Category: Species and habitats

Our beloved mammal needs our assistance!

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
Hedgehog numbers have halved since the millennium with rural areas being the worst affected. The spiny mammals are identified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List – which is the international list of all the species at risk of extinction. Luckily, hedgehogs have seen less of a decline in our towns and villages. Cumbernauld is a great location for our…

If you build they will come!

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
It was National Nest Box Week last week! A sure sign that spring is on the way. And it’s not just we humans that are feeling that spring is in the air. You may have noticed that the birds are getting more and more vocal? The males are staking out their territories ready to attract a mate and ensure they…

Wassailing apples

, by Paul Barclay
Recently Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s Saturday nature group headed out into the woods on a special mission. “Wassail the trees, that they may bear, many an apple and many a pear…” While the domestic apple is not native to the UK we do have our own version – the crab apple. A member of the rose family, its small fruits taste…

Wild about wetlands!

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
  Today is World Wetlands Day, which is celebrated every year on 2 February to raise awareness of these amazing habitats. You may be wondering what wetlands are? Well, wetlands are classed as any habitat that is seasonally or permanently flooded with water. This means that rivers, lochs, marshes, peat bogs, estuaries and floodplains are just some examples of wetland…

Big Garden Birdwatch – join in, feel good!

, by Katie Brown
This weekend, every person, aged 1 to 100, has the chance to be a citizen scientist for a day. It’s so easy you can do it from your own back garden. This year marks the 43rd anniversary of RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. Getting involved could not be easier. Check out the RSPB’s website for instructions on how to count them,…

A present for our wildlife!

, by Katie Brown
Tis the season to plant trees! It feels like only yesterday when I was a bright-eyed trainee, writing a similar blog, detailing how the Nature Ninjas bravely battled against thigh-deep mud to bring trees to the people of Broadwood. One trip around the sun later, here we are again. On Sunday 12 December our staff and volunteers planted another 500…

The sea starts here

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
According to a Scottish Government report last year, an estimated 300 million plastic straws, 276 million pieces of plastic cutlery, 50 million plastic plates and 66 million polystyrene food containers are used in Scotland every year. With a population of around 50,000, that means that here in Cumbernauld we are using three million straws a year, 2,760,000 pieces of plastic…

Could pine martens help paint the town red?

, by Paul Barclay
These days most of us are probably aware of the plight of the red squirrel. Reds are our only native squirrel but numbers have been in steady decline for years, due to the spread of their invasive grey cousins. Red squirrels find it difficult to compete with greys for food and habitat, but it is the squirrelpox virus which the…

Why Cumbernauld is a cool place to live

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
  Many of us know that the fantastic woodlands and greenspaces around Cumbernauld make it a cool place to live. But did you know that they actually make it cooler too? All the concrete and tarmac in towns and cities mean that they get hotter than rural areas, because the dark, hard surfaces absorb lots of heat. But studies have…

Tackling the invaders

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
What do buddleia, rhododendron, stoats, grey squirrels and snowberry have in common? They are all beautiful and fascinating species of animals and plants that can wreak havoc on other local wildlife if they turn up in the wrong place. Then they’re called invasive non-native species (INNS), and they’re just a few of the 3000 or so that we now have…

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