One of the sites Froglife are working on as part of the Living Waters project is Burngreen Park in Kilsyth. After discussion with Burngreen Park Friends of Group we decided not to dig a pond there, but to create a bog garden/seasonal pond instead. A corner of the park regularly floods in various amounts. It was here that we decided to utilise a wet area of grass and create a new habitat which would attract amphibians and insects. To this end we decided to plant the area up with lots of water-loving colourful plants. The local primary school were keen to help us so we had 40 children from every class in the school out in wellies, at the park, digging holes and planting bog plants such as water mint, ragged robin and marsh marigolds. A community planting event was also held to encourage local people to get involved. Members of Burngreen Friends of Group and local families helped us to finish planting the bog garden.
Planting at Burngreen Park Bog Garden
I have been organising events at Ravenswood Local Nature Reserve in Cumbernauld to encourage local people to visit the reserve. A mini-bioblitz was held at the start of September. This event was about finding what animals and plants are present at the reserve. We had some enthusiastic pond dippers who found dragonfly larvae, pea mussels, damselfly larvae, pond skaters and water boatmen amongst other things! The bug hunting was great fun as we used a sweep net to catch creatures on plants. We found lots of flies and bugs and even a beautiful damselfly. Claire, my fellow Natural Communities trainee also led a plant and tree walk! There is a wide range of habitats including meadow, woodland and wetland so there were a variety of different plants found.
Pond dipping at Ravenswood LNR
A couple of weeks later I ran a Green Gym taster day with Alyson Hunter from The Conservation Volunteers. Despite the pouring rain, some local people came along to dig a pond. Froglife have been digging ponds in the area and we dug this one between two existing ponds, in order to create a habitat network. The Green Gym is a great way of getting exercise in the outdoors whilst improving your local green space!
Pond digging at the Green Gym
To encourage people to dig their own ponds for wildlife, Froglife ran a pond creation workshop at Palacerigg Country Park in Cumbernauld. This training day included learning about pond location, preparations, design and wildlife, including plants, invertebrates and amphibians. We went out and looked at a variety of ponds at different stages of succession. The ponds created by Froglife a year ago, were teeming with life, including great diving beetles, whirligig beetles, damselflies and dragonflies. We saw a pond that looked overgrown with pond weed but is actually fantastic for invertebrates and newts. Every part of the pond succession is important for different types of plants and animals.
I was out digging a pond on a volunteer day at Greenhead Moss, near Wishaw. Here we all got very muddy and some people got a bit stuck in the mud! It was great fun though and afterwards we cleared some undergrowth and overhanging trees from around a pond, to let more light through.
Greenhead Moss
With the North Lanarkshire council rangers I ran a Woodland Craft event at Ravenswood local nature reserve, where people came along to have a go on a wood lathe, make wooden dragonflies and butterflies. It was a sunny day and was great to meet so many local people.
Woodland Craft day
As part of my training I have been learning about reptiles. I went down to Peterborough, to the headquarters of Froglife, to learn about snakes and lizards. I was so inspired by the training, that for the TCV Big Green Weekend event, I decided to base my stand on reptiles. Families enjoyed playing games, learning facts about reptiles and making their own plaited snakes!