Small is beautiful

  As we move from spring into summer it’s hard to keep up with all the flowers that are appearing around the town, especially in the woodlands, meadows and along the grassy margins of the paths. As the yellows of most of our spring flowers fade, they are being replaced by nearly every colour of the rainbow – blues, pinks,

How to help thirsty bees in your garden

It’s that time of year again, when the pollinators are out and buzzing around searching for food. In some cases, this is just food to eat but others, such as the humble bumblebee, are foraging to feed young in the nest. The constant flying for resources is exhausting! This weather we’ve been having – colds pouring rain one minute, then

Waste not want not

The Cumbernauld Living Landscape team recently joined up with an early learning group to build some raised beds.  The event brought together several families that all took part in different activities throughout the morning. We re-purposed two old pallets and some scrap wood to bring together three fantastic raised beds. People pulled apart the pallets, hammered out the rusted nails,

Blue shade shoes?

Cumbernauld seems to be an island sitting in a sea of violetty-blue at the moment. Whichever direction you walk in the woods the bluebells are out. Surely one of our best-known and best-loved wildflowers, they signal the height of spring like nothing else, arriving with that other harbinger of the season, the cuckoo. It’s from this co-incidence that they get

Our Brilliant Bogs

The Nature Ninjas have been swinging their mattocks down at Abronhill bog and Ravenswood bog, removing birch regeneration. Now you might be wondering why conservation volunteers are removing native trees but there is a very good reason for what we are doing. Trees dry out peat bogs by sucking the water out of the ground through their roots, Peatlands are

A boost to biodiversity in the Community Park

  If you visited Cumbernauld Community Park this week you might have noticed some changes. Cumbernauld Living Landscape is creating two meadow areas to give more food and homes to the wildlife that lives there. One of these meadows is particularly special because it will be sown with an oat and bird seed mix to hark back to the park’s

Birds, bees, buds, and bloom

      It’s spring! The bitterness of winter appears to be fading with fresh days that are gradually getting warmer. And we’re not the only ones to notice the longer days. Male birds are gearing up for breeding season, so have started showing off how loud and long their songs are, declaring their territory and hopefully wooing the females!

Access to Cumbernauld’s wildlife just got easier

    Cumbernauld walkers and wheelers will find it easier to explore the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Seafar Woods Wildlife Reserve, and North Lanarkshire Council’s Ravenswood Local Nature Reserve, thanks to access improvements carried out through our Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s Access to Nature project over the winter. 760m of paths – over three-quarters of a kilometre – have been upgraded. The

It’s all in the ‘V’

By Katie Brown, Cumbernauld Living Landscape Trainee Pink footed goose, c. 2020 Vision It’s getting to that time of year where the sudden honking of geese might make you look up to the sky, searching for that so familiar ‘V’ formation. Every winter thousands of swans and geese arrive in Scotland from the tundra regions of Iceland, Greenland and Siberia,

Birds, bees, buds, and blooms

  By Teri Grieve, Cumbernauld Living Landscape Trainee Spring is coming! The bitterness of winter appears to have been interrupted, with fresh days that are getting warmer. And we’re not the only ones to notice the longer days. Male birds are gearing up for the breeding season, so have started showing off how loud and long their songs are at