Feed

We are working on Christmas Eve, because we are good and want lots of presents. Only kidding! We are doing it to make up hours towards the Conserver Award and because we like helping nature. So far today, we have moved a whole twig pile into a better place for wildlife, planted some bulbs and prepared more wild flower patch. We are working all day.

I ran a Brownie meeting themed on Penguins, how they are under threat and what the girls could do about it. We played a game where all the Brownies were penguins. Each had a chair to represent an iceberg, but each round the chairs were removed to make the game harder and harder, simulating how the penguins' sea ice is melting. We also reused old cardboard egg boxes (rather than throwing them away) and made them into beautiful little penguin pals (see photos).

The National Cycle Network is bursting with birds. I'm starting my Explorer level Award this winter, learning more about them, and it already bodes well - on route 1 in Edinburgh, I noticed a sparrowhawk flying over the Sustrans office while, down the route a bit, a flock of waxwings finished off all the berries on the scraggy trees in the retail park car park at Craigleith. And earlier this month, I was on a work mission in Ayrshire, cycling route 7...another route chocka with different species. I grew up on the coast there and I only really rated the inland farmland for sleepovers at my friends' houses (overriding memory: cow smell and New Kids on the Block). But with the roads deserted, and the frozen fields warming in the early sun I realised how much I've missed. Wrens chummed me through the hedgerows, the corvid chorus of rooks, crows and jackdaws in farm trees was deafening, and every so often I got a glimpse of the orange armpits of migrant redwings, as I stopped to try to get a better look. And this week, on a day-off (cum-busman's-holiday) I biked along route 764 in Fife - an old railway line connecting Dunfermline to Alloa. This sort of path is perfect for birds, providing different habitats, food, song posts and cover. Dunnocks, blackbirds, great tits, starlings and very often a burst of fieldfares exploding out of a tree and winging their way across the fields flashing white as they went. There is so much to see through winter - the bare trees help visibility, birds are out looking for food, and migratory species arrive from Scandinavia and beyond to overwinter and capture our imagination. I am excited to begin.

Todays walk Tues 17 / 12

After a stormy day yesterday, what a beautiful day it was today for our John Muir Award Walk along the John Muir Way. Before we left we made some sustainable Christmas decorations to put on the Christmas tree at the top of the hill. The sun was out but a definite chill in the air! The first part of the route feels like walking a route taken by many people before us. It is fitting therefore that this is now part of the John Muir Way and the route continues to be enjoyed by many. You could almost hear the sounds of the cattle which must have walked this route in the past. The path follows a beautiful old beech hedge on one side and a hawthorn hedge on the other, indicating a designed landscape. The trees are covered in lichens and mosses and the gnarled branches an indication of the age of the trees and the history they have seen. We weren't the only people making the most of the beautiful day. We passed dog walkers and cyclists, all making the most of the sunshine. When we reached the viepoint, we weren't disappointed, the views across Loch Lomond were stunning! Lots of snow capped mountains in the distance reflecting in the clear blue water of the Loch. Lori and I hung our tree on an old single hawthorn and then slowly started to walk back down the hill while the rest of the team walked on to the top and to put out the rest of the feeders. We listened to the water making its way down the hill, and watched a huge flock of chaffinches eating the beech nuts on the path. The sun was already going down and finally disappeared under the hill to the west. It is a short day at this time of year, but what a great way to make the most of it!

I had a lovely opportunity to support a great crowd-funding campaign Spot-a-bee Citizen Science app that is hoping to become national in focus. I gave a small donation and tweeted about it, and it was seen over 2,500 times on Twitter! It just goes to show how a little bit of support can spread a long way, and our bees need all the support they can get. I am really looking forward to observing, recording and learning more about the bees and other pollinators that visit my garden as part of my personal project for my conserver. I have started to plan for this already by sowing seeds for a wild flower mini meadow (under my whirly-gig!) in my back garden. If this app is developed further I can then use it to record all the bees that come to visit!

Fantastic to get out today and appreciate the landscape in midwinter with stunning views of Loch Lomond as we walked a section of the John Muir Way. We made pine cone bird feeders and walked to a living 'Christmas' tree that others have in the past hung plastic decorations on. We added our natural and biodegradable bird feeders on the tree and picked up some of the broken and fallen plastic baubles. On the way back we were rewarded with a lovely rainbow, reminding us all to take a moment to get out in nature and enjoy the small things. What a lovely way to cap our walk off, and the last of the team John Muir Award days in 2019.