What a lovely day for our first Family Explorer Walk of the year! We were at Hogganfield Park to feed and learn about the waterfowl on the loch, as well as using our 'bird mic' to attract woodland birds to us, plus a bit of frog spotting too (there are loads in the ponds at this time of year). Fingers crossed for such nice weather for our next session in April 🤞Thanks to Amanda from our partner Tcv for helping lead the session 😊

Would you like to learn how to identify the different butterflies found in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire? Butterfly Conservation are leading a workshop for Seven Lochs on identification and survey techniques; so you'll be able to tell your Comma from your Small Tortoiseshell! Saturday 21st April, 10.30am - 2.30pm Hogganfield Park. Booking is essential as places are limited; please contact info@sevenlochs.org to book.

Today the volunteers were at a very blustery Drumpellier Country Park to continue the tree planting work started a couple of weeks ago. Over the two sessions the group have planted around 300 saplings. We were also able to check up on some of the trees we've planted around the park over the last 4 years, lots of them are coming along nicely and look healthy 😊 Good work team!

Saturday 24th March is WWF's EARTH HOUR - a global movment that calls for greater action on climate change. Each year hundreds of people across the world switch off their lights and organise events to show they care about the future of our planet. Our friends at Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and our partners at Glasgow City Council at Kelvingrove Park are hosting a range of exciting, free events on Saturday evening to mark Earth Hour. JOin them to celebrate sustainability and show your support for strategies that will help solve the problem of global warming. For more info visit https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=20815 If you can't make the events but would like to support Earth Hour, you can switch off your lights for an hour on Saturday ay 8.30pm and sign up to make a promise to do something to help protect our planet. For every promise made Ariel will donate £1 to WWF - sign up and make your promise here - https:www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour/what-is-earth-hour

Today is the International Day of Forests so it's a great opportunity to highlight the fantastic woodlands within the Seven Lochs area! Forestry Commission Scotland manage 5 woodlands across the park which are great for wildlife spotting and exploring. Check out this link for more information http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/easterhouse-woods

On 20th March 1998 Hogganfield Loch was declared a Local Nature Reserve. Happy birthday Hogganfield! To celebrate we can announce that Glasgow City Council has extended the designation to cover more areas of the park. This recognises the work that the council - working with Friends of Glasgow's LNRs, Seven Lochs and others - has done over the last few years to improve Hogganfield as a great place for people and nature. Join us for Hogganfield's big nature birthday party on Sunday13th May - 11am-3pm.

It's beginning to feel like winter is finally behind us, which is just as well as today is the spring equinox; the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere! Equinox is a Latin word meaning equal, as today we have (roughly) 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. So from here on in the days are getting longer folks!! Take a look at the article below for some interesting traditions surrounding spring :) http://metro.co.uk/2018/03/20/celebrate-the-spring-equinox-with-these-8-traditions-egg-laying-bunnies-to-the-horned-god-7388947/

Great blog about Lochend Loch crannog - and the new crannog play area. Can't believe it's almost a year since construction started.

Many thanks to everyone that supported the Seven Days for Seven Lochs project with The Urban Fox Programme. We're delighted that the project was awarded £3500 from the Our Place Fund.

The volunteers were at Hogganfield Park today carrying out a couple of tasks. Half the group carried out some management work on the "bee bank", a slope with dry, sandy soil which is great habitat for solitary bees who burrow into the soil. We removed grass and weeds and planted wild flowers in the surrounding area. The other team used left over stone and turf from previous projects to create two hibernacula. Hibernacula are places where creatures such as frogs and newts can take refuge over the colder months of the year. Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of the finished product covered with turf - woops!

The volunteers were out at Drumpellier Country Park last week planting native tree saplings. This will extend an area of new woodland and create great habitat in the long term for woodland birds and other wildlife. Tree guards have been used to protect the trees from the elements and from being nibbled by deer.

Our Family Explorer Walks are starting back up on Saturday 24th March, 11am - 2pm. We'll be at Hogganfield Loch to learn about the water birds, make some healthy bird food and try some crafty activities. It'll be fun for all the family! Booking is essential. Please bring a picnic lunch. For more information and to book please contact info@sevenlochs.org