St Andrews Links Blog

Flora and fauna

Two delightful rarities have been found these past few weeks including a ventriloquist bird and a highly prized fungus. The grasses are growing and there are bees in the bee hive on the Eden Course so all’s looking healthy at the Home of Golf.

The first of our rarities was of the eukaryotic variety and is highly prized by culinary experts! The morel fungus (pictured above) was found on the Links by our resident expert, Dr May Richardson, but you will have to wait until next spring before it makes another appearance I’m afraid!

The second is a type of bird which is able to throw its voice therefore making it difficult to pin its location down. The grasshopper warbler gets its name from its call which is similar to the noise a grasshopper makes. This bird moves its head from left to right (and back again) as it sings giving off the effect that it is moving when doing so. Fascinating to hear and see! If you are around the scrub area in between the 8th and 9th of the Jubilee Course at first light then you may be lucky enough to hear it singing.

Elsewhere on the Links, different species of wildflower are now in bloom including sheep’s sorrel, common vetch, hoary cress, stitchwort, campion, white and red dead nettles, leopard’s bane and cowslip; the gorse and broom are bright yellow at the moment so it’s a great time of year for colour throughout the golf courses.

Above: Cowslip on the Eden Course.

The greenkeeping teams are currently hard at work on the courses as preparations step up for the 144th Open Championship in July. We are however, in the process of developing a small lapwing and oystercatcher nest site on the roof of the water tanks and we shall have more on this for you as it develops over the coming weeks.

Words by James Hutchinson, Environmental Officer