Most people are familiar with the cheerful and chirpy House Sparrow and you can see and hear a bunch of them that roost in the Hawthorn bush behind the Friendship Board at the Heritage Viewpoint. The related Tree Sparrow is much less familiar and is a species that suffered a major decline in the UK with the population falling by 93% between the 1970s and 1990s, causing it to become a Red listed species of conservation concern in the UK. There has been some evidence of a slow recovery since the 1990s, but the overall population is still estimated as only around 3% of its historical size before the crash. It was therefore good to see, in 2018, that a pair were exploring one of the nest boxe
The weather in the last few days is certainly confirming that summer is at an end and we can return to the tasks needed to keep on maintaining and improving our area for people and wildlife. We had the first of our regular autumn work parties on 22nd September when we had a session removing the now dead Welted Thistles from The Triangle and Heritage Viewpoint areas. It did start to rain just as we gathered, but it didn’t interfere with the work and we soon got it done. It was a pleasure also to have Councillor David Barratt join our usual small group of volunteers, and we got a good view of the new aircraft carrier as it sailed under the Forth Bridge. The following day saw a walk through t
