Natural Connections – Time to spot wildlife

It has been a really busy summer here at the Cumbernauld Living Landscape. As autumn is creeping up on us you would think that it would be a time of slowing down the pace but, like nature things are still going full tilt.  Soon the leaves will be turning from the crisp emerald greens to umbers and crimsons, returning as much of the remaining nutrients to the tree before they become dormant in the winter ahead. Bats will be busy fuelling up during this time of plenty.  The damp weather has certainly been good for those pesky midges!

The wildflowers in our town will soon turn and set seed, some have already.  This is a great time to collect small amounts of seeds to help spread the flowers in problem patches of the meadow, especially where large areas of thistle can be found.  Small patches of thistle are great for peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies but as the patches get bigger they dominate the other plant species which is not the best for our wildflowers or pollinators.

We have had some very short but beautiful sunny days in August, with butterflies, bees and dragonflies buzzing about and getting busy while they can.  I was very excited in seeing a load of 6 spot burnet moths and my fist Common Blue butterfly this year, utterly gorgeous wee delicate beasties with such vibrant colours.  The burnet looks quite plain until it flies of the flash of the red underwing cannot be mistaken and I still can’t get over how small the common blue is – about the size of a 5p! Let us know what you have spotted during the summer on our Facebook page – Cumbernauld Living Landscape.