St Andrews Links Blog

New infra-red wildlife camera

We recently invested in an infra-red wildlife camera to find out what we have living on the Links when the sun goes down. This first week’s findings have been quite fascinating with rabbits, hares, many bird species and a fox! We knew that there used to be foxes on the Links but nobody has seen one for a number of years, until now that is.

An area of a few square metres was baited up with offcuts of meat and peanuts in the hope of attracting something to the banquet on offer and I’m pleased to report that the Links is awash with wildlife when no one is looking.

The Eden Course pond underwent some spring cleaning last week when an aquatic vehicle was hired to cut the tall common reed down. The reed was becoming problematic as parts of the 15th green were barely visible from the tee. The reed was also starting to dominate the pond’s other aquatic vegetation such as yellow flag iris and water forget-me-not, so a plan of action was put into place to remove approximately half of the common reed.

By removing half, the wildlife which uses the pond has the other half to hide and to use as a nesting site when the spring arrives. When the cut reed returns to an acceptable height we will then cut the remaining half down thus there is a constant supply of hiding places for the moorhens, coots and reed buntings which reside there.

In other news, the ‘mad March’ hares have begun to box each other and with Wednesday’s sightings of gannets just off The Castle Course coastline, it’s a safe bet to suggest that spring is almost upon us.

Words by James Hutchinson, Environmental Officer