Watching Wildlife in the Scottish Borders
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SWT BORDERS POSTER/12 7/12/05 8:16 PM Page 1 Spotting species Join us and help protect Watching The Scottish Borders has a range of wildlife habitats from open Scotland’s wildlife. moorland and grassland to wooded valleys and open water. Membership gives you FREE entry to all our visitor centres and a wildlife Plantlife discount for our many exciting events throughout the year. You will also receive our magazine, Scottish Wildlife, to help you keep up-to-date. in the Scottish Borders Pease Dean, a remnant of the once extensive Memberships start from £27.00 per adult (concession £15.00). Penmansheil Woods, has nationally rare mosses (bryophytes), and the ancient sessile For more information, contact us on 0131 312 7765 or oakwoods are carpeted with greater woodrush, email [email protected] honeysuckle, foxglove, hard fern and wavy hair- You can also join online at www.swt.org.uk grass. Ferns such as hart’s tongue and soft F oxglove shield fern grow along the burns and mosses and liverworts flourish in shaded places. Marsh vegetation at Bemersyde Moss forms a mosaic with open water and willow carr, bulrush, bog bean and water horsetail. Greater spearwort, mare’s-tail and marsh cinquefoil can be found at Hare Moss, and rare plants at Yetholm Loch include cowbane, a tall hairless and poisonous hogweed-like plant, and greater spearwort with its buttercup yellow flowers. Mammals Falls of Clyde Loch of the Lowes Montrose Basin Otters can be seen from the bird hides at both Visitor Centre & Visitor Centre & Visitor Centre & Bemersyde Moss and Yetholm Loch. Visitors Wildlife Reserve Wildlife Reserve Wildlife Reserve should be able to see roe deer at Pease Dean. Breathtaking woodland Each spring, ospreys arrive Each winter, walks along the and the observation hide migratory birds arrive Birds River Clyde gorge offers stunning views of the en masse. The interactive and a visitor centre eyrie. The visitor centre display explains the wildlife Until recently, Bemersyde Otter guarantees a ensures a truly of the Basin. Moss was the summer home fantastic day out. unforgettable experience. G Rossie Braes, to 15,000 pairs of breeding black-headed gulls. G New Lanark, G Dunkeld, Montrose, Unfortunately the colony has declined in Lanarkshire ML11 9DB Perthshire PH8 OHH Angus DD10 9TJ recent years and now only a few hundred G tel: 01555 665262 G tel: 01350 727337 G tel: 01674 676336 birds remain. During the winter Bemersyde G email: G email: G email: Wigeon Moss has wigeon, teal, goldeneye, tufted duck [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] and pochard. Greylag geese feed in the fields adjacent to the reserve. Little grebe and moorhen breed in Hare Moss and Scottish Wildlife Trust in the winter you can see goldeneye and tufted duck. Winter arrivals Cramond House, Cramond Glebe Road, Edinburgh EH4 6NS G tel: 0131 312 7765 G fax: 0131 312 8705 G email: [email protected] to Yetholm Loch include goosander, goldeneye and whooper swan. Scottish Wildlife Trust is a registered charity (No. SC005792) Pease Dean is home to a range of woodland birds including great spotted woodpecker, jay, woodcock, treecreeper and marsh tit. Scottish Wildlife Trust dedicates itself to Scottish Wildlife Trust is a member of the protection of Scotland’s wildlife The Wildlife Trusts, a partnership of 47 Insects and the natural environment. Scottish independent Wildlife Trusts and 100 Wildlife Trust is Scotland’s leading Urban Wildlife Groups. The Wildlife Forty species of water beetle have been recorded wildlife conservation organisation with Trusts have more than 500,000 at Hare Moss including the rare Laccornis more than 26,500 members and 120 members and care for more than oblongus. Two notable species of diptera (true wildlife reserves throughout Scotland. 2,500 wildlife reserves. flies) have been found at Pease Dean, Oxyrca pardalino and Sympyenus spiculatus. Butterflies seen in the Borders include the S co us northern brown argus, ringlet and Scotch argus. tch arg We choose our paper carefully. This leaflet is printed on environmentally friendly stock. Protecting Scotland’s wildlife for the future Photography: Niall Benvie, Laurie Campbell, Stuart Glen, Perthshire Picture Agency, Darin Smith, T Norman Tait www.swt.org.uk SWT BORDERS POSTER/12 7/12/05 8:16 PM Page 2 Pease Dean Pease Dean, situated above Scottish Borders Pease Bay, has two distinct arms, Pease Burn and Tower Burn. The open valley nearer the sea is mainly grassland with gorse and alder, and further Area map upstream the valley is steeper and more wooded. Reserve maps Bemersyde Moss Bemersyde Moss, four miles east of Melrose, is a long, narrow strip of shallow open Map reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. water and marsh surrounded © Crown copyright and database right 2005. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100028223. by willow scrub, reeds and marsh vegetation. The Hare Moss Yetholm Loch hide on the south side provides Hare Moss lies two miles south Yetholm Loch, six miles excellent of Selkirk and is a shallow lochan southeast of Kelso, is a shallow views of the formed after the outlet was loch in a small, crescent- marsh. dammed. In 2003 some of the shaped valley. The floating conifers were harvested to create swamp at the southern end of open areas around the lochan, the loch gradually gives way to making the site more fen and willow scrub. attractive to There is a hide on waterfowl. the northwest shore allowing good views of birds on the open water. These reserves are just a collection of SWT reserves in this area. To find out about our other reserves, please visit our website at www.swt.org.uk.