Making the Most of Moorlands: Work Experience

A week of work experience - Ciaran Jackson

31st October - 4th November 2016

Ciaran joined me for a week of work experience on Monday 31st October and we kept him pretty busy! 

During his placement Ciaran's jobs included: Building and installing Dipper nest boxes along the Tarras, creating a new pond at the Laverock Hide, setting trail cameras to capture footage of  hares and tawny owl, filming shoals of Salmon and Sea Trout at Skippers Bridge, feeding red squirrels at Longwood, updating the sightings board and stocking the feeding station at Whitshiels Cafe, tracking otters, putting forward valuable input during a graphic design meeting, removing a very smelly Goosander egg from an old nest site and guiding a couple from Selkirk to Harrier Corner to show them their very first Merlin!

Ciaran was an absolute pleasure to work with and we hope to see him again as a volunteer next season.

Ciaran wrote the report below following his placement:

During my week of work experience I spent a lot of time fixing and creating habitats for the wildlife on the moor. I created a pond and built two bird boxes which have been placed by rivers to hopefully become homes for Dippers. I also set up two cameras on the moor. Unfortunately they were a fail and there was no footage. Through this Rick taught me about lots of species of birds that live on the moor. I learned what they look like and how they hunt and learned about species that I didn't even know could live there. I enjoyed learning about how this project runs on a day to day basis and how it is trying to improve the moorland and Langholm.

Many thanks to Ciaran for all his hard work - Rick

Ciaran and a Dipper's new home!

Ciaran admires his handy work at the Laverock Hide.