Markets and Maintenance

This month we had the opportunity to educate some of the visitors that came to the Bowhouse Food Market with a stand showing the conservation work that Balcaskie Estate are doing to help the red listed species to thrive on our Estate. I was able to tell the visitors about the conservation work that we are doing for the Red Squirrel and a number of them were very surprised to find Red Squirrels were present in our woodlands.
We had an air-drying clay activity that allowed the visitors to select one of the local wildlife footprints and create their own imprint in the clay. We also had a number of the visitors take us up on the walk to try and identify the footprints out and about in the surrounding areas of Bowhouse.
We had a great time at Bowhouse and look forward to doing it again!

Also this month we have carried out some land management to the Gorse bushes on the banks of Kellie Law. After surveying the land, we brought in Remote Services Scotland to use their machinery on the hill. The purpose of the job wasn’t to eradicate the Gorse completely, like you see around the countryside, but rather to make it sustainable and easier to manage in the future. Gorse bushes are a great habitat for Bumblebees as it provides them with an almost year round food supply. It is also a great habitat for small birds providing them shelter from predators.

Given the steep angle of Kellie Law and the age of the Gorse bushes, Remote Services Scotland used a remote controlled machine to carry out the work. After only two days’ work, you can see from the picture taken using a drone, that the machine has worked extremely efficiently and has made a significant difference to the Gorse.

There has also been some forestry work carried out on the Estate by one of our local contractors HL Tree Services. The aim of this work was to open up some of the woodlands to allow light into the undergrowth to promote its recovery and also to allow access into some of the older, beautiful trees contained within the woodland to preserve them for generations to come. This work will be ongoing for the next month or so.