The Seven Lochs Wetland Park is an exciting new Green Network project; encompassing Seven Lochs, five local nature reserves, a country park and one of Glasgow’s oldest buildings. Over the next 5 years Glasgow City Council, North Lanarkshire Council, TCV Scotland and others will work together to develop the park as a place for people, nature and heritage. TCV Scotland is responsible for delivering community engagement activities such as the Seven Lochs Volunteers through Claire Quinn’s role as Community Engagement Officer and Claire has been out with her group on a citizen science fungi survey…
A cut Bay Bolete fungi collected on a citizen science survey
The Seven Lochs Volunteers recently took advantage of a brief spot of milder weather and took part in a fungi walk at Drumpellier Country Park. With the help of an expert we found and recorded 26 different species. The group had a very enjoyable morning, so much so that we extended the walk to make sure we did not miss anything. The group were amazed at how many different species we found in such a small area (1 mile) as well as the variety of sizes, shapes and colours. Our expert Ali Murfitt was very knowledgeable and told us folklore as well as facts about the fungi we saw. Stories about the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric and a demonstration of the Bay Bolete bruising blue were particular favourites. One jelly fungi even had the expert stumped so the group is waiting to hear back as to the exact species – every day is a school day! This session was an introduction to fungi identification skills and whetted the appetite of a number of the volunteers who have said they will continue to develop their ID skills so that they can record fungi independently. The aim of sessions like these is to provide volunteers with the necessary skills or at least to signpost them to where they can get the skills, to carry out wildlife monitoring themselves.
If you would like to find out more about using citizen science as part of community engagement, check out our website section: getting involved in citizen science.