I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself, I am Darran and I will be the Assistant Ranger here for the next six months at the Falls of Clyde. I have lived in Scotland for most of my life so it is great to be able to come and work for the Scottish Wildlife Trust and assist in the various events, monitoring work and practical tasks that will be carried out during my time here.

I have only been working here for a couple of days but it has been really nice getting to know my colleagues and also meeting the Tuesday volunteer group who are a great bunch of people who enjoy the work and are all dedicated to helping the diversity of wildlife we have on the reserve. Yesterday we carried out some work in the tree nursery by planting some Rowan, Hawthorn and Elder seeds and relocated some of the older blackthorn saplings into the hedgerow that runs along the boundary of our hay meadow.

I still have a lot of the reserve to explore but I am really excited that spring has now officially arrived and it will mean that wild flowers will start to appear, birds will start nesting and invertebrates such as butterflies, bumblebees and dragonflies will be seen more frequently. I am particularly looking forward to watching the young dippers learning how to hunt later in the season and also to the guided badger walks that will be taking place. It really is a beautiful location and I can’t wait to see how it changes throughout the seasons.

If you are out on the reserve in the coming months feel free to say hello!

Darran Dixon, Falls of Clyde Assistant Ranger
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