The 19th of July saw the launch of the Big Butterfly Count and to celebrate this, I held an event in Fallin. The day was a great success thanks to help from Buglife, the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative and the enthusiasm of the Fallin community. Around 50 people came along on a rainy Saturday to take part in a bug walk and some butterfly related arts and crafts. Sadly the weather didn’t allow us to carry out an actual Big Butterfly Count, but the majority took away some surveys to do in their gardens at home, so all was not lost!
The 27th of July was International Bog Day and to celebrate this, we held an open day at Blawhorn Moss. We had a great turn out considering the once again, rainy weather, and people popped along for a guided walk, a kids nature hunt and a fantastic photography workshop run by our Scottish Natural Heritage photographer, Lorne Gill.
It’s was also a busy summer for butterfly and moth related workshops. I popped along to the Hidden Gardens in Glasgow and Action In Mind Stirling, to have a chat about the work that Butterfly Conservation do, surveying and how to get involved in conserving habitats for butterflies and moths. I also ran a workshop at Dobbies garden centre for their little seedlings kids club. The kids learned about moths, played pollination games and even got to experience some of the fluffy little creatures first hand.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of helping out at local events as well, including helping at ‘Go Wild’ in Easterhouse, Pollock Family Day in Glasgow and the Edinburgh Mela, not to mention a muddy day of drystane walling at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
Up next…
Our next kids club session at Blawhorn Moss will be a bat and moth walk and the following will be an arts and crafts session to build bat boxes, bug hotels and more. I’ll also be running a Halloween event in Fallin where the kids will have a chance to learn about Wester Moss by munching an edible bog. Finally, I’m hoping to start up a small community knitting project, asking members of Fallin community to contribute one patchwork square to a ‘blanket bog’, which will be displayed in Fallin library.
Lots to be getting on with! Until next time, Ami 🙂