5th July 2008

We were looking forward to spend a day searching for scat with the VWT but heavy rain a few days before and on the morning meant that we were not going to find any scat and so we just checked the local boxes in Oakenmoor wood. Despite this we did find one dropping which was collected in the correct way and that will be sent off for DNA analysis ( see Photo).



The most recent scat survey from February 08 found 3 foxes, 2 stoats and 2 otters via DNA. The otters near Alton towers were quite some distance from any water. Thus, DNA is helping us to get extra records even if we did not find any pine martens that time. We hope to try again for another pine marten scat day soon - so watch the forum and those emails. Last but not least we did find a squirrel nest and dead animal in one of the Pine marten boxes (see photo).

2nd July 2008

This evening we checked Dormouse boxes. We tried this last year and had no problems with the event but this year a big black cloud caught us out while we were trying to find the last few boxes in the wood in the dark ( see photo). We managed to find just 1 dormouse there but were pleased to find another male in 40 Acre wood. Some pipistrelle bats were observed once we had left the wood.