10th December 2006

An excellent turn-out for our annual Christmas walk. A general survey of the area around Hollington was carried out. We found tracks of various mammals including badger and fox. The group also managed to see some wild boar, which are farmed in the area.

19th November 2006: Burton Wash

Thanks to Lawernce Oates Local Countryside Ranger for setting out the traps the night before. 4 wood mice were caught, all of which were young animals born this season. Entertainment was provided by a wood mouse climbing on group members whilst showing local people wood mice up close. One in particular jumped from the arm of one to the head of another before jumping to the ground. Exciting was the good number of harvest mice nests found on the site for the very first time. Nests were found in colts foot grass tussocks as well as the normal reed carney grass.

The afternoon saw the group checking out the rest of the site finding a lot of otter sprain some mink droppings, foot prints of rat, a lot more Harvest mouse nests and one member even saw a fox up close .

21st October 2006: Cowlease Woods

This was a very successful day in the woods near Loggerheads. In one wood we found dormice with young and in others we found several adult dormice. The new boxes installed earlier in the year do not seem to have made much impact with animals using either of the boxes (old or new) on the same tree. Numbers from box evidence increased this year overall. Furthermore, we had a chance to get some people more training for their dormouse license.

One dormouse got out of the box before it could be captured, allowing us a brief moment to observe it in its natural habitat. Can you spot it on the picture?

15th October 2006: Cannock Chase Deer Rut

20 members met at 8 am on an overcast windy day and walked out to the known rutting stands of Fallow deer. Some activity was observed via field signs, but no deer was heard or seen. Thus we expanded the search area using local knowledge (other words—horse riders that we met). Finally we heard and followed two bucks calling and eventually managed to see three bucks and associated does briefly. The last sighting of roaring bucks was at about 11 am. In the early afternoon we moved across to Georges Hayes Nature Reserve looking for Red deer rutting. However, no animals were seen and there was only minimal evidence of rutting but lots of field signs of deer present.

17th September 2006: Hell Wood

We had an excellent turnout for Hell’s wood this year and managed to check both sides of the wood and found 5 live dormice, one female even had pinkies in her nest. On top of the live sightings we had evidence of dormice in a further 10 boxes.

After not having seen any live woodmice this year we were all excited to finally find 2 in the dormouse boxes at the Manifold valley. Another curious sighting was a pygmy shrew without a tail.

We had the usual selection of screams, falls and thorns (with Derek totting up the most falls), all of this was followed by fantastic chocolate fudge cake at the local café. Hmmmmmmmm.

6th September 2006: SMG Social Evening

We all gathered at Wolseley Wildlife Centre to review our past, present and future activities. Furthermore, we got a glimpse of the upcoming Staffordshire Mammal Atlas. One highlight of the evening was the award ceremony for the Rosy Challenge which was won with an impressive 156 points.

2nd August 2006: Loynton Moss Mammal Survey

This was the first time SMG visited this wonderful site. Therefore we did a general exploration of the area, which comprises a good mix of different habitats. We found evidence of rabbit, fox, and woodmice. Whilst exploring the site we found large badger sets and some of us were fortunate enough to see a female badger clearing her run. On the way back we followed the canal, bat detectors at the ready and identified several species of bat; including Daubentons, Natterers, Soprano and Common Pipistrelle.