Highland wildlife Fair

This afternoon we went to the Highland Wildlife Fair held at the Inverness College, UHI Campus. Lots of interesting stalls and information about all sorts of creatures and plantlife.
We went to the afternoon presentations held in the Lecture room. Four illustrated talks about wildcats, Inverness bats, great yellow bumblebee and red squirrels. All fascinating and great to see so many enthusiastic about their work. It all felt very positive , plans are underway in reintroducing red squirrels into several areas of the Highlands and ones that have already been released have done very well , some squirrels even travelling over several miles to inhabit new areas. Did you know that red Squirrels are good swimmers so water does nt cause a barrier ?
There are 5 species of bats commonly found in the Inverness area with the pipistrelle being seen most often. Did you know one bat can eat 3000 midges a night ? Most bats use echo lotion but the long eared bat just hovers above trees and locates it's prey by sound and sight.
The great Yellow  bumblebee can now only be found  in the North coast of Scotland and some of the Scottish islands. We were lucky enough to see one on Orkney, thanks to a blipmeet with Northern who pointed it out to us :) Did you know that Thurso is the countries first 'bumblebee town'? The community has been heavily engaged in making the project work.
With the Scottish wildcat  lots of research is underway to find their locations with plenty of camera traps set up in key locations to monitor their movements and to id any hybrids or feral cats present. It is hoping that any feral cats  can be captured and neutered to prevent cross breeding. The Feral cats are not being destroyed as some reports have said as it's important for them to remain in the area to protect their area and prevent other unneutered cats moving in. Did you now that the Scottish wildcat is Britain's only remaining large predator ?
We had a tour of the college grounds afterwards. A lot of the area is open to the public and it was nice to see it used by so many people. Swallows and House martins flew overhead , the first I've seen this year. Grey and pied wagtails flitted about. Mallards and moorhen ( or maybe a coot, to far away to see properly) hid among the reeds and the two mute swans were busy at their nest site. The pen , female, wiggled just at the right time for me to get a shot of the eggs too, at least five :)