May training session

Our second biodiversity training session took place on the High Bank west of Baltrasna Bridge on a wet summer morning. Ecologist Eanna Ní Lamhna gave a wide-ranging commentary on the wildlife along the path, either visible, audible or evident (mammal scats and tracks). 

She pointed out that the presence of foxes can be confirmed by scent and that fox trails visible in the spring might be disused in summer when the fox stays local to a breeding earth. We observed the scat of a pine marten along the path. It's an omnivorous creature, unlike the typically carnivorous stoat, and the scat clearly contained fruit stones (Eanna suggested they were cherries but it's not known where there are cherry trees in the locality). 

We also observed an otter track on the opposite steep bank above the canal, presumably leading from a holt in the linear woodland adjoining the canal towpath.


Date: 27 May 2017 Time: 10.30-12.30

Attendance: 8

What we observed and talked about —

Birds: Blackbird (also birdsong and egg shell), Chiffchaff, Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Wren

Flowers: Cleavers, Colt's-foot, Common Bird's-foot-trefoil, Common Dog-violet, Common Field Speedwell, Common Knapweed, Common Vetch, Cowslip, Creeping Buttercup, Dandelion, Dog-rose, False Oxlip, Hedge Bindweed, Herb-Robert, Ivy, Lady's Smock, Meadowsweet, Milkwort, Primrose, Red Clover, Ribwort Plantain, Tormentil, White Clover, Wild Strawberry, Wood Avens
Gastropod: Garden Snail
Grasses: Cock's-foot, Timothy, Wild Oat
Insects: Bombus pascuorum, Froghopper (cuckoo spit)
Mammals: Fox, Otter, Pine Marten, Pygmy Shrew

Trees and shrubs: Alder, Ash, Beech, Blackthorn, Goat Willow, Gorse, Guelder Rose, Hawthorn, Sycamore
Other plants: Bracken, Hart's-tongue Fern, Horsetail