East Lothian Council Countryside Rangers

Another fantastic day for the Junior Explorers. Today we played more environmental games, created natural art with rock paint, charcoal and hapa zome as well as woodland and beach art. We’ve quickly learned that no day would be complete without a game of stealth and a snack in the hammocks!

It was a great first day for our Junior Explorers Discovery Week! After getting to know one another and the site, we had an introduction to fire lighting, played some environmental games, put up and hung out in our hammocks and ended the day with a game of stealth!

It’s around this time of year when you will find rangers looking into a quadrat with a book in hand, monitoring plants! Here we were undertaking 10 random quadrats around a fixed grid reference. This survey work is done annually to assess the success of the conservation grazing by the Exmoor ponies.

Here are some beautiful butterflies to look out for in the countryside this weekend: dark green fritillaries, small skippers and speckled woods. Many thanks to Abbie Marland for the photos.

Next weeks Junior Explorers is fully booked and we only have a few spaces remaining for the others. https://eastlothian.bookinglive.com/…/r an…/junior-explorers/

There was a big group of over 20 Aberlady Bay volunteers on Sunday who all did great work in removing 22 bags of the introduced and invasive plant, Two-spined Acaena, from the sand dunes at Gullane Bents. This plant threatens to crowd out the diverse, native flora and so we’re on a mission to try to get rid of it. We also celebrated volunteer Howard’s 80th birthday! Many thanks to Abbie for the photos.

If you’re interested in learning more about some of the beautiful wildflowers around at the moment, then why not join Ranger Tara for a walk at John Muir Country Park on Sunday?

Ranger Sam helped with Law Primary’s Social Enterprise event.

Here is another case of flytipping that we have had to deal with on our sites. There are more than 60,000 cases of flytipping every year in Scotland, and these are just the ones that are reported! Most of the time it is at the cost of the environment, not just the taxpayer.

One slightly more unpleasant aspect of visiting the countryside is the risk of picking up ticks. Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection, which can be transferred to humans by an infected tick, and cases are on the rise. This disease can be incredibly debilitating if not diagnosed and treated. This BBC programme discusses the issues and explains how GP’s in Scotland are being made aware of the symptoms to better diagnose and treat. https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/disclosure-seri es-1-9-under-the-skin