Ayrshire Newsletter

Summer 2014

Chairman’s Note July 2014

After our year off we shall be back at the Ayr Flower Show with our marquee this August. Our theme this year will be the 50th Anniversary of the Trust. There is plenty to celebrate: from very small beginnings the Trust now has 120 reserves and is a major player in Scottish wildlife conservation. From the very early days the Ayrshire Branch was playing its part, with Enterkine Wood at Annbank being the Trust’s first reserve. Were we the first branch to be formally constituted? Nobody seems quite sure, but we like to think that we were. As well as ancient history there will be plenty of present-day achievements to celebrate. The end of the 5 year beaver trial will, we hope, lead to a full reintroduction in Scotland. Also, by August we should know whether our Small Blue butterflies have survived their first winter in Ayrshire for over 40 years. They may be smaller than beavers but they will be our reintroduction. If you visit the Flower Show make sure you come and see us on the stand; or if you feel like helping let our secretary, Wendy Annan, know. [Contact details on the SWT Ayrshire website.]

At this year’s AGM we were very pleased to welcome two new members to the Ayrshire Committee – Bruce Philp is an experienced ecologist with a special interest in beetles; and Kath Jones is a member of our weekend reserves volunteer group. After the AGM we had a discussion led by our panel of four local experts. Topics covered included wind farms, what to do about invasive non-native species and how much should we manage our reserves.

We have been thinking about the best way to communicate with our local members. This newsletter is one way, but it is only sent out three times a year and has to be written about six weeks before you receive it, so it has limited value for letting you know what is happening in Ayrshire. Items of local news can be put relatively quickly on our local website (though I admit that we sometimes forget) but I don’t know how many local members check it regularly. So we are intending to start sending out occasional emails when there are events coming up or we have news for you. At the moment we think we have email addresses for about half the members in Ayrshire, though some of these may be old addresses that are no longer in use. If any of you decide at any time that you do not wish to receive these emails we can quickly remove you from the circulation list.

I hope that by the time you are reading this we will have had some fine summer weather. Perhaps this will be another good year for butterflies. A Brimstone Moth has just flown into the house while I was writing this – is this a good omen?

Roger Hissett.

Ralph Kirkwood

We were very sorry to learn of the death of our former President, Dr Ralph Kirkwood. A member ofAyrshire Branch from its early days, he served as Committee member, Vice Chairman, Chairman, and lately as President for 14 years until 2013. A great many Trust members and others will have enjoyed learning about Ayrshire’s wildflowers from his deservedly popular talks and walks

WILDLIFE WALKS

Check the Events booklet or our website for details of guided walksin Irvineon2nd August andNew Cumnock on 6th September.

Information on more fungal outings in the west of Scotland is on the website of the Clyde and Argyll Fungal Group

EVENING MEETINGS PROGRAMME

Our programme of winter meetings starts on 16th September. We shall again be meeting at 7.30pm on the third Tuesday of each month, in the comfortable premises of the Horizon Hotel, Esplanade, Ayr KA7 1DT. This provides plentiful parking, with disabled facilities, and tea and coffee available in the interval. There is no charge for members or non-members, so bring your friends:

16th September – Hayley Douglas: “Windows on Wildlife”.

WoW is a project using motion-sensitive cameras to record the animals in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.

21st October – Fiona Lee: “El sur del mondo – a month in south Chile”.

Fiona, who is a landscape architect, travelled from Patagonia to Santiago with a small group, staying with local families. She will be describing the wildlife, landscapes and culture of the area.

18th November – Iain Wilkie: “Lichens and History”.

As a zoologist Iain worked on starfish and sea anemones. However, he has long had an interest in lichens: their biology and how they can be used to date historic monuments.

There will be no December meeting, but four more dates to remember in 2015:

20th January – Thomas Endlein: “Rainforests through the lens”.

17th February – Mark Gibson: “Craigengillan”.

17th March – Michael MacKinnon Hebridean Whale andDolphin Trust.

21st April – AGM + tba.

Irvine to Girvan Nectar Network

We keep on hearing about the terrible decline in bees on the news. It is said that 80% of our crops are insect pollinated and it is a similar picture for our wild flowers. The loss of these insects would be a disaster for mankind and for all our biodiversity. SWT in Ayrshire is taking action as part of a project being led by Dundonald Links Golf Course in Irvine. The idea is that you can help boost pollinator numbers by providing lots of feeding opportunities and nesting sites for them. In addition, making sure flower-rich sites are well connected allows pollinators to move away from temporarily inhospitable conditions, survive and recolonise when things improve.

The Irvine to Girvan Nectar Network is sowing area of wildflowers in connected areas of land between the two towns. SWT’s part in this is to survey some of the ground within the network and advise on what is required to establish the wild flowers. It is also important to know whether the concept is working, so before and after surveys of butterflies and bumblebees would be useful. If you are interested in carrying out this pleasant task, the contact details are or 01294 279376. You can also play your part by making sure your garden is as pollinator-friendly as possible. That means lots of variety and flowers in as many months as possible.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland (registered number SC040247) having its registered

office atHarbourside House, 110 Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6NF. It is also a Scottish registered charity (charity number SC005792).