issue no.24 www.damstodarnley.org Take a flutter by your country park


Welcome to our twenty fourth edition of Wagtail, the newsletter and events calendar for Dams to Darnley Country Park.


Inside you will find:


– Spring events look back – Dams to Dali – Wildlife witter – A watersports centre for Balgray Reservoir? – Commonwealth Games Medal Routes


– Spotlight on common sorrel – Summer events calendar


The next edition of Wagtail will be out in autumn 2014.


Small tortoiseshell butterfly. Raining on our parade Dams to Dali


ThE RAiN WAS iNCESSANT the day we decided to make homes for bugs and birds and the clouds made our astronomy night a bit disappointing after the perfect weather of last year’s event. At our ‘citizen scientist’ event we sampled for invertebrates in the Brock Burn and then had a classroom session looking through microscopes at what we had found. The rain returned briefly


on our cycle event through the country park but the group managed to make it from Darnley to the Balgray Reservoir car park and back. Well done to all! This year we decided to have our Easter event in Cowan Park and it was a great success. The children managed to do the obstacle course with their


Citizen scientists at work.


eggs and some even went round several times. We will have to make it more difficult next year! It was a 4.30am start


for the countryside rangers at our dawn chorus walk. This time we were lucky with the weather and, with a little help from Carol Monger from the RSPB, we identified lots of birds. Finally our annual frog and toad spawn event got the children hopping as they took part in a number of games.


hAS ANyoNE NoTiCEd strange goings on in the country park? Have you seen a rain gauge made from a milk carton, a face made from brushes on a log or sticks woven through a fence to make a picture? Environmental art has


been popping up all over the country park in the last six months. It adds a bit of fun when you pass by and puts a smile on your face. See what you can spot on your next walk. Or why not create some of your own? If you decide to make


something be sure not to use unnatural objects like litter, these can spoil the wild feel of the country park. You can use leaves, twigs, rocks and any other natural items to make your masterpiece. You can make it hidden in the woods or easily seen next to a path.


Environmental art has been popping up within the country park.


We will look out for your


art works over the next month and post pictures of anything we see on the country park’s Facebook page.


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