Re: Ardeer Quarry LNR Public Consultation
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:42 pm
It’s been a while since I last gave an update on Ardeer Quarry LNR news. A few things have happened this year, but not nearly as much as we’d hoped.
The orchard will be expanded over the winter. The fruit crop this autumn was astounding: one apple and one deformed pear! Next year we’re expecting double this! And from then on the crop should increase exponentially as the orchard matures.
A notice board was installed on the reserve…then vandalised within a few weeks. We’ll shortly make an other attempt to put up content on the board and make it a bit more vandal-proof.
On the 17th December, a 4 metre long, south-facing, sandy embankment will be created in the wild field beside the Dubbs Rd entrance to the reserve. This ‘bee bank’ will provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees and wasps. From next spring onwards, we’ll identify and record the species that colonise the bank. Hopefully some of these insects will play a role in the pollination of the adjacent orchard.
Our website has been updated to make it look slightly more modern. It needs to be fleshed out here and there with more text and photos. It’s at http://www.stevenstonconservation.org
Regarding wildlife on the reserve, perhaps the most interesting find this year was a Pine Leaf-mining Moth, a small orange and grey moth never recorded in Scotland before. Formerly a species restricted to southern England, it’s been spreading northwards over the past few decades, but until this year had not been recorded north of the border.
Buglife ran a series of invertebrate survey events at Ardeer Quarry over the summer. They compiled a report on the list of species caught on the reserve - information that we’ll eventually disseminate through our website.
Other projects are moving slowly and most of our work simply involves an awful lot of chasing people up! Ongoing attempts to restore a wetland on the LNR will hopefully pick-up speed now that there’s been a change in land ownership at the site and the RSPB have gotten involved.
Attached are photos of a couple of the funkier 'new for site' moths caught on the reserve this year.
Iain
The orchard will be expanded over the winter. The fruit crop this autumn was astounding: one apple and one deformed pear! Next year we’re expecting double this! And from then on the crop should increase exponentially as the orchard matures.
A notice board was installed on the reserve…then vandalised within a few weeks. We’ll shortly make an other attempt to put up content on the board and make it a bit more vandal-proof.
On the 17th December, a 4 metre long, south-facing, sandy embankment will be created in the wild field beside the Dubbs Rd entrance to the reserve. This ‘bee bank’ will provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees and wasps. From next spring onwards, we’ll identify and record the species that colonise the bank. Hopefully some of these insects will play a role in the pollination of the adjacent orchard.
Our website has been updated to make it look slightly more modern. It needs to be fleshed out here and there with more text and photos. It’s at http://www.stevenstonconservation.org
Regarding wildlife on the reserve, perhaps the most interesting find this year was a Pine Leaf-mining Moth, a small orange and grey moth never recorded in Scotland before. Formerly a species restricted to southern England, it’s been spreading northwards over the past few decades, but until this year had not been recorded north of the border.
Buglife ran a series of invertebrate survey events at Ardeer Quarry over the summer. They compiled a report on the list of species caught on the reserve - information that we’ll eventually disseminate through our website.
Other projects are moving slowly and most of our work simply involves an awful lot of chasing people up! Ongoing attempts to restore a wetland on the LNR will hopefully pick-up speed now that there’s been a change in land ownership at the site and the RSPB have gotten involved.
Attached are photos of a couple of the funkier 'new for site' moths caught on the reserve this year.
Iain