272 May 2017 - Gryffe Advertizer

50 the advertizer t: 01505 613340 07731 923970 e: info@advertizer.co.uk
Welcome to Scotland’s largest Regional Park
Spring Starts: The summer season got
underway with a busy weekend at the
start of April, since then there have been
Model Boat Championships, Bird Ringing
Demonstrations, Spring Sailability Regatta,
Easter Entertainment and Pedal the Park
100km Sportive to name just some of the
events and activities of the last month. Please look on our website for
forth coming events or pick up a summer whats on guide at a Visitor
Centre.
Summer Hours: The Park’s 3 Visitor Centres are open the following
hours: Castle Semple is open daily 10am – 5pm and Greenock and
Muirshiel are open weekends and public holidays 11am – 4pm. With the
lighter nights coming in we have lots of opportunity for you to get outside
and walk, run or cycle.
Ride 63 Community Cycle Club: Report that Tuesday evening is the
current ride night, meeting outside RT Cycles in Glengarnock at 6.20pm
or at Castle Semple at 6.40pm exact route depends on the weather and
who shows up. The 2017 club ride calendar can be seen on the Club
noticeboard at Castle Semple Visitor Centre. Contact the club on the
‘group style facebook page’ or email the secretary ridesixtythree@gmail.
com for a membership form and ride info.
Clyde Muirshiel Munchkins: This month this Brand NEW Pre 5’s Nature
Club will splash in to the pond to see what creatures call it home. Meet
at the Greenock Cut Visitor Centre on Wednesday 24th May, full details
including booking can be done online.
Keep Safe: Castle Semple Visitor Centre is now a ‘Keep Safe’ location
to help people with a disability feel safe in the community. A window
sticker lets folk know Castle Semple is a suitable place to come if they
feel threatened or vulnerable. Look here for www.iammescotland.co.uk
more information.
Looking Ahead:
Summer holiday outdoor activity courses are booking up but there are still
spaces available. Why not keep your kids busy and give them a taste of
outdoor adventure in the holidays, all courses can be booked using the
online booking system.
10k Bog Stomp Run takes place on Sunday 3rd September from the
Greenock Cut Visitor Centre, online entry is up and running at www.
clydemuirshiel.co.uk/event/bog-stomp-2017.
Tag-n-Track Project update
Spring has definitely sprung with the arrival of many of our migratory
birds. Willow warblers, chiffchaffs and swallows have all been spotted
and the lesser black-backed gulls are taking up territories and starting to
build nests on rooftops.
May is going to be a busy month for the project as we will be catching 12
adult gulls to fit with satellite tags. Our aim is to catch adults on the nest,
fit them with a tag, metal BTO ring and a colour ID ring before releasing
them to carry on nesting and rearing chicks. We will then make regular
weekly visits to see if we can spot them from a distance by looking for the
colour rings to see that the tags are not having any effect on their breeding
attempts. The tags we are going to be using are GSM satellite tags which
will take a fix on the gull’s positions up to 5 times a day. This data is then
relayed through the mobile phone network back to our computers. We
are expecting the birds to frequent their nesting sites during the summer
and then, in the autumn, the juicy data will start to come in.
By this point you are probably wondering why we are tagging gulls…well
did you know that the lesser black-backed gull leaves our shores in the
autumn and migrates to sunnier climes such as Portugal, Benidorm and
even The Gambia? Our project wants to highlight these movements that
this species makes by engaging the public. Gulls have a bad reputation
but many of the problems are actually caused by us rather than the gulls.
We will be doing regular social media and website updates letting people
know where the individual gulls are as well as working with schools in
Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire. So keep an eye out for
gulls with white rings with red writing and let us know if you spot any. We
are also looking for volunteers to help us with a variety of project tasks
such as camera trapping monitoring, gull spotting and more. If you fancy
learning a new skill and want to find out more then please contact us on
the details below.
In other news the project was visited
by the Cotton Club (an older adult
recreational group) who enjoyed an
afternoon of bird ringing with siskins,
blue tits and long-tailed tits all putting
in an appearance. We also ran another
public demonstration in April which was
our busiest yet for visitors.
Unfortunately it was very windy and birds were few and far between.
This didn’t dampen the spirits of many avid visitors who were very patient
and happy to enjoy being in the Visitor Centre. We managed to capture
some more siskins and retrapped a coal tit that was ringed in September
2016 and a female
long-tailed tit that
was captured a
week before. Our
thanks goes out to
Bill Crookston and
Natalie McAlindon
who have taken
some of the bird
photos that you see in this and last month’s articles.
Event News
Our next ringing events will take place at Muirshiel Country Park on
Saturday the 6th of May between 10am and 3.30pm and Greenock Cut
Visitor Centre on Sunday the 7th of May between 10.30am and 3.30pm.
There will also be a ringing demonstration as part of the Waunder’ful
Woods day at Muirshiel Visitor Centre on the 21st of May between 11am
and 3pm. Please do come along and see what surprise birds we get in
the net this time. If you can’t join us on these days then keep an eye out
for our stand at the Kilmacolm show on Saturday 13th May and Gourock
Highland Games on Sunday 14th May.
More Info…
Details can be found on the Park’s website www.clydemuirshiel.co.uk/tagn-track
or by emailing tnt@clydemuirshiel.co.uk. The Project also now
has its own Facebook Page which can be found at www.facebook.com/
TagnTrack/
Talks to groups can be arranged if you are interested in finding out more
about the project and its findings as the project progresses.
Keep up to speed with events and activities taking place on the Park’s Facebook: facebook.com/ClydeMuirshielRegionalPark or
Twitter @Clydemuirshiel pages and Instagram pages.