Hi,

One of the highlights of a stroll through the woods at this time of year is the variety of aromas you can encounter, be it from pine needles on the woodland floor or fragrance from honeysuckle and elder blooms. Wild marjoram has aromatic leaves and is one of the rare plants that the ranger team successfully found on site as well as, slender st john’s-wort and wood melick in a new location.

Slender St John’s-wort with its red-tinged petals and leaves clasping around the stem (C) Adam Jones

A Luxury Badger Safari on 15^th produced great views of five badgers grooming around the sett as well as frequent calling from peregrine falcon and common buzzard overhead. Grey squirrel activity in the form of bark stripping on birch trees is particularly evident at present.

Active butterfly species on Bonnington Pavilion included, ringlet, meadow brown and green-veined white. Moth trapping produced the first records for barred straw, true-lovers knot, snout and purple clay of the year.

Other interesting sightings included, common buzzard (Bonnington Pavilion, daily), stock dove (Bonnington Pavilion, daily), kingfisher (boardwalk, occasional), 3 dipper (Corra Linn, 20^th), mistle thrush (Walled Garden, occasional), yellowhammer (Bonnington Pavilion, daily), common hawker (Dundaff Linn, 20^th) and silver y moth (Bonnington Pavilion, 19^th).

Adam Jones – Scottish Wildlife Trust, Falls of Clyde Seasonal Ranger

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