Tag: wildlife

We’re wild about bats!

, by Fiona McGrevey
We’ve been running some Bat Walks over the past few weeks and have loved telling people about these amazing creatures. Its been a great time of year to see them and Cumbernauld provides a fantastic habitat for them. Some of our walks have taken us down into Seafar Woods where the grassy clearings provide a supply of insects for these…

If you go down to the meadows today

, by Fiona McGrevey
The Cumbernauld Living Landscape team are gradually getting back out to visit some greenspaces in Cumbernauld. Tracy, our Project Officer for Young People visited St Maurice’s Pond recently and was amazed at how much the meadow was thriving! There’s such a diverse range of plant species to be found including knapweed, yellow rattle and birds foot trefoil. Benefiting from these…

The plight of the male bumblebee

, by Tracy Lambert
  PART FOUR Once the males have hatched, they leave the nest never to return. Their sole purpose is to feed, mate, then die— it is a very short life for the humble male. Most will never mate but those that do will pass on the genes from the mother queen bee and the grandmother, great grandmother etc. hence the…

The autumn of bumblebees

, by Tracy Lambert
  PART THREE All the bees born in spring and early summer are female, born from the queen’s eggs and the male’s stored sperm packet. They are all sisters who are 75% related to each other. We are up to late summer now, and things are going to get a little tense in the nest. As late summer arrives the…

A bumblebee’s tale of spring and summer

, by Tracy Lambert
  PART TWO The discussion I had with students from St Maurices’ about bumblebees will remain with me forever. For two years I would be stopped in the corridors by one or two students who asked me to repeat the bumblebee’s tale, as they couldn’t get their heads around the genetics of how brothers and sisters are related differently. It…

The humble bumble

, by Tracy Lambert
  PART ONE I finally feel that spring has arrived. You might wonder why. After all, meteorological spring was the first of March and the official beginning of spring was the 20th, so why now? Well, I just saw my first bumblebee, and it is never truly spring until I see one of those cute wee fuzzbutts! I adore bumblebees…

Where has the summer gone?

, by Tracy Lambert
Over the summer I’ve had the pleasure of working with around 60 children transitioning from Primary 7 to first year through the brilliant Home School Partnership Officers (worth their weight in gold) at Greenfaulds and St Maurice’s High. The children were out pond dipping, insect hunting, scavenger hunting and making smores or tea in nature reserves in the town, and…

The woods are alive!

, by Paul Barclay
Do you ever take a wander through the woods and get that feeling in the back of your neck that you’re not alone… that you’re being watched? It sounds like the intro to a horror film, but the truth is you probably are! Luckily, the only creatures watching are likely to be foxes and deer, birds and insects. A group…

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