PICTURES and records of animal sightings are already flooding in to The Scotsman, as our June Wildlife Watch enters its second day.
While Wildlife Watch continues, British Waterways Scotland is today launching a dragonfly photography competition, The Scotsman can reveal.
Our quarterly nature survey, which ends on Monday night, is supported by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT).
Readers’ records of the wildlife they see in their gardens and in the countryside will be passed on to Biological Recording in Scotland (Brisc). The information will be distributed among Brisc’s network of local records centres and biological recorders and may be used in conservation work.
Next week, a selection of photographs and records will be published in The Scotsman.
Meanwhile, British Waterways is mounting its own survey of wildlife on the UK’s canal network and is asking for help Last year, 4,000 sightings of more than 60 different species were collected by the organisation, which has carried out surveys over the past five years.
This season’s study has a special focus on damselflies and dragonflies, which British Waterways Scotland calls the “dragons o’ the water”.
The survey is supported by the British Dragonfly Society, which is collecting information for a UK dragonflies atlas.
Dr Olivia Lassiere, the environment and heritage manager at British Waterways Scotland, said: “Visitors should look for dragonflies on sunny days, basking on fences and footpaths.
“Scotland’s canals are havens for a variety of wildlife, including herons, kingfishers, mute swans, coots, moorhens, bats, foxes, frogs, toads and newts.
“You may be lucky enough to see some of our rarer and shyer species including otters, water voles, badgers and adders.”
More details about British Waterway’s survey and photography competition can be found at
www.waterscape.com/wildlife.
HOW TO JOIN IN
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?Go outside this weekend and make a record of the wildlife you see. Either take photographs or make written notes and e-mail them to:
wildlife@scotsman.com or post to: Wildlife Watch, The Scotsman, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS. You can also e-mail videos, a selection of which may be uploaded to
scotsman.comWHAT NOTES SHOULD I TAKE?You should note down: the name of the species; the date you saw it; where you saw it (preferably including a postcode or a six-figure grid reference); and your own name and contact details. The records will be collected by The Scotsman and passed to the SWT and Brisc, which may use them in their work.
HOW CAN I TELL WHAT SPECIES IT IS? Books to help you identify wildlife are often available in libraries. The SWT and RSPB websites can also be helpful:
www.swt.org.uk and
www.rspb.org.ukThe full article contains 468 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
