Lmst

Here's a throwback to a very still winter's day at the start of the year.
The Green Shores team have spotted what we assume was a water vole -it was too fast to be sure- hopping into and swimming in these naturally forming salt pans.
Salt pans are a bit like rock pools without the rocks, where water remains when the tide is out.
Restoring saltmarsh provides more habitat for all the saltmarsh creatures.
#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #voles #Biodiversity

Brown winter saltmarsh vegetation at the edge of a salt pan (water in a pool left behind by the receding tide on saltmarsh). The water is still and reflecting the vegetation and clear enough to see through the water to the lower muddy surface of the salt pan.

Salt pans full of water in saltmarsh on the Eden Estuary, the tide is out.

The last few poly tunnel volunteering sessions have been listed on our website including the one with mince pies, the team Christmas lunch has been booked. It's definitely getting to the end of the year.
Meantime, on the saltmarsh, the plants keep growing, or are in dormancy waiting for better conditions to grow again. The fencing should protect this year's plantings from some of the effects of the winter storms.
#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #saltmarsh

Looking down on the shadow of a fence on the shadows caused by sand ripples intersecting to make a wobbly grid.

When should a tradition be stopped. If you live in Scotland please consider signing this petition to Holyrood

https://protectthewild.substack.com/p/a-protected-colony-in-decline-why

#Guga #Gannets #Unsustainable #BirdsOfMastodon #Environment #NatureScot

We are absolutely thrilled to share that Green Shores has won the Nature of Scotland Award for Coasts and Waters! We loved that the judges particularly commended the scale, impact, and community involvement of our project in tackling crucial issues that affect us all in Scotland.

A big thank you to the #rspb, to our wonderful sponsors #NatureScot, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, #ArmyInScotland , St Andrews Links Trust, Fife Council, University of St Andrews, and to our amazing volunteers.

On the left: a group photo of the winners and highly commended finalists of the Nature of Scotland Awards 2025 celebrating at the awards ceremony, photographed by Mike Wilkinson. On the right: a picture of the Green Shores team with a Nature of Scotland Awards banner.

Lovely to spend some time with some of the artists from the Reciprocity/Poiesis project, talking saltmarsh, grasses, plant awareness disparity, connections and plotting a visit to a saltmarsh.
Thanks to Kate Downie for hosting in her beautiful studio.
#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #artistCollaboration

Four people in an art studio. One is holding up a camera, the person behind is smiling, looking at the photographer. One person carries a chair and part of the back of the fourth is just in frame on the right hand side.

#Walking in mature pine and birch woodland on the #MuirofDinnetNNR - the route takes a short diversion to the ruins of a small settlement of houses and steadings at #OldKinord … 😀

https://themackwalks.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/235-muir-of-dinnet-old-kinord-culblean-circuit-aberdeenshire/

#Hiking #NatureScot #Deeside #Dinnet #Aboyne #Tarland #Aberdeenshire #Scotland

Green Shores was featured on BBC Radio Scotland's Out Of Doors programme this weekend. Presenter Mark Stephens came along to our Saltmarsh Stock up in September to meet us and the volunteers who joined us on the day.

You can listen to the recording here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ld4d
or as podcast, wherever you get your podcasts under ‘Scotland Outdoors’.
#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #Volunteers #Podcast

Photo of a group of muddy volunteers and the Radio Scotland presenter on a saltmarsh with red sledges (for moving plants) in the foreground

It was great to lead a walk and talk today with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Fife and Kinross group.

We covered successful saltmarsh restoration sites, new techniques for protecting restoration planting and saw what healthy and eroded saltmarsh looks like. There was even time to visit the Green Shores plant hub where we propagate saltmarsh plants for the next round of restoration planting.

#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund

A group of smiling people, in waterproof walking gear on Saltmarsh.

The Sea Club Rush (Bolboschoenus maritimus) root system showing why it does such a good job of trapping sediment and resisting the pull of the tide.
The contour lines of the container it was growing in are still retained when it is lifted out.
#NatureScot #SaltmarshRestoration #Bolboschoenus #conservation

side view of a root ball of Bolboschoenus maritimus showing the shape of the container it was growing in.

view of a root system of Bolboschoenus maritimus from below, the brown roots all radiate out from a central point.

One of the less glamorous* jobs we do to help restore saltmarsh is wash the minimal plastic polypots we use to grow the cuttings on.
There were plenty to wash after planting nearly 4000 plants earlier in the year.
After washing we can reuse them for the next set of cuttings.

*yes, planting saltmarsh in the mud is glamorous- for a certain value of glamor
#Reuse #SaltmarshRestoration #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund

A washing line full of washed and pegged polypots in a polytunnel above plants growing on benches. A pink peg bag is partially visible in the bottom left corner

poly pots filled with soil and grass cuttings.

The other week we were up in Dornoch, working with some Dornoch Academy S1 and S3 classes.
They did great a great job of taking cuttings and potting them on, now we'll have more plants for saltmarsh restoration in Dornoch firth.
#SaltmarshRestoration #Dornoch #NatureScot #plants

Hands of pupils taking cuttings of saltmarsh grasses. more plants are in trays along the bench

a tray half full of pots for cuttings, hands of the pupils making the cuttings are in the photo

A work station set up ready for propagation, secateurs, a trowel, an example pot of cuttings, spare cuttings and empty thin plastic pots.

Green Shores is honoured to be finalists for the Nature of Scotland Awards in two categories, Coasts & Waters and Nature & Climate Action, after a wonderful reception at the Scottish Parliament!

We are very grateful to #NatureScot, the University of St Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, #ArmyInScotland, St Andrews Links Trust, Fife Council, and to all our amazing volunteers. Our work wouldn’t be the same without your support!

Photo showing a smiling Green Shores team, Clare Maynard, Helena Simmons, and Haley Arnold, pictured outside the Scottish Parliament.

Green Shores has a 'saltmarsh stock up' session coming up on 23rd Sept in Tayport, Fife. 9:30-1pm.
We will be harvesting Sea Club Rush plants to grow on and propagate in the Plant Hub polytunnel for saltmarsh restoration. If you are local to Tayport and would like to join in -contact us on greenshores@st-andrews.ac.uk for more info and to book a place.
#volunteering #Scotland #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #conservation

People harvesting sea club rush from healthy saltmarsh. the sky is blue, the estuary is muddy.

We've carried out extensive tests* and can conclude spending time doing Saltmarsh Volunteering makes people happy.
Look at these happy volunteers!
These (and other) lovely folks have already smashed last year's volunteering hours record. We're delighted that collectively, our volunteers have chosen to donate over 400 hours of their time this year, and that's only the count so far!
*Looked at photos, remembered we were there being happy too

#NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #Volunteering

Biodiversity on the saltmarsh, from the very small to big enough to break your arm - saltmarsh supports a wide variety of insects and animals.

One of the best things about being able to work in this environment is the feeling of how lucky we are to help protect and restore more of this habitat.
#saltmarsh #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #Biodiversity

a bumble bee foraging for pollen and nectar on sea Aster.

two white swans and 3 grey cygnets swimming in the water just beside some saltmarsh.

I started a new walk on the patch around a week ago and on that walk, I spotted a #bird roughly Buzzard sized maybe but much lighter and a real terrain hugger in flight but, only got glimpses so far. #birds #BirdsinScotland #birdphotography #naturephotography #wildlife #photography #NatureScot Yesterday, I caught a single shot of it before it disappeared............ a Short or Long-eared owl 😃 👍 If anyone can ID from this I'd be very grateful. #BirdIDRequest

An image taken on a Gorse lined lane. In the foreground is blurred Gorse but highlighted, flying behind it is the back of an owl in shades of brown. Beyond is more green and blurred Gorse

Young Wren in Ferns! Alarm! Alarm! Alarm! #birdphotography #birds #naturephotography #wildlife #Scotland #PerthandKinross #rspb #NatureScot

An image taken through and over the top of lush green ferns, the background is blurred green plants. Highlighted is a young. brown Wren bird with its yellow edged beak wide open, maybe shouting to others?

Such a colourful time of year on the saltmarsh. The sea aster brings all the bees to the saltmarsh.
As if we needed more reasons to restore saltmarsh- biodiversity, erosion prevention, carbon storage, saltmarsh has it all.

#saltmarsh #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #BloomScrolling

View across a saltmarsh full of flowering purple aster.

Tide coming in and tide out at one of our saltmarsh restoration sites on the Eden.

The Saltmarsh plants are adapted to this twice daily tidal influx.
The recent planting are establishing and still hard to see against the sand behind the fences, they are fully submerged as the tide comes in.

#MeerMittwoch #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund #SaltmarshRestoration

Low tide and protective fencing visible on the exposed intertidal edge of the Eden estuary. lots of bare sand and the water channel visible in the distance. Exposed sand on the far shore is a strip of yellow in the distance

same view as previous picture, the tide is coming in and just about to cover the top of the fencing, the saltmarsh planting sites behind the fencing is covered with water. A small strip of sand at the far shore is still visible but the river basin is now full of water.

A new patch of saltmarsh growing out in a circle.
The new growth accumulates sediment as it grows, increasing in size and height.
This growing patch of saltmarsh was spotted today on the Eden estuary.
#saltmarsh #NatureScot #NatureRestorationFund

#naturescot

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