East Haven, Angus
Environment and Biodiversity
Protecting the environment not just for today but for future generations
Living in a rural coastal community such as East Haven raises awareness of the responsibility we all have to protect the environment and promote biodiversity. East Haven Together's charitable aims are embedded in a village sustainability strategy which links all our activities to Scotland's Environment Strategy, Local and National Outcomes and the United Nations Global Goals. Our strategy is brief but clearly sets out how every personal or group action we take contributes towards the efforts people are making across Scotland and the rest of the world to protect the planet for future generations.
ACTING LOCALLY - THINKING GLOBALLY
Sustainability
Strategy
Dundee and Angus
Bird Club
RSPB
Alex Shepherd - Birds
Paul Brooks -Moths
Scottish Wildlife Trust
Forestry Commission Scotland
BumbleBee Conservation Society
Conserve and Protect
Planting Kidney Vetch along the coast. The sole food plant of the Small Blue Butterfly
Removing non-native species from the SSSI and planting Lyme and Marram grasses
Elephant Hawk Moth
Identified by Amber Stewart. Photo Pete Barden
Woodlands Primary School bring presented with their Small Blue Champion Award by Catherine Lloyd, Tayside Biodiversity
Working in partnership with NatureScot to cut and maintain the SSSI
Monthly Bee and Butterfly Walks
Species and Habitats
In 2016 a large community BioBlitz was held and 347 different species were identified.
Details of all species were uploaded to the biological database irecord.
Between 2016 and 2022 more than 578 species have now been discovered. We continue to upload species data to irecord to support research and analysis of environmental changes. Knowledge of local species also guides our work to conserve and protect habitats
East Haven
BioBlitz Report 2016
The Small Blue
Species on the Edge
The Small Blue
East Haven Together has worked in partnership with East of Scotland Butterfly Conservation, Tayside Biodiversity Partnership, SNH and other community groups along the coast and at Glamis to conserve and protect the Small Blue. This beautiful little butterfly is the UK's smallest and a protected species. In a mammoth task, EHT has helped plant Kidney Vetch all along the coast from Barry Buddon up to Elliot providing a food corridor to support the butterfly which normally flies no more than 50 metres. Kidney Vetch is the sole food plant of the Small Blue.
Small Blue
Factsheet 2017
‘Back from the Brink’
‘Nature of Scotland’ community initiative award Dec 2019
Restoring the Dunes
In 2019 residents became aware that a large part of the dunes was eroding due to an increase in visitor numbers.
Following consultation we have agreed a number of immediate and longer term actions to help recovery and prevent further damage.
Hundreds of Marram and Lyme grasses have been grown from seed. These coastal grasses are the best defence against erosion as they provide a strong structure to bind the dunes. To date we have planted around 1500 plants across the area.
The Co-op community fund will help to make further improvements to minimise human impacts on the dunes.
Greater Yellow Rattle
East Haven is the only known place in Scotland where the Greater Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus Angustifolius) grows naturally.
Although quite similar to the much more common yellow rattle the upper teeth of the greater yellow rattle’s yellow petals are twice as long as they are wide and are violet tinged. The flower is sometimes described as a canary getting out of bed.
The Easthaven site of special scientific interest (SSSI) is a strip of land approx. 500 metres long by 50 metres wide. Scottish Natural Heritage are responsible for the SSSI and residents bordering the site have to comply with a number of restrictions under the Nature Conservation Act 2004. Most of them are common sense restrictions such as not cultivating the site or adding manure, fertilisers or lime.
East Haven Together works in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage to conserve and maintain the SSSI
In a major project in 2018 non native species were removed from the SSSI
Claire Lacey
Whale and Dolphin
Do you explore Angus’s coastal wildlife sites regularly? Did you know you can report your whale and dolphin sightings to an Angus based community led conservation and tourism project specialising in recording cetaceans in Angus waters.
Now in its 10th year Marine Life Angus continues to promote Angus coastal sites and species, facilitates local beach cleans, leads coastal whale and dolphin spotting walks, and collects valuable sightings data. This data, gathered by the public, has proved critical to understanding how important Angus waters are for cetacean species. Sightings have been used to create a guide to land based viewing and to provide a Realtime opportunity to see cetaceans on the Angus coast a WhatsApp group ‘Angus Cetacean Sightings’ – inspired by the successful Shetland Orca watching group – has been set up for Angus residents and visitors.
Marine Life Angus also aims to publicise other local recording and volunteering schemes including local butterflies, maritime plants, and marine non-native species. The website www.marinelifeangus.co.uk will be updated in 2021 and you can follow the twitter account @marinelifeangus
Since the project began there have been regular sightings at locations on the Angus coast of species including bottlenose dolphins, minke whale, porpoise, common dolphin and even humpbacks whales at Montrose Bay.
Sightings are always welcome, and the group encourage those regularly out on the coast or on inshore waters to regularly report what they see and encourage others to do so. Please contact info@marinelifeangus.co.uk for further information on how to get involved.