Tag: wildlife

A wild idea!

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
A chance comment overheard in a shop, and a forager’s wry joke, should give us hope for the future. ‘It feels like rain’s coming – I can sense a change on its way’, said the Cumbernauld shop assistant I eavesdropped on. ‘I’m picking my dinner’, quipped the brambler I passed on a walk. But what they said sounded to me…

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…

Wild can be beautiful

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
Cumbernauld Living Landscape won two of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Beautiful Scotland Awards recently, a Silver Gilt overall, and the special Garden for Life Award. We were of course delighted, not only for ourselves, but for the many local people and organisations whose hard work and dedication made it all possible. But we were also delighted on another level, because the…

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…

The sounds of the wild seasons

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
If wild geese provide the soundtrack to winter walks, the warblers to the spring, and the screaming swifts are our summer music, then it is the incessant piping of young buzzards that sometimes fill these not-quite-summer, not-quite autumn days. In truth the adult buzzards have been calling to one another most of the year – only falling silent in the…

Evolution works in mysterious ways!

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
If Creationists wanted to cite an animal that seems to defy the theories of evolution, they should look no further than the common cranefly, Tipula paludosa. Every year as summer fades a rag-tag invasion of daddy-longlegs stumbles into homes all over the country, crashing into lampshades, dangling helplessly from undusted cobwebs, and wilfully drowning themselves in washing-up bowls and tea cups.…

Birds, bees, buds, and bloom

, by Cumbernauld LL
      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

, by Cumbernauld Living Landscape
    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
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 Cumbernauld LL
  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…

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