Spring at Muirshiel

Spring finally arrrived up at Muirshiel in April, with the appearance of the wildflowers on the bankings at the roadside, all the way from the old quarry, up to Muirshiel Country Park.
Mainly Primroses but lots of Dog Violets as well.
On one of the warmer days at the end of April, we went out around the 'Bilberry' areas looking for any early Green Hairstreak Butterflies which might have been around - we did find a couple of early specimens but mostly it was White-tailed, Red-tailed and Buff-tailed Bumblebees which we recorded flying around.
Patch was with us on the survey as when he moved through the vegetation slightly ahead of us - the butterflies would be disturbed and fly up - giving us the chance to see them, However at this point he was 'cheating' by walking along the top of a long fallen tree trunk!!!

The other thing which shows it is Spring - is the arrival of
the Seasonal Rangers!!
They are from left to right - Richie, Colin[hiding], Andy, Stephen, Jesse and Elidh spotted here checking out Muirshiel Country Park and having a little look for any Hen Harrier which might be passing!

SNOW COVERED MOORLANDS AT MUIRSHIEL Feb 2009

This was the view that greated me as I made my way to work back in February - Snow, snow, and more snow!
It was magical once I got to work, as no-one else had been out and about since the snowfall apart from the birds and animals. - no footprints anywhere.
In the afternoon, I headed up part of the road towards the old mines up on the moors. Snow covered everything and it all looked clean and crisp and brilliantly white in the strong [but cool] sunshine.
At the riverside it was hard to believe the size of the icicles. These ones are about 6foot [2metres] in length!
This was the good side of snow - the bad side was it was COLD!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a view of the Calder river valley taken from Muirshiel Regional Park.

This is a wonderful place to visit - about five miles up in the hills behind Lochwinnoch, and less than 20 miles from Glasgow City Centre. It is so peaceful and tranquil most of the time.

Apart from the cars which come to visit the centre, and the occasional plane flying overhead, there is virtually no non-natural sounds. In fact if one walks up the track on the far side of the park, which leads to an old Barytes mine, it is possible to hear nothing but the sounds of Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and the insects visiting the heather flowers..........and the odd sheep bleating too!

It is well worth a visit especially between now (23rd June ) and mid july, as there are some cctv cameras on a Hen Harriers nest in the region, and they are beaming back LIVE footage of the birds. We had 3 chicks hatch out over the last week, the last one on thursday afternoon - to an audience of 12 people who had dropped in to visit and were watching the screens at the time!!

Some of the trails are in 'mature' wooded areas, others are through young plantations, and yet others go through areas of cleared conifer woods which have been replanted with native deciduous trees.