Stirling Members Centre Annual Newsletter
(Based on the Chairman's Report for April 2010 - April 2011) 

1.  Membership

Local membership has risen from 676 households in 2010 to 705 in 2011.

2. Talks and Outings

We have had another series of excellent talks with audiences between 25-45 including a good number of non-members.  The programme covered the following topics:

  • Saving our Wonderful Seas
  • BTO's Garden Bird Project
  • Conservation in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park
  • The Conservation of Rare Scottish Plants
  • SWT's Beaver Trial
  • Uses of Wild Plants in Medicine

 

 
  A walk in SWT's Carron Glen Reserve
Next year, 2011-12, the Raploch Community Campus has been booked for our talks on the 1st Tuesday in the month which will no longer clash with Callander SWT.

We arranged a series of local 'nature rich walks' one of which was featured on BBC Scotland's Out of Doors programme. Wildlife highlights included smew on Linlithgow Loch, green hairstreak butterflies, cuckoos and grasshopper warblers on the Ochils, globeflowers and toothwort in Carron Glen and Grass of Parnassus at Geordies Wood.

3. Conservation, Local Biodiversity Action Plans and Wildlife
The group's main practical conservation work involved scrub and rank grass removal from Flanders Moss, Bridge of Allan orchid bank, Callander lesser butterfly orchid sites, and Balgair Muir frog orchid colony. We also helped with work in Lower Wood, Bridge of Allan, the bumblebee garden at Argaty and reed removal on our Cambus Pools reserve.


The PLANT (Plant Local Action NeTwork) group continued its annual monitoring of endangered species at over 30 local sites during the summer of 2010.  A report of the surveys of species conservation concern like the lesser butterfly orchid, juniper, early marsh orchid, corn marigold and Clacks rarity, the sticky catchfly, were published in the Forth Naturalist and Historian.		 
  Strimming reeds at Cambus
Surveys were carried out to determine the pollinators of local populations of lesser and greater butterfly orchids, frog orchids and broad leaved helleborine. The associated overnight family moth trapping event run by the Ranger Service at Plean Country Park butterfly orchid meadow was a great success.

The SWT is represented at the meetings of both Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire's Biodiversity Action Plan steering committees.
Our contribution to the Clacks BAP is limited to conservation work on our reserves at Alloa Inch, Tullibody Inch and Cambus Pools together with annual monitoring of orchid sites. During the year we were delighted to be involved in the re-establishment of the Stirling Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Guy Harewood, Stirling's Biodiversity Officer. We helped organise the BAP Species Forum, a workshop at which 55 local experts (including a number of members) drew up lists of species of conservation concern and prioritised projects for the new round of action plans. The contribution of the Stirling SWT group to the juniper, frog orchid and lesser butterfly orchid action plans was acknowledged in the Stirling Council BAP Progress Report 2000-2010. Our organisation of three plant ID training courses involving 75 people was also noted. 
 Our juniper conservation actions featured on the front of Stirling BAP's Progress Report.  
Responsibility of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park BAP was handed over to Callander MC's new committee.

Our campaign to get Pirri Pirri bur and American Skunk Cabbage recognised as aggressive alien species, seems to be bearing fruit.

4. Protecting Wildlife Interests Associated with Local Authority
   Planning

A network of members is in place to screen local Council planning applications.

We have commented on a number of major Stirling and Clacks planning proposals including the Beauly to Denny power line and objected to the Black Devon Wind Turbine application.

We were involved in consultation workshops concerned with defining the environmental policies of both Clacks and Stirling Councils for their new Local Development Plans. We hope to get Local Nature Conservation Sites identified in the planning procedures of both councils.

Stirling Council's New Local Development Plan proposals contained a large number of preferred development sites. We arranged for members to visit these and where appropriate we have commented on potential wildlife interests. We have also helped a number of local community groups respond to these proposals and to other planning issues.

We were interviewed by consultants charged with identifying Stirling Council's Green Corridors. They were keen to obtain information about past and proposed Local Nature Conservation Sites and we provided the data they required.

We were involved as stake holders with the development of Community Plans in Kings Park, Plean Country Park and Bridge of Allan. Proposals were submitted for wildlife management in Plean Country Park.

 5. Watch Group

Stirling's successful Watch Group continues to put on monthly programme to which the MC contributed a pond dipping event at Airthrey Loch. The children also talked about their John Muir Award projects at SWT's AGM in Edinburgh.
The presentations varied from films of them undertaking conservation work to an investigation as to whether native plants were hosts to more insects than introduced species. The organisation of the group has been transferred from Clare Abel to Debbie Spray and Jess. Sue Hunter has also been trained to be a leader. They have had problems funding meeting places and so have adopted a mainly outdoor programme and are also limiting the age group to over eights.

 
 Families trapping the moths that pollinate butterfly orchids at Plean
7. Our Local Reserves

 
Alloa Inch: (Convenor Roy Sexton). This 100 acre island reserve in the river Forth continues to attract large numbers of geese, ducks and waders. The experimental barrier which was constructed to reduce erosion on the upstream bank was reasonably successful and remained in place through a series of major river flows. A new management plan for the reserve was written in 2011.
 
Alloa inch was once a flourishing farm which was protected from the tidal waters by 2m high surrounding banks.  These were breached in the 1980s when it became flooded at high tides and was converted into a 100 acre salt marsh.  This now provides shelter for huge flocks of geese, ducks and waders.  In spring it resembles a snow field covered with the white flowers of sea scurvey grass which in autum is transformed to sheets of purple when the sea aster flowers.
Cambus Pools: (Convenor Roger Gooch). These ponds at the side of the Forth at Cambus continue to be overwhelmed by reeds.

An experimental regime of cutting with brush cutters was undertaken in Autumn 2010. The meadows were not grazed in 2010 further encouraging the spread of reeds, however a grant proposal has been submitted to The Clackmannanshire and Stirling Environment Trust (Administrators of Landfill Tax) for fencing so that cattle could be sited there.		 
7. The Committee

 
Thanks are due for the enormous amount of work done by the committee and particularly by our treasurer Bryan Hill who sadly died during the year.
Vice Chairman:
Treasurer:
Membership Secretary:
Secretary:
Watch Group:
Committee Members:
Chairman:
Roger Gooch
Bryan Hill and Liz Albert
Jan Harbidge
Sue Sexton (sextonsp@aol.com)
Clare Abel, Debbie Spray
Tony Rogers, Heather Young
Roy Sexton

Items from Previous Newsletters
 
August 2010

International Year of Biodiversity and the 2010 Biodiversity Target.  How are we doing locally?

The UN has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (resolution 61/203). This coincides with the target which was adopted by Heads of State and Government at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 "To achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010". So how are we doing in the UK and what has been our local record in Central Scotland. 
To monitor UK progress towards these objectives a suite of 18 indicators was selected. Public expenditure on biodiversity projects is one way of assessing the priority given by government and UK wide it has risen by 124% since 2001. In the local context we were delighted that both Stirling and Clacks Councils have just re-appointed biodiversity officers in spite of their budgetary constraints. However there does not seem to be adequate funding at present to set up a Central Scotland Local Wildlife Record Centre which would allow planners to avoid unnecessary habitat and species destruction.  Positive changes have also been recorded in the area of countryside with statutory wildlife protection which has increased from 2.3 to 3.8 million hectares. The designation of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park provides a local illustration of this increase. The amount of woodland in the UK under sustainable management has also risen by 8% and here Scotland leads the way with 56% of woodlands in this category.
 
Corn Bunting picture kindly supplied by Stuart Andrews
Locally the Woodland Trust is an example of an organization doing a great job re-afforesting Glen Finglas and Glenquey.

The indicators showing trends in the components of biodiversity are generally less favourable. UK's breeding farmland birds have declined over both the short and long term and although locally we have not suffered as much as some, we no longer have corncrakes and corn buntings. To try and reverse this loss the RSPB has been active in encouraging farmers to sow wild seed cover and by providing local tree sparrow feeding stations.  As reported in the last newsletter we have also experienced a decline in a number of wetland birds on the Forth and this is in line with another of the UK monitoring trends. Our SWT reserves llike Alloa Inch help moderate this loss.

Nationally plant diversity continues to suffer a reduction in the species richness of broadleaved woodland and wild flower rich grassland. Herb Paris and Yellow Star of Bethlehem are two beautiful woodland plants that we fear have become extinct in local woodlands.

 One site was affected by a drainage scheme and a second was lost when building debris was dumped in a steep glen.  Our local grasslands are perhaps our most degraded habitats, the result of decades of dranage schemes, application of fertilizers, ovegrazing by sheep, afforestation and destruction by developers.  We have recently repeated two Victorian wildfloer recording trips to grasslands on the Touch Hills and Ochils and the comparisons show what wildflower deserts they have become.  Our continuing disregard for our biodiversity legacy is illustrated by the plight of what once were some of the best greater butterfly orchid (GBO) meadows in the UK.
 Herb Paris
 

In Stirlingshire we are about to lose one to a housing development at Plean and another is subject to a planning proposal in Kippen - which just leaves us with the meadow in Plean Country Park. Similarly in Clacks, one site is the subject of a planning proposal, one was lost to a trail bike track and another has become overgrown through lack of grazing. For the first time no flowering GBOs were found in Clacks last year.

There is a danger of assuming that reversing the present headlong decline in biodiversity is just a concern in the rainforests of the third world and that local and national government has our UK and Forth Valley sitution under control. The glimpses given of some of the local losses show this is definitey not the case.  Habitats and species are best conserved as a result of local communities being aware of where they are and valuing them enough to be prepared to fight for them.  This must be your role - the SWT members - to be guardians of your local patch.  So please keep an eye out and alert your committtee (sextonsp@aol.com) if anything seems threatened.


March 2010

Monitoring the Internationally Important Wintering Wetland Bird Populations in the Forth Estuary
Viewers of BBC's Spring and Autumn Watch programmes will be familiar with the enormous flocks of geese, swans, ducks and waders that migrate to over-winter in the UK before returning to their breeding areas in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Western Russia etc. Some of these birds just stop off to rest and refuel on their way further south but the majority stay on our estuaries, lakes and flooded countryside.
 Goldeneye (Neil Calbrade/BTO)  
In winter the UK hosts internationally important numbers of many types of wetland bird (i.e. more than 1% of all the individuals of that species).  This is because we have nearly a third of Europe's estuaries and compared with Northern and Eastern Europe our winters are relatively mild leaving the feeding sites unfrozen.  The concentration of all these water birds into relatively few sites provides the opportunity to monitor their populations and once a month throughout the winter just over 3000 volunteers go out to allocated sites and count the different species.  In our Members Centre area 44 volunteers are involved monitoring the Forth, Teith and Devon rivers.  This scheme has been running fior 60 years and is currently known as the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) which is co-ordinated by a team of professionals based at the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) HQ in Thetford.

In the UK, 218 "principal sites" have been identified as supporting 10,000 waterbirds or internationally important numbers of at least one species.  Of these the Forth Estuary ranks 12th with a five year average of 85,000 birds compared with 368,000 in the Wash and 120,000 in the Solway.  We have internationally
 important numbers of Pink-footed and Icelandic Greylag Geese, Shelduck, Slavonian Grebe, Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone and Redshank.  In addition, seventeen other species are defined as nationally important and, of these, we have the biggest GB populations of Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe and Shag.
 The WeBS Alerts system identifies species that have undergone major reductions in numbers. A "High Alert" is issued if the population of any species declines by more than 50% over the short (5yrs), medium (10yrs) or long (25yrs) term.  Worryingly in the most recent report:
(http://www.bto.org/webs/alerts/) a whole series of Forth species have triggered this alert including Scaup, Great Crested Grebe, Common Scoter, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Golden and Grey Plover, Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit.
Red-breasted Merganser (Jill Pakenham/BTO)
 
Fortunately there are also a few species which are increasing like the Curlew and Velvet Scoter.  If a decline is common to all the birds' UK sites then a generic cause is implicated such as adverse conditions in the breeding grounds. However if the Forth population is declining while the UK population is static then a local cause is more likely. Along the Forth, pressure from developments like the new bridges and disturbance due to easier access, are given as reasons for the decline. Ironically improving the water quality has also probably been detrimental to some species. For example the discharge of spent grain from breweries and distilleries used to provide a great source of food for some ducks.
 

Under treaty obligations specified in the EC Birds Directive (1979) and the International Ramsar Convention (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) the bird populations in the Firth of Forth require automatic designation as both a Ramsar Site and an SPA (EC Special Protection Areas). This gives them the highest level of protection with the possibility of EC fines if we are in default. The Scottish Wildlife Trust plays its part in this conservation activity having three wetland bird reserves in the upper Forth estuary at Alloa Inch, Tullibody Inch and Cambus Pools.
Shelduck (Jill Pakenham/BTO)  
Alloa Inch is a 100 acre island just upstream of the town. Once a productive farm it was abandoned when flooded by salty river water. Now it hosts thousands of geese particularly in spring when flocks from the south use it as a stop over as they migrate north.  Unfortunately it is difficult to get across to the island but large numbers of wetland birds can be seen from the footpaths which follow the river banks from Cambus upstream to our Cambus Pools reserve and down stream to Alloa Inch.
 
More Volunteers Wanted to Monitor Garden Birds

BTO urgently needs more Scots to become Garden Birdwatchers to monitor both birds and other wildlife in their gardens. The information is collected on a weekly basis either on-line or by paper forms and takes only minutes of your time. It enables BTO to support informed conservation and is a great way to increase your knowledge and interest in the creatures which share our gardens. Like many good things it costs a little - around 30p per week - which includes an excellent quarterly magazine. Please contact the editor for details or go to www.bto.org/gbw. Warning - this activity becomes addictive!
  Blue Tit (FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
November 2009

Here Come the Girls - Influx of Painted Ladies
Elegant painted lady butterflies with their black, white and tawny wing markings are usually seen on sunny late summer days, nectaring on Buddleia or knapweeds with red admirals, small tortoiseshells and peacocks. This year however, after a population explosion in their North African breeding grounds we saw one of the greatest immigration events of the last 50 years. 
Millions headed north in a butterfly tidal wave which spread across an 850 mile wide front from Ireland to Poland. Moving at a rate of about 100 miles per day thousands per hour were arriving in south coast gardens in late May and a few days later they could be counted by the hundred as far north as Durness. The good weather during this period encouraged these adventurous pioneers and sightings were recorded in St Kilda, the Faroes and even Iceland during the beginning of June. By August the initial migrants, now rather tattered and faded, had bred, giving us a second batch of fresh young adults. If you spotted painted ladies this year please record them at: www.butterfly-conservation.org

Out of Sight, Out of Mind? …. Conserving Rare Fish
Stirling Members Centre area includes several internationally important water bodies and with them goes the responsibility for conserving the wide range of specialist organisms they contain. The following examples of rare fish illustrate that although they are out of sight they are subjected to many of the same pressures - habitat loss, pollution, alien invader species - as land animals.

The Powan is a distinctive Scottish variety of the freshwater whitefish which was confined to Loch Lomond and Loch Eck. Growing up to 46cm long it has a dark bluish back, pale silvery underside and striking dark fins. Currently numbers are in serious decline because of predation by ruffe, a small member of the perch family. This invasive alien is thought to have been introduced by pike fishermen as live bait. It eats powan eggs and competes with the adults for food. Thanks to the foresight of a few dedicated conservationists, protected populations of powan have now been established in Carron Valley Reservoir and Loch Sloy.  Loch Lomond also contains a unique population of River Lampreys members of which, instead of spending part of their life at sea, live entirely in fresh water

The Arctic Charr which is related to both salmon and trout takes its name from the Gaelic for the breeding male's red belly. Our native fish are non-migratory, populations having survived in lochs with cold, well-oxygenated water since the end of the last Ice Age. Locally Charr are still found in Lochs Doine, Voil and Lubnaig, but sadly the Loch Katrine population is probably extinct. The fish is given little protection in law and there has been a steady loss of populations probably as a result of water engineering works, pollution, afforestation, trout stocking and climate change.

 
 Arctic Charr painted by Robin Ade © P S Maitland

Sparling or smeltAs a result of pollution local numbers plummeted in the 60s and 70s but glad to say they are increasing again as the river quality improves is a small silvery fish 10-20cm long which inhabits clean estuaries and comes upstream to spawn in freshwater. Originally there were 16 Scottish estuarine locations though currently the fish is confined to the Forth, Tay and Cree.  Sparling seem to occur throughout the Forth estuary but assemble in the upper estuary near Alloa in late February migrating into fresh water to spawn in March. It is not known where the current spawning beds are.


August 2009

 
Breeding Nuthatches
In last autumn's newsletter we reported that residents of Bridge of Allan and the University had seen nuthatches on their bird feeders.  During Jan - March they were rarely seen but after hearing their distinctive call in April breeding pairs were found in both Mine and Hermitage Woods. Nuthatches use old holes in trees as nests and plaster up the entrance with mud until they can scarcely squeeze inside.

 
  Picture kindly supplied by Lewis Thomson
The range of nuthatches has gradually been moving north.  The limit of breeding pairs at the end of the 19th century was Harrogate in Yorkshire and by the early years of the 20th century they had spread to Durham.  There was suitable woodland habitat in Scotland - indeed the Duke of Argyll tried to introduce them at Inverary.  They finally crossed into the Borders in 1989 and rapidly colonized the woodlands so five years later 220 pairs were recorded.  We now find ourselves at the leading edge of this march north and if local breeding is successful we can look forward to more of these lovely birds in our gardens this autumn.  We would be very interested to hear from anyone who has seen nuthatches locally - are there any in Clacks or Western Villages?  If you are near well-established deciduous woodland particularly with beech (beechmast is a favourite food) you may see them.

Did you hear any Cuckoos this year? 
 
Cuckoos can still be heard on Flanders Moss and in the Trossachs but they seem to have become very rare around Stirling and in the Hillfoots.  Is this a symptom of another species in decline? Mandy Cook of the British Trust for Ornithology whose Scottish office is based at Stirling University confirmed that theBreeding Bird Survey (BBS)  shows  UK cuckoo abundance has been falling since the early 1980s. As a result the species has recently been moved from amber to red status on the list of the Birds of Conservation Concern.
Cuckoo being mobbed by a pipit. Picture kindly supplied by Martin Bennett
Although the BBS shows a continuing strong reduction in England and Wales there is an apparent increase in Scotland particularly in the north. The general decline has been attributed to a corresponding fall in Dunnock and Meadow Pipit populations which incubate cuckoo eggs. There has also been a decrease of the moths whose big hairy caterpillars provide vital food supplies for returning adult birds.

March 2009
 

Waxwing Invasion
 
 There can be few sights more guaranteed to cheer up a dull winter's day than a flock of waxwings gorging on rowan or hawthorn berries. During November and December these beautiful birds have been seen in flocks of up to 200 in the centre of Stirling and Dunblane. They are pinkish brown, about the size of starlings but with a prominent crest and yellow, black and red markings. Waxwings do not appear every winter, only during "invasion" years when birds migrate here from Scandinavia. Our sporadic influxes are caused initially by warm weather in their breeding grounds in Scandinavia, Finland and Western Siberia.
Ron McCombe www.wildlife-photography.uk.com
 

This results in high chick survival rates together with a good rowan berry set which sustains the birds through the winter. When these birds breed the next summer the population increases still further. Unfortunately the rowans suffer from biennial bearing i.e. they get "tired out" by their previous exertions and produce a poor crop of berries in the second year. This shortage of winter food induces a mass migration into eastern Scotland from where the birds eat their way south and west. Waxwings ringed in Aberdeen in November were spotted in Yorks, Lancs and Suffolk a few weeks later. In both Stirling and Dunblane the flocks have been seen on the berried trees planted around Tesco's but a national survey has shown a preference for Morrisons car parks! A look back through the annual Forth Area Bird Reports indicate that there have been 11 invasions in the last 34 years of which several occurred in consecutive winters, so if you missed them this time keep an eye out next autumn.

Central Scotland Barn Owl Project

Over the last 15 years Mike Steward of SWT Callander Branch has been the coordinator of a programme aimed at increasing the numbers of barn owls in Central Scotland. The purpose of the project was to provide new nest sites because the barn owl's traditional sites in old buildings and large holes in trees were becoming increasingly scarce. Two types of boxes were erected: one inside buildings and a more substantial weather resistant design which is attached to trees. The boxes are large and heavy, having to providing enough room for 3-6 adult size young owls as well as their parents.

 
Mike started the project back in 1990 whilst working with the Forestry Commission (FCS) when he was involved in erecting 100+ boxes on their land. Initially there were only 4 known breeding pairs of barn owls in the Stirling area but by 2006 this had increased to 39 of which 23 pairs were in the FCS boxes.In 2005 the programme was expanded to provide new nest sites throughout the Stirling, Clackmannan and Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park (LLTNP) areas. In part this was necessary to accommodate all the offspring from FCS sites that were searching for new territories.   Stirling Landfill Tax Trust funded 20 nest boxes in 2006 and Barn Owls of Lowland Scotland (BOOLS) provided a further 27 boxes in Stirling and Clacks areas. This year 20 more boxes have been provided by both Clackmannanshire and Stirling Environment Trust and the LL&TNP for the southern part of the National Park.The breeding success of barn owls follows very closely the highs and lows of the field vole population, their chief prey species. These peak every 3 years (approx) and with this abundance of food a pair of barn owls will on average fledge 3 young. However the following year the vole population crashes resulting in a reduction in the number of barn owls attempting to breed and young owls surviving.

2007 was the most successful year since local records began with 66 known breeding pairs and 179 young owls ringed. Despite a crash in vole numbers in 2008, 65 breeding pairs were recorded and 56 young owls were ringed. The current loss of set-aside land - a rich source of small mammal prey - may well have a negative effect so next years numbers will be important.

Should anyone know of any natural barn owl breeding sites in the above areas please email Mike Steward with details at: mike.stew@tiscali.co.uk






 Hand over of our Flanders Moss Reserve to Scottish Natural Heritage
 

As described in a previous newsletter we have handed over our SWT reserve on Flanders Moss to Scottish Natural Heritage and it is now integrated into the adjacent National Nature Reserve.  SWT conservation managers who have done so much to improve the moss over the past 35 years were invited to a hand-over ceremony. It was held at the new board walk which SNH have constructed over the moss to improve visitor access.  It can be reached via the gravel track signposted on the west side of the B822 Thornhill to Kippen Road about  2 km south of Thornhill (NS 6570 9793).
John Snodin &John Haddow, past reserve managers, with Dave Pickett (centre) of SNH