One of this year’s success stories has been the creation of a butterfly bank at Dunnet Community Forest which was the result of collaboration with Caithness Environment Volunteers, Dunnet Community Forest’s Junior Rangers, the Supported Learning class at UHI and many others. We were delighted when reports of small blue butterflies using the newly created habitat began coming in. Volunteers have also contributed over eighty hours of time to habitat management work at the small blue colony at Castlehill – we’ve been overwhelmed with the support and are so grateful.
Even though the weather has not been ideal for many of our key species, volunteers have been out surveying for small blue butterflies and great yellow bumblebees throughout their flight season. Thanks to the combined efforts of staff and volunteers, we have much better knowledge about the distribution of Scottish primrose, purple oxytropis and oysterplant across the north coast. We are yet to receive a report of a sighting of the rare plantain leaf beetle, but we continue to search.
Our Nature for All programme of activities has allowed us to engage with a variety of folk. We’ve offered connection to nature workshops focusing on wellbeing practices, creativity and foraging. The establishment of a community herbarium with Tongue Gardening Group, which will be hosted in the archive of Strathnaver Museum, has proven popular and we’ve supported several drop-in sessions for interested members of the public to view and comment on the specimens collected. Finally, staff and volunteers have been collecting footage of our wonderful north coast nature for use in a relaxation film that we’re producing with Iain Black of Flow North Yoga. Iain and Louise, our People Engagement Officer, will be putting together a short nature connection workshop to showcase the film and will be offering this to groups in Caithness. If you’re interested in hosting a workshop for your group, please get in touch with louise.senior@plantlife.org.uk
Keep an eye on the Species on the Edge website, on our social media channels, and make sure you’re signed up to our mailing list to keep up to date with all programme news and updates over the coming months.
And remember, you can find out everything you need to know about Species on the Edge on the North Coast on our area page, including our local target species, what we’re up to and how to get in touch with the local team.
