Oh what a day it was for Bats, Bugs and Boardwalks our CSV Action Earth funded project at Ardeer Quarry LNR in Stevenston. The sun was out and with it some smiling volunteers ready to kick in to action for mother earth!
We had developed many fun activities for volunteers to get involved with for the funded project at the weekend – building bug hotels, putting up bat boxes, pond dipping, moth trapping and building the start of a new boardwalk. We were trying to connect a section of the reserve that would usually take you on to the pavement beside a very busy A road. Putting in this boardwalk will allow people to walk across to a section of the reserve that was harder to reach and they might not have explored before. It also means people are kept within the reserve and their walk is not spoiled.
We started off the day doing a little bit of moth trapping with one of the local experts in the area, and we seen quite a few interesting moth species, but my own personal highlight would have been the canary shouldered thorn moth. This species is proof that moths are just as cute and cuddly as butterflies.
A moth trapping kit
Moths taking a nap
Canary shouldered thorn moth
We then began building a bug hotel on the reserve. The challenges when building Bug Hotels on reserves is that it needs to get Sun all day for solitary bees/wasps, and is nearby shelter (hedges/trees/pond) for other invertebrates, and also in a location that is not going to be easily disturbed. The great thing about building bug hotels with volunteers is that there are only some guide lines on what the invertebrates need. You’re only limited by your imagination with the design of the bug hotel. The hardest part of building bug hotels is dragging people away from them at the end of the day because people become attached to them so much. Which is very encouraging to be honest – I have not met a person yet on this traineeship (young or old) who does not love building bug hotels.
In construction
The finished 5* Bug Hotel
Dragonfly visiting us for lunch, right beside our newly built bug hotel.
Shield Bugs
We were putting up the bat boxes, which will hopefully help us with our guided bat walk at Ardeer Quarry LNR on Friday the 11th of September 7:30pm – 9pm. Shameless plug over. At the end of the day we had a pond dipping session for those that wanted to see some water invertebrates.
Preparing to put up bat boxes
All throughout the day the rangers had people helping them building the boardwalk as a drop in session as it would be too dangerous to have people swarming them, swinging heavy tools around.
Boardwalk is progressing nicely 🙂
I encourage all to pop down and check out the work we have done so far at Ardeer Quarry LNR.