As I will be the main person posting on the new Montrose Basin Wildlife Blog, I feel it is only right that I should tell you a wee bit about me.

My name is Adam McClure and I am the Scottish Wildlife Trust Ranger here at Montrose Basin.  Originally from County Antrim in Northern Ireland, I have lived in Scotland and worked for the Trust since June last year.

I am an avid birder, although not a “twitcher” (yes, there is a difference!) and as well as watching birds, I also ring them.  I’m a trainee ringer, registered with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and I’m a member of the Tay Ringing Group (TRG) in Scotland and Copeland Bird Observatory (CBO) in Northern Ireland.

As well as taking an interest in birds (my wife would call it an unhealthy obsession!), I try to be an all-round naturalist and am fascinated by almost every aspect of the natural world.

The purpose of this blog is to give us an opportunity to share some of the happenings on the reserve at Montrose and surrounding area, as well as giving you an insight to life of a Ranger.  We plan to post articles about what’s happening on the reserve, and species specific posts, as well as anecdotes of our experiences with wildlife.  We will also post replies to questions we get asked in the Visitor Centre and which we think people might find interesting, for example, “why do waders stand on one leg when they’re roosting?”  (If you know don’t spoil it, or else I’ll have to think of something different to write about!)

As I said in the previous post, we will try and upload at least one new blog per week, however, if we have something interesting or exciting to tell you about, it may be more often.   Apologies for not getting this introduction up by the end of yesterday as I had planned to do, but unfortunately the life of a wildlife ranger is never predictable and we were connecting up the superb new HD camera on our tern raft, which took longer than anticipated…it also turned out to be much colder and wetter than anticipated, but that’s beside the matter!

Anyway, I think that’s everything you need to know about me, and I will introduce some of the other members of staff who will be blogging here from time to time at a later date.

Oh, and one other thing…I absolutely love my job.

 Adam – Montrose Basin Ranger