Moorland March 2016

Moorland March 2016

Next week marks the start of Moorland March 2016, and we’re very excited about it. 

Moorland March is a new festival hosted by the Making the Most of Moorlands Project, which will celebrate all things moorland through a series of events, workshops and exhibitions. The team have been planning this since autumn last year, contacting activity organisers, liaising with local accommodation providers, involving the local arts community and pulling together an amazing month of events. 

The festival will begin on Tuesday the 1^st, with the festival and exhibitions launch, beginning at 6.30pm at the Tourism & Community Hub and visiting the Old Post Office. Cut the Mustard Gallery, who are also putting on a Moorland Themed Exhibition will be open for the evening, as will Blue Moon – where the crafters have been busy making a moorland banner to display in their window. The Community Café at Canonbie church will also be displaying moorland art work during its normal March Opening Hours.

If arts and crafts are your thing, you are spoilt for choice during Moorland March. Alongside the 4 exhibitions, there are a number of different workshops being run by local makers. Leather bracelet making, wool felting and willow weaving are all available during the month of march.

Ann Smith

Ann Smith

If you’re out on the moor on Saturday the 5^th , you may be surprised to hear singing and chatter. It’s our “Guided Walk with a difference”, with highlights including music, local history and a wild food cooking demonstration from local celebrity chef John Crouch. For only £10 this is an event not to be missed.

Scotland’s most celebrated nature photographer, Laurie Campbell, will be running full day photography masterclasses on the 12^th and 13^th, which there are only a few spaces left on. Local photographer, Barry Young, is offering shorter guided photography walks, lasting 2 hours on the 19^th and the 26^th. The 19^th is now SOLD OUT, so be sure to snap up a place quickly for the 26^th. 

Grey Heron, Laurie Campbell.

If something a bit different tickles your fancy, Keith Kirk and the team from Nocturnal Wildlife Tours will have their LandRover, complete with various night vision and thermal imaging devices, at the Laverock Birdhide, 3-5pm, Saturday 19^th. For a small fee you can also book a tour out with them onto the moor after darkness falls. 

Saturday 19^th will be a busy day at the Laverock Birdhide, with North Solway Ringing Group giving a bird ringing demo in the morning. Drop in to see how birds are caught and ringed, and a view of your favourite garden species up close.

A blog post hardly seems long enough to summarise all the wonderful events going on, later in the month there are guided watches, ponk treks, and an Easter Sunday gathering at the monument. Blue Moon are hosting two children’s moorland craft workshops and the project are running a range of kids Easter holiday activities.

To see a full list of events, including booking information, please visit the Making the Most of Moorlands website. 

We look forward to seeing you over the coming month!

- Beckie Davies, Education Assistant

Langholm Moor 2016

Apologies for the lack of posts, to say it has been a busy time would be an understatement. The last few months have seen a few changes but the project is going from strength to strength; part time Education Assistant Beckie Davies, who joined us back in October, has been working hard all autumn and is currently busy with some after school art groups at Langholm And Hottsbridge Primary schools (see below). Beckie has successfully secured the full time seasonal position that begins mid-February and we are really excited to welcome Rick Taylor to the team in the part time education role, within the next few weeks. Judith Johnson has also come on board part time to help organise Moorland March - a month long series of events celebrating all things moorland (see below) so the team is growing!

Red Grouse (MMM volunteer)

It has been a wet and windy winter at Langholm, like most of the country we have been visited by storm after storm making the conditions incredibly hard for wildlife up on the moor. Several colder periods with heavy snow have created some beautiful wintry scenes but added to the challenge for the resident species.

Harriers

The 'Langholm three'  (Hattie, Grainne and Cyan) are doing well. Despite the challenging weather conditions Hattie and Grainne have not had reason to leave the moor and seem to finding enough food to sustain themselves. Cyan  has adopted the area to the west of Langholm and moves between Eskdalemuir  and Moffat. 

'Langholm three' winter 2015/2016

Art work

Pupils at Hottsbridge and Langholm primary schools have been working with education assistant Beckie Davies to create some superb moorland inspired artwork.

 

Moorland March

Over the last six months we have been working with the local community, businesses and artists to create a month long series of events based on and around Langholm moor and celebrating all things moorland.  Keep an eye out for our leaflets or check online for a full listing of events. Why not join us for a guided walk, moorland massage, horse trek, wool felt workshop, photography masterclass or nocturnal wildlife tour? There is lots to do throughout the month.

www.langholmmoorland.co.uk

Scottish Rural Award Nomination.. how exciting!

www.scottishruralawards.org

 The Making the Most of Moorlands Project has been nominated for a Scottish Rural Award 2016! To be  nominated for such a prestigious national award is very exciting for our little community/education project and we'll be heading along to Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on March 31st to attend the awards ceremony, wish us luck!

October 2015 update

In general, it has been a chilly and bright start to Autumn and the gamekeeping team have been making the most of the dry weather to do some heather burning.



Langholm Moor

It has been fairly quiet bird-wise up on the moor but there have been several sightings of Wheatears in the last week or so - looking very out of place amongst the frosts. I had a wonderful experience last week when I encountered 14 Ravens interacting together up on the high ground. I heard them before I saw them, that characteristic 'cronk' a real giveaway but I wasn't expecting such a large group. A couple of Buzzards made the mistake of getting too close  and quickly moved on to another part of the hill. 

 

Raven - the superb wedge tail clearly visible (John Wright)

 I watched the group for 15 - 20 minutes or so playing on the wind, displaying to each other, twisting and turning upside down, absolutely stunning. Having watched myself in the past as they carried off young chicks and eggs, Ravens are most certainly an opportunistic predator, but they do not seem to deserve the term - an 'unkindness' of Ravens - as on this occasion at least they were a joy to watch.

 

Tarras Valley (Tom Hutton)

 

 Hattie and Grainne, our 'resident' harriers continue to hunt Langholm moor for voles and small birds. Cyan (the young male harrier tagged at Langholm this summer) has been down in North Yorkshire for the last few weeks but a few days ago he returned home to Langholm. He didn't stay long but journeyed briefly over to the Moffat hills before returning to Langholm once again.



Cyan returns home to Langholm

 



It has been quite a busy few weeks with educational activities - we were joined by Gretna Scout group a few weeks ago on an expedition onto the moorland edge and a visit to our bird hide.

Gretna Scout Group approaching

 

 

Gretna Scout Group setting up for a delicious lunch

We have  enjoyed several activities with Langholm Academy over the last month including multiple visits with the S1 Biology students having a go at freshwater sampling in the Tarras. Working with the local schools to try and find practical opportunities to parts of their curriculum - like these students  learning about Indicator Species and Simpson's diversity Index.

 

Langholm Academy students collecting data



Langholm Academy students learning that even on a fairy bright dry day the moor can be cold and bleak place.



Project stand at Canonbie Day of the Region

 We are pleased to welcome new part time member of staff Beckie Davies who did a work placement with us back in June. Beckie will be leading some education events in the coming months including two events this school half term.

Check out this link to our website for information on upcoming events: http://www.langholmmoorland.co.uk/events.html



After an exciting encounter with an adder on the moor, enjoying a snack in the woods

 

Cyan on the move

Over the last couple of months Cyan has made various short forays away from his natal site but over the weekend he has made his first significant move away from Langholm, travelling over 130km south into North Yorkshire.

No change for Hattie and Grainne who remain on the moor at Langholm.

The Harrier and the Hare

One of the challenges young harriers face after fledging is learning to hunt effectively and feed themselves. I have been sent some great photos of a young harrier at Langholm attempting to take on a little more than it could 'chew'. The more typical prey for Hen Harriers are voles and small birds, but with the vole population at Langholm currently very low this young harrier has been experimenting with other slightly larger prey.

 

 These photos were taken  from the roadside at Langholm, the activity was some distance away but show some interesting behaviour.

 

The young Hen Harrier took three passes at the Brown Hare and eventually gave up, the last image in the sequence shows the Harrier and the Hare sitting side by side in the heather. The Hare was unharmed and looked rather non-plussed by the whole event.

 

Many thanks to Guy Broome for these images. Click on any of the images to see them enlarged.

 A few Short Eared Owl shots - why not?

 Check out Guy's website www.avefaunaphotographic.cou.uk

No news to report from Hattie and Grainne our 'resident' harriers, they are doing their usual thing.  Cyan recently made a move towards Hexham but he did not stay long and has spent the last 10 days or so exploring Eskdalemuir.

August 19th Cyan comes home

Just a quick update to let you know that Cyan (the young male harrier tagged at Langholm this July) has returned from Northumberland and spent the last few days back on Langholm Moor. Tagging at Langholm and elsewhere has shown us that young harriers can be very variable in their movements after fledging. Hattie and Grainne our 'resident' female harriers appear to be the exception so we are not expecting Cyan to hang around long.

The moor feels very quiet harrier-wise at the moment. This time last year vole numbers were very high so there was plenty of food about for the 47 fledged harriers and sightings were frequent throughout August and September. This year, however, both vole numbers and sightings of harriers  are right down. With food availability limited - it is likely most harriers have moved elsewhere. 

We'll keep an eye on Cyan and let you know where he goes next.

August 12th 2015

The Glorious or Inglorious 12th?

 Well the Grouse season has certainly started with a  bang this year and  I'm back from a couple of weeks of annual leave to hear the the awful news that a post-mortem has confirmed that Annie who went missing in March had been shot.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/405283-rspb-scotland-appeal-after-rare-raptor-shot-dead-in-southwest

Police Scotland have asked anyone with information to contact Police Scotland on 101.  Alternatively CRIMESTOPPERS can be contacted on 0800 555 111.

http://www.scotland.police.uk/whats-happening/news/2015/august/bird-of-prey-found-dead-clydesdale-south-lanarkshire



Annie 2014 - 2015

Concerns about Annie arose in mid March, her last transmission was received around the 19th of March. At that stage, as protocol dictates, the matter was handed over to the relevant authorities. 
Frustratingly even this post mortem evidence does not allow us to identify the person who shot her and bring them to justice. Will Annie be just another dead harrier?...

Sadly I don't have any more information, only anger and frustration that anyone would want to end the life of such a beautiful bird.

No doubt in death 'Langholm Annie' as I have heard her called in the last day or two will join 'Bowland Betty' in helping to raise awareness about her species.

 While this storm rages, life goes on for Hattie, Grainne and Cyan (the new boy, Hattie's son). Hattie and Grainne are still safely settled here at Langholm, but Cyan has begun his journey, leaving Langholm moor and heading north towards Hawick before moving east into Northumberland. There is growing awareness and admiration for this beautiful species but still some who can not bear to share their world with a harrier...