West Sands Ranger Service

18/06/2026

Thistles!
One of our most successful and species rich meadow is the small roundabout next to the viewing platform at Outhead.

We have tended to this for a few years and it’s a great spot for pollinators. But there’s always something to sort, and today it was tackling the Creeping Thistle lurking in the sward.
This thistle is native and is good for invertebrates and we leave stands of this species in areas where it doesn’t outcompete the meadows.

So a digging session to stay on top of it. It’s worth it.

‘mon the meadows!

17/06/2026

Adding colour….
The cafe banks are looking good this year with a reasonable species diversity.
We will leave the grasslands to grow and flower then cut in late summer, this will add each year to the strength of the wildflower species whilst weakening the tougher grasses.
That’s the plan anyway!

We popped out a new bench at the sauna, hopefully we’ll get to replace all of the old benches in time, adds a bit of colour around the place.

17/06/2026

Our next coastal clean. You would be most welcome along!

16/06/2026

What's a saltmarsh?
If you want to find out what saltmarshes are, where you can find them, why they are an environmental super star and how we are working to restore them- join us on our 'Saltmarshes, Seas and Sustainability' walk tomorrow, Wednesday 17th June 10am-12noon.
Meet at 10 am on the Bike path just outside St Andrews, opposite the entrance to Balgove larder, wear clothes & shoes for walking and to suit the weather.
Expect to get a bit muddy. 🌱🚶🥾

15/06/2026

Invasives plants can be a real threat to some fragile habitats and this plant is one of those.

Sea Buckthorn. A plant that very quickly overwhelm sand dunes, so we keep an eye out for it. Today we removed a couple of plants from the Cycle path wood.

We are keen to support all plantlife where we can however there are situations where leaving certain species to develop endangers specialised plants that without our management would not survive where they should.
Sea Buckthorn isn’t scarce and can grow unchecked elsewhere whereas Purple Milk vetch, Harebell, Marram and Lyme cannot. With Sea Buckthorn, because it is so good at colonising dunes, we remove it where we find it, including along the Cycle path.

Thanks folks.

15/06/2026

The Castle course has always held a high number of Orchids of various species and hybrids, this year looks good again.

These are Northern Marsh orchids, a fairly common species, if you can say orchids are common of course.

Wonderful to see and great for our pollinators.

14/06/2026

12/06/2026

We place trail camera's out at various positions to monitor wildlife use around the coast and links. It informs us about how the sites are being used and when.

Every so often our wildlife does something that makes you smile. Here's a hovering, photo-bombing Blue tit.

Have a great weekend.

11/06/2026

A huge thank you to our volunteers today.
They put in a hard shift in pretty dire weather to clear the cabbage from one of our wildflower banks.
Despite the rain there were plenty smiles and giggles.
A lovely bunch.

Fuelled on banter and biscuits.

This is the first step to enhancing this bank, we’ll give it a cut and take off arising and add some coastal wildflower seed mix and then wait..

Thank you and well done!🙏

10/06/2026

Today we hosted 44 pupils from St Leonards School and pupils on international visits.
The pupils were on an activities week and joined us to learn about marine and litter waste and the effects on wildlife and habitats.

As all good active learning should be, it was backed up with a practical beach clean and litter pick of the recreation areas. Hands on.
They did well! A good haul and a bit less out there.
Well done folks!