Week 3 FSC Millport

Last week each day was different, I spent a few hours a day on organising the Bioblitz, emailing etc as well as in the Library helping with checking the catalouge.

On Monday morning I helped Jenny put equipment away in the Kit Store to try and familiarise myself with where everything goes. 

On Tuesday we had environmental games training where we talked through different environmental games we can play with groups to pass time if we are waiting for Mini buses, finish tasks early etc. We also had a team building fush of the Elmhurst building which saw us take 4 rooms each and all run back and forth to flush at the same time to wash out the drains! In the afternoon, Beth, Luke and I made new signs for the Dining room reminding people not to wear muddy shoes inside before we all went and did some climbing training. 

On Wednesday I did a spilt shift with Beth, we came in at 11am to complete our climbing belay ratification until 1pm. I then went back to the house until 4pm and then went in for a duty shift until 11pm as we had a school onsite. 

On Thursday In the afternoon on my own I spent 3 hours tidying the entire wellie and waterproof store, organising the shelves so that all the wellies and walking boots were on shelves according to size. I remade signs and added arrows and reorgansied where certain items went. It was very satisfying but very tiring!

Before:

After:

On Friday I spent the afternoon in the Library and emailing contacts about our Bioblitz event. I also helped Jenny get a classroom ready for a meeting on Monday. I then got the ferry at 5pm to Largs where Adam came and picked me up later that evening. We had fish and chips in Largs for dinner and then went back to where he is staying at Loch Lomond. He is doing his placement at the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE) https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/bahcm/about/researchfacilities/scene/about/ acting as a research assistant working mostly with the technicians. In the evening we went and fed the brown trout that are being kept for peoples studies. 

On Saturday went to Loch Lomond Sealife Aquarium which was a really nice day. We arrived at about 11am and looked around at the exhibits. The aquarium wasn't huge, we probably walked around the whole thing about 4 times throughout the day but it was a nice day out. At 13:30 we went and did a Shark Feed which Adam's mum had booked for us for my Birthday which was really cool! We got taken to the top of the shark tank and got to put squid and mackerel on the end of special poles, which we then target fed ot the sharks in the tank. The species of sharks that were feeding from us were the Black tip reef sharks and Bonnet head sharks, and one confident catshark. The rays and other sharks feed off the bottom so other fish was being dropped in for them. Adam's favourite part of the aquarium were the cleaner shrimps that ate the dead skin off your fingers :)

After the aquarium we went for a short woodland walk while the weather held off before heading back to SCENE to feed the brown trout.

On Sunday the weather was so much nicer! We went for an walk for just over an hour around part of the Loch, it was quite flooded but it was a really beautiful walk in bright sunshine!

We left Adam's at about half 4 and he drove me back to Largs where we did our food shops beforei got the ferry back to the Island at 19:15.