NatureScot

02/09/2026

Are you heading for the Scottish hills?

With red deer stag stalking activity building towards the busiest period of the year, we're encouraging walkers and hikers to use the Heading for the Scottish Hills service to help plan visits and avoid disturbing essential deer management.

The service, part of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code website, helps people find out where deer stalking is taking place before they head out. Alongside resources such as Walkhighlands and estate websites, it advises where and when stalking happens on popular hills, provides contact details for land managers, and includes routes that are always okay to use, meaning they avoid stalking areas entirely.

Managing deer plays a critical role in Scotland's response to nature loss and climate change. Controlling the impact of deer, including overgrazing, browsing and trampling, supports the recovery of upland habitats, boosts biodiversity and helps restore carbon-absorbing vegetation and damaged peatland.

Now is a good time to get into the habit of checking the service regularly, as stag stalking activity typically increases in the autumn. The first three weeks of October are the busiest time for stag stalking, while the latter weeks of the red deer hind season, which runs from 21 October to 15 February, are busiest for hinds. This is when taking care to avoid disturbance matters most.

You can find the link to the service in the comments and on the homepage of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code website.

Mountaineering Scotland
Walkhighlands

01/09/2026

Ever wondered what it’s like to live on an island like the Isle of May National Nature Reserve for nine months each year? Our reserve manager David Steel gave The Courier UK an insight into life among the puffins 👇

David Steel spends nine months a year on the island in the Firth of Forth, counting puffins, watching seals and tracking the changing fortunes of Scotland’s seabirds. Read more: https://ebx.sh/t0dTMk

01/09/2026

Young pupils, typically comfortable with tablets, tech and digital information, are being inspired to get outside and learn about nature in the new school term.

A promotional film celebrating the experience of teachers and pupils at Braes High School in Falkirk using our Nature Discovery Map Scotland; a set of easy and exciting free lesson plans, and a webinar programme for teachers sharing ways to bring nature-based learning into everything from maths and literacy to emotional wellbeing and food have been launched today.

Alongside using their school grounds and local greenspaces more often, the Nature Discovery Map Scotland helps students and teachers make improvements with ideas for providing bird boxes and bughouses, planting trees and hedgerows, and creating mini meadows and new ponds. These all help to make the school estate a nature-friendly place. While individually small in scale, such changes can have a big impact on knowledge opportunities for our young people, create nature networks, and help nature recovery and climate resilience.

🎞️ View the new school term Nature Discovery Map Scotland film here: https://orlo.uk/MZLS3

🦋 Read more about the Nature Discovery Map here: https://orlo.uk/805lj



The Scottish Government Education Scotland Esri

31/08/2026

💚August’s Nature Hero is a small, squelchy superstar of Scottish nature…sphagnum moss!

🦸‍♀️Mosses are the building material of Scotland’s vast areas of blanket bog across our peatlands.

🌟There are over 30 different species of sphagnum mosses found in the UK – and at least 380 worldwide. It’s this variety that gives those peatland carpets their beautiful patterns of colour and texture. Peat formed from the remains of dead mosses, chiefly sphagnum mosses, has also provided an important source of fuel for Highland communities.

🦋 While some of Scotland’s peatlands are in good condition, over three quarters of them have been damaged, making it difficult for sphagnum mosses to thrive. Peatland restoration aims to raise the water table again, allowing sphagnum mosses to re-establish and create those healthy, multi-coloured carpets that are so important for the wildlife, and people of Scotland.

🧽A peat bog is nine-tenths water, and sphagnum moss on the surface soaks it up like a sponge, slowing the rate at which stored rainwater is released. A wet peatland encourages the growth of sphagnum mosses, which are the real drivers of peat formation and storage of carbon in the soil. Left undisturbed, peat bogs then help curb climate change by storing carbon dioxide for thousands of years.

🚜 Scottish peatlands store 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon; the equivalent of 140 years’ worth of Scotland’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Peatland ACTION – with funding from Scottish Government - is working with land managers and partners to restore this vital carbon sink.

👉 Find out more about the superhero sphagnum and our vital peatlands: https://orlo.uk/Aw5iH

📷 Images: Lorne Gill/NatureScot

30/08/2026

Gulls are as much a part of the seaside as fish and chips.🐟 🍟

But did you know that human food is bad for gulls? And feeding encourages them to link people with food.

Help gulls and your local community - caring means not sharing 😊

29/08/2026

Did you know you can put bagged dog mess in any outdoor public litter bin?

Keep bags with your dog's lead to avoid forgetting them, and consider carrying extras for others who may have left theirs at home.

Leaving dog poo lying around – even when flicked away from paths or on agricultural land – can spread harmful bacteria and parasites, posing risks to humans, livestock, and wildlife.

Burying it might seem like a good plan in more rural areas, but it can still contaminate soil and groundwater and could get dug up by other animals.

It is best for animals and people alike if you pick up your dog's poo and bin it – or take it home with you when bins aren’t available – wherever you are in Scotland’s great outdoors.

For more ‘pawesome’ dog walking tips, visit the link in the first comment.



📷 ©Forestry and Land Scotland

27/08/2026

📖 In today’s guest blog, Green Action Trust tells us about their Nature Networks pilot, bringing people and ideas together to help support a growing network of nature-rich sites across Scotland.

Read 👉 https://orlo.uk/E03M1

26/08/2026

News from our Forvie National Nature Reserve where little egrets have been confirmed as breeding this summer, in what is thought to be the most northerly breeding record in the UK.

Four of the distinctive large white chicks have fledged at the reserve as climate change pushes the range of these once Mediterranean birds further north.

Little egrets are a recent colonist of the UK, where they were first recorded breeding in 1996. The first Scottish breeding record was in Dumfries and Galloway in 2020. The UK population is around 1,500-2,000 pairs but the Scottish population remains small.

For years now, little egrets have been spotted regularly on the reserve, fishing in the Ythan estuary, but we didn’t think they were breeding – until now. And while only one pair have bred this year, a second pair have been hanging around, and the reserve has also had a regional high count of 17 including the youngsters.

While it has been wonderful to see them at Forvie, the sobering fact is that this is one small part of a much wider story where the ranges of birds and other species are moving because of our warming climate, with higher temperatures and milder winters making the UK more attractive for some species than it would have been several decades ago.

While that will provide opportunities for some species like the little egret, others - such as the mountain-breeding dotterel - will be vulnerable and at risk.

It underlines the urgent need for us to step up action to tackle the twin crises of nature loss and climate change.

Read more via the link in the comments 👇

25/08/2026

🥳 Another Nature30 site has been announced in Scotland...and this time it's congratulations to Dumyat in the Ochil Hills on their recognition!

A hotspot for hiking, biking, the northern brown argus butterfly and the rare flowering plant sticky catchfly, this Nature30 site shows that it's possible for businesses to lead the way in reversing nature loss while providing good greenspaces, health and wellbeing benefits and combatting climate change for the community.

Dumyat's commitment to land management that benefits nature is helping connections across Scotland's safeguarded areas and building a space for biodiversity to thrive.

Achieving the international and national target of conserving 30% of land and fresh water by 2030 (30 by 30) is hugely ambitious, but collectively Scotland can do it. We’re excited to work with everyone who cares passionately about nature, adding to the great work already happening across the country, and we are encouraging anyone who owns or manages land that is or will be delivering great things for nature, to consider applying for their own Nature30 recognition.💚

📷 Dumyat woodland:©Emily Milner Smith/NatureScot
📷 Northern brown argus butterfly:©Lorne Gill/NatureScot
📷 Sticky catchfly:©Lindsay Mackinlay

24/08/2026

The consultation on our General Licences closes soon on August 31st - there's still time to give your views to help shape these licences in 2027 and the future.

NatureScot is responsible for 16 General Licences that allow people to carry out certain actions affecting birds or mammals that would otherwise be illegal, without the need for an individual licence.

As the last formal assessment of these licences took place in 2019, we feel the time is now right for a review.

We’re urging all stakeholders to take this opportunity to express their thoughts for the future.

Follow the link in the comments to take part 👇