Rambling Russells

Today Chris Packham was coming to WWT Caerlaverock as part of his UK Bioblitz. For 10 days Chris and his team are visiting 50 wildlife sites in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales. He wants to highlight the extent to which the nation's wildlife is under threat. The results of the audits will be recorded to create a benchmark that will then help measure the rise and fall in numbers of different species in the future. WWT Caerlaverock was therefore holding a bioblitz in an attempt to record as many species on site as possible in one day. We, with other moth-ers, had been asked to set moth traps the night before and record our findings as part of the day. Other experts were there too and there was a board ready to record findings. What numbers would be on it later?? Chris was not due to arrive until later in the day so we made a start on the 7 moth traps that had been set. This took quite a time and we kept some specimens in a fish tank for the public to view during t...

Setting off for Greenock we decided to drive up the Ayrshire coast. We always enjoy the views and scenery on this route and today was no different. The first sighting of Ailsa Craig is something we always look forward to. A little further up the coast is a memorial to a Russian cruiser, The Varyag.  A famous ship that sank - for the second time - just off the coast of Lendalfoot in 1920. We enjoy this as a picnic spot overlooking the water and usually see some sort of wildlife while there. Cormorants and gulls were on the rocks along with seals. We had a short wander as well while there before heading further up the coast. A lovely day for a ride up the coast - - until we got nearer to Troon. President Trump was due to arrive tonight so we passed numerous coaches and mini-buses full of policemen and almost every road near Prestwick airport was blocked off  and guarded by policemen! We were glad we didn't run into his cavalcade actually arriving....