sphagnum austinii has been recorded on site by our in-house bryologist Julie.  This species of Sphagnum moss is a first for vice county 101 Kintyre!  The presence of this moss indicates a relatively undisturbed area of blanket bog.   

This species can be readily identified in the field owing to the firm hummocks it can form and the ochre-brown to chestnut colour.  However, identification should be confirmed at the microscope (looking for ‘comb fibrils’ in the stem leaves), as this species could be confused for other species of Sphagnum moss. 

We are very lucky to have been working on a project on Skye since 2014.  It's a long way to travel from our office near Bridge of Allan, so staff sometimes take the opportunity to stay on longer for some exploration.

Last week Directors Kirsty and Chris were in Portree for meetings, and were astonished to find themselves in the middle of a mini heatwave. A trip to the beach was certainly called for, and here is the resulting photo from one of the fantastic coral beaches. 

Director Chris Cathrine had a great time last week teaching two courses on great crested newts for CIEEM.

The first course covered ecology and survey techniques, and included practical hands-on sessions on newt identification and surveying skills. The second course went into more depth about great crested newt assessment and mitigation, and included a wide range of scenario-based group activities. 

Feedback from the two courses was great, and we hope to run more in future. Comments included "Excellent comprehensive guidance all round", "very knowledgeable and personable tutor" and "catered for a wide range of people with different backgrounds and experience".

As well as running courses via CIEEM we are able to provide courses to other organisations and individuals, so why not have a look at our training page at http://www.caledonianconservation.co.uk/services/training/ to see what else we offer.

Here at Caledonian Conservation we are passionate about sharing the outdoors with other people, and work with groups as diverse as schools, woodland groups, mental health services and ranger teams.

Forestry Commission Scotland support a fantastic scheme called Outdoor and Woodland Learning (OWL) Scotland which we are keen to get involved with locally. OWL groups aim to increase opportunities for outdoor learning, and each individual group does this differently to meet local needs. There are OWL groups in lots of parts of Scotland, but there isn't one in the Stirling/Falkirk/Trossachs area currently. So, we are working with other local interested individuals and organisations to look at the feasibility of setting one up. If anyone is interested in joining in, please just get in touch and we'll add you to the contact list.

Director Chris Cathrine has been back at the University of the West of Scotland again this year to do more lectures for third year zoology students.  

As part of the 'Animal Diversity' course, Chris has been giving lectures on plankton and Cnidaria (jellyfish, sea anemones, coral etc) as well as running practicals on different aspects of invertebrate identification including spiders and freshwater invertebrates. 

Students are often not very interested in the tiny bugs and beasties of the natural world until they meet Chris, and he really enjoys spreading his enthusiasm and knowledge.  If all else fails, pointing out that some of the largest animals in the world (like this amazing whale shark) rely upon tiny animals to survive usually gets their attention!

We’ve had a very busy start to 2016 already, and as part of this we have been pleased to welcome three new staff members to the team.

Liz Coiffait joined us at the start of January as Senior Ecologist. Liz has thrown herself into writing an Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA), and is now out and about in the sun doing some winter walkover bird surveys.

Niall Currie also joined us two weeks ago as Assistant Ecologist. Alongside his all-round ecology knowledge, Niall has a particular interest in invertebrates. He is currently helping with invertebrate identification for our SNH SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) site condition monitoring work.  

Finally, we have also taken on another Senior Ecologist, Julie Smith, who started this week. Julie has a particular interest in plants, and is already out and about doing moss surveys, having not even set foot in the office yet!

We are very pleased to welcome such enthusiastic and experienced people to the team, and look forward to getting to know them all better.