Ardeer Quarry LNR Public Consultation

[iain]

It’s been a while since I last gave an update on Ardeer Quarry LNR news. A few things have happened this year, but not nearly as much as we’d hoped.

The orchard will be expanded over the winter. The fruit crop this autumn was astounding: one apple and one deformed pear! Next year we’re expecting double this! And from then on the crop should increase exponentially as the orchard matures.

A notice board was installed on the reserve…then vandalised within a few weeks. We’ll shortly make an other attempt to put up content on the board and make it a bit more vandal-proof.

On the 17th December, a 4 metre long, south-facing, sandy embankment will be created in the wild field beside the Dubbs Rd entrance to the reserve. This ‘bee bank’ will provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees and wasps. From next spring onwards, we’ll identify and record the species that colonise the bank. Hopefully some of these insects will play a role in the pollination of the adjacent orchard.

Our website has been updated to make it look slightly more modern. It needs to be fleshed out here and there with more text and photos. It’s at http://www.stevenstonconservation.org

Regarding wildlife on the reserve, perhaps the most interesting find this year was a Pine Leaf-mining Moth, a small orange and grey moth never recorded in Scotland before. Formerly a species restricted to southern England, it’s been spreading northwards over the past few decades, but until this year had not been recorded north of the border.

Buglife ran a series of invertebrate survey events at Ardeer Quarry over the summer. They compiled a report on the list of species caught on the reserve - information that we’ll eventually disseminate through our website.

Other projects are moving slowly and most of our work simply involves an awful lot of chasing people up! Ongoing attempts to restore a wetland on the LNR will hopefully pick-up speed now that there’s been a change in land ownership at the site and the RSPB have gotten involved.

Attached are photos of a couple of the funkier 'new for site' moths caught on the reserve this year.

Iain

[5eulbdog7]

Iain you write of a change in land ownership, so who now owns the land?

[iain]

Hi 5eulbdog7,

Property assets are apparently divided-up among the various Council departments. Previously Education had the land, now it’s Property Services.

Iain

[little plum]

The orchard will be expanded over the winter. The fruit crop this autumn was astounding: one apple and one deformed pear! Iain

Hi iain, I would like to thank you for the update, it sounds as though you've had some frustrating times. I suppose with the amount of traffic round the site by members of the public there's bound to be some set backs, but it's also an indicator of your groups success with the increase in the number of visitors.
Personally I havent been round the site as frequently this year but I did notice that the mature fruit trees at the far end were laden with crab apples during the growing season. A few weeks back the good lady and I decided to take a walk round the site, the mature fruit trees were bare, well almost, there was still one or two green apples on the branches, on the ground there were a few ripe apples. It had me thinking, where did all the ripe apples go, has the local wild life had a bumper harvest or will there be a lot of locals eating crab apple jeelly pieces.
Iain, I'm just wondering if it would have been better debudding the new fruit trees this year to encourage growth in the tree itself.?

[iain]

Hi LP,

I should thank you for your update(!) – I hadn’t realised that there was such a crop of young fruit earlier in the year. I spent this summer almost 400 miles south of Stevenston and on my trips back didn’t notice much young fruit. Your suggestion is a good one: thinning very young fruit is advisable at this age. Indeed, I think that explains what you observed over your visits this year: young fruit trees apparently often shed semi-developed fruit themselves to promote their own growth. I guess that’s why the crop you saw vanished.

I’ll try to arrange for other group members/interested parties to pull off young fruit next year as I don’t think I’ll be around often enough to do the task properly. One thing I’ll do though is prune the trees over the next couple of weeks to keep the trees open and remove problem (damaged/diseased) branches.

Iain

[little plum]

Iain I think I have misled you on the location of the trees I was talking about and must apologize for this. The trees I was referring too are mature trees located next to, what I still call after 50 years, the new road. During the summer the apples were beginning to ripen, my last visit early winter, the fruit on the ground was wind fall. I have to say, I was tempted to fill my pocket with them for a munch as I walked round.

[iain]

Hi LP,

Sorry, I should have realised you were not referring to the young orchard trees. Funnily enough, the final trees to go into the orchard in a few weeks will include a couple of crab apple trees, both for completeness (as there are already apple, pear, plum, gage and damson trees there) and for the ornamental fruit and blossom they produce.

Iain

[little plum]

Funnily enough, the final trees to go into the orchard in a few weeks will include a couple of crab apple trees, both for completeness and for the ornamental fruit and blossom they produce. Iain

iain, the " ornamental" fruit is one of my favourite apples. I posted a photo of my brother feeding me crab apples when I was about 4 or 5 and that wasnt yesterday. I also loved the skin off cookers when they were being prepared for baking but I promise not to raid your orchard as it matures. Well, I'm sure it would be ok to sample one or two just to remind me of years gone by.

[iain]

Hi LP,

If ripe fruit is hanging on the trees, even during the early years, then visitors are welcome to pick it for their own use. I suspect that supply will outstrip demand even from the word go.

In February we’ll put out artificial nests for solitary bees and wasps in the orchard (posts with holes drilled in and/or bundles of hollow reed stems). We’ve put similar things in various places around the town as a means of surveying various sites for bees and wasps. However, the purpose these units will serve at Ardeer Quarry will be to increase the density of pollinators (particularly Mason Bees) nesting in the orchard so as to boost the size of the fruit crop.

Iain

[5eulbdog7]

To produce a proper fruit bearing orchard you have to prune and spray to encourage new growth and to combat mould and feeding insects. I think this orchard was planted to encourage birds (especially finches) and insects and bees and wasps.It would be nice though to enjoy some fruit of a tree.

[5eulbdog7]

An interesting project.

[5eulbdog7]

I note that a wee sandhill has been deposited beside the path leading to Darg road. I hope the wasps appreciate the efforts of their fellow creatures.