14th March 2013

Project volunteers Tom Hutton and Sandy Gill have been making the most of a few bright, sunny days to take some great shots on langholm moor. Many thanks guys!

Check out Tom's blog for more photos ( http://tootlepedal.wordpress.com/)

Check out Sandy's blog for more photos http://mrgill17.blogspot.co.uk/

A fresh covering of snow on the moor is a reminder the winter weather is not finished with us just yet, and the feeding station still has plenty of winter visitors, especially Brambling. Skylark, Lapwing, Curlew, Reed bunting and Common lizard sightings becoming more regular. The Black Grouse are back on their leks and it is nice to hear the Red Grouse chuckling away too.

Heather Burning 2013

Blue skies and sunshine in Langholm.. It has been glorious the last few days, and spring is stepping up a gear..  The keepering team has been out on the hill making the most of the dry spell heather burning.

A second sunny day on the moor

A few photos of the moor by Sandy Gill, showing the beautiful spring light.

 The moorland feeding station is very busy with avian visitors at the moment, good numbers of Siskins around and a few Brambling too.

12 Great Spotted Woodpeckers have now been ringed at the feed station.

National nest box week 2013

As part of national nest box week 2013, we have been replacing old/wet nest boxes and erecting lots of new ones too throughout the woodlands surrounding Langholm moor. We've been concentrating on areas of woodland around the moor with mature oak trees - the preferred habitat for pied flycatchers. We had seven successful pied fly broods in our nest boxes last year and are hoping to encourage more this year with the new boxes. The nest boxes are monitored throughout the spring and summer and the broods ringed, all the data is collected and sent to the North Solway Ringing Group who are starting a study on pied flycatchers in D&G. The nest boxes we have been erecting in the woods around langholm moor were made by students at the Langholm Academy, given an extra layer of waterproofing by project volunteer Daniel Lacey and erected by a group of young volunteers - a great example of a community coming together. The volunteers who gave up their Saturday to put up the boxes are part of a group of people who wrote and performed our Moorland Musical - 'You can't let nature run wild' at the Watson Bird festival, Langholm Walking Festival and Lockerbie Jazz Festival last year.  

The group worked with musicians Aly McCluskie and Rory McLeod, and local  poet Fiona Russell to create a moorland musical - exploring the difficult relationship between Red Grouse moors and Hen Harriers through music and poetry.

The group has been working towards their John Muir Discovery Award as part of their moorland musical work and will receive a certificate in recognition of their efforts. We are told that this is the first time a group has met the 'share' element of the John Muir Discovery Award through a medium of a musical! how's that for a first?! 

We've made the decision this year to attach the boxes using twine rather than nailing them to the trees. Using twine allows us to better waterproof the top of the boxes - with roofing felt, to help keep the boxes completely dry. Using twine is also better for the trees, using nails can  potentially create an infection site in the tree and nailing directly to the tree doesn't allow for growth / swelling of the tree, so boxes can crack or become damaged over a number of years. The twine allows a bit more 'give' - hopefully extending the life of the box. 

 

 We can't get a vehicle directly to the site so our intrepid volunteers carried all the boxes and equipment.. what stars!

It has stopped raining (at least for now)

We have enjoyed a day or two of no rain, although the Town of Langholm has been hidden under a layer of fog, so it has not been much of an improvement. I have heard rumours of sunshine further afield.

Many thanks to Tom Hutton for these photos.

2013

Funding, funding, funding.. apologies for the lack of posts recently, we are coming to the end of our LEADER D&G funding and I have been busy looking for future funding and filling in application forms. Will keeop you posted about our future..

The Moorland bird feeding station has been keeping us busy in the last few months. A fantastic team of volunteers fill up the feeders every day and we are getting a good variety of species as well as good numbers visiting the site. This new 'ground feeder' built by Daniel Lacey has been very popular with the birds, giving us good views of the winter visitors - Brambling, in particular.

There are good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing around, usually seen flying over the feeding station.

Treesparrow

Greenfinch

Brambling

Nuthatch

We haven't had many dry days, but have made the most of the ones we've had by getting the ringing nets up and caught a good variety of birds.