I was thrilled to attend my daughter Iona Reddie's Napier graduation last Thursday at Usher Hall where she picked up her MSc Wildlife Biology & Conservation (on campus and distance-learning) at Edinburgh Napier University with a project entitled 'The Urban Predator Paradox: Investigating predator identity and nest predation events across and urbanisation gradient in Edinburgh, Scotland.' Earlier in the year, when she was doing her fieldwork around Clermiston, Barnton and Cammo (our local area), she would pop into our house excitedly sharing her stories. The core challenge was to strategically set up camera traps, pointing at (fake) nests filled with quail eggs, and then see if any predators (quite a few corvids) would be caught on camera stealing these. This was done over several weeks to collect sufficient data. I always had an interest in crows and had been making lino cuttings for a few years. So I decided to print these collectively and make an extra one to illustrate her project. 'It's a Murder (Part 1 & Part 2)' are recordings of an activity very precious to both of us. Well done Iona!
