Hello everyone!

This week I’ve been outside a lot as well. Even though the weather was it bit weird, with sun, rain and hail on the same day, it was very nice! Because of all the rain the water level has gotten a lot higher and the view of Corra Linn and Bonnington Linn were spectacular!

A couple times I had to walk through the entire reserve, now I could say that I have seen every inch of it! A very important job that the team and I have done this week, was the survey of all the manual made objects, like fencing, steps and stairs, the boardwalk, benches, way-markers etc. Every once in a while these things need checking if they are still sturdy and not falling apart, we don’t want things happen of course!

We also looked at the drains throughout the reserve. These are there to prevent the path from flooding or getting wet. Sometimes they get blocked and we have to unblock them. The Victorian trail way-markers have gotten an update as well! At first they were just put straight in the ground, but this way they were very easy to get out. Now we have fixed them up with some ‘feet’ which got covered with soil. There’s no way they can be pulled out so easily anymore, they’re quite sturdy!

You might have heard about the wildflower ‘Golden Saxifrage’. It turns out, in the reserve you can find two kind of Golden Saxifrage, the opposite-leaved and the alternate-leaved. The alternate-leaved one is very rare, their stem leaves are all some space apart while the common opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage are, first of all, smaller and less popping in color, but their stem leaves are opposite one another. So I have made two new signs for the Wildflower trail!

We have also moved more brash up at the Peregrine site, we have observed some more transect boxes, done some litter picks, cleared out the pond and some more stuff that happens quite regularly!

This was my week so far, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed to spot some peregrines soon!

Susanne Maas – Scottish Wildlife Trust

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