Monitoring Biodiversity by the community in Yorkhill, Glasgow

Monitoring biodiversity by the community in Yorkhill, Glasgow

Yorkhill Green Spaces (YGS) is a group of community volunteers in Yorkhill, in the west end of Glasgow. They meet regularly for litter-picks, planting and other greenspace management tasks. Their aim is to improve local parks for biodiversity and the community in an area of the City where few people have gardens. The group’s three main sites are Yorkhill Park, Cherry Park and Overnewton Park.

Yorkhill Park is the largest, and the ‘wildest’ of Yorkhill’s green spaces. It sits on a south-facing slope behind the former Yorkhill Maternity Hospital, close to where the River Kelvin meets the Clyde.

The proximity to these blue-green corridors has helped channel a diversity of species to this wee oasis for wildlife. In 2021 YGS gained permission to manage about 1 hectare of grassland in the park as a wildflower meadow. About 60% of the slopes are cut each autumn and the clippings raked-up and removed by volunteers to reduce nutrients. Over 25 species of wildflower plug plants have been planted on the slopes. Hemi-parasitic Yellow Rattle seed was sown which has helped further reduce the dominance of grass and encouraged more wildflower seedlings to germinate. Crocuses, Snowdrops and native Bluebells were planted close to foot paths to help bring more spring colour, nectar and pollen for pollinators.

Cherry Park and Overnewton Park are more traditional parks, with play areas, seating and areas of short, amenity grassland. Areas of both parks were identified to get perimeter cuts along the paths during the spring and summer, and then a cut & lift in the autumn. A range of spring bulbs have been planted in both parks. Flower beds and borders have been planted with pollinator-friendly herbaceous perennials. Flowering native hedging and fruit bushes have also been planted in Cherry Park and Yorkhill Park to support wildlife, capture carbon and filter out particles from car exhausts.

Recording biodiversity during volunteer events has become a very popular activity for the group, and setting up Yorkhill Green Spaces Biodiversity on iNaturalist has helped the group capture more biodiversity data. In September 2021 the group recorded their 1000th species: a wee flower bug (Anthocoris confusus). The YGS species list, as of September 2024, has 1,471 species including: 455 species of flowering plants and trees, 59 birds, 17 (wild) mammals, 56 fungi, 251 butterflies and moths, 159 flies, 82 beetles and 31 species of bees. Exciting finds have included the Northern sallow mining bee (Andrena ruficrus). This mining bee is a Scottish Biodiversity List priority species which only collects pollen from willows and sallow catkins to stock her nest burrow.

A standing dead tree in Yorkhill Park has proven to be a fantastic feature for biodiversity. It supports 3 species of nesting solitary bees, and at least 11 species of solitary wasps, including beautiful Ruby-tailed wasps (Chrysis ignita).

All three parks sit within one of Buglife’s mapped B-Lines and help enhance this network of stepping-stone sites for pollinators to move across the city. The group encourages members and the local community to take part in national biodiversity recording events such as the Big Garden Birdwatch, Big Butterfly Count, National Bee Week, City Nature Challenge, and they carry out ‘FIT count’ surveys for the UK National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme.

Looking at the YGS species list, the group noted that there were very few records of amphibians and dragonflies, and so they have installed multiple bog garden ponds in Yorkhill Park – to try to increase the habitats for these wonderful creatures. They now hope to install two more ponds during winter 2024, and continue supporting urban biodiversity in Glasgow.

This biodiversity data story was shared by Yorkhill Green Spaces with the Better Biodiversity Data project, led and managed by the NBN Trust and supported by NatureScot and The Scottish Government.