19th October 2008

Unfortunatly the deer rut was cancelled but 4 people did turn up at 8.00am in the mist and rain to find only a few signs of deer in the area and no sounds of the rut.



At 10am we meet for the real event small mammal traping at Rudyard lake.

A good turn out including 7 new members attracted by newpaper articles.


The live trapping found mostly wood mice and bank voles and we all discovered that wood mice really swim as those released jumped into the nearby brook and swam across to find cover!

August 2008 -Aqualate Mere

Aqualate mere was run as an extra event from Natural England. There was a guided walk whilst small animal traps were prepared. A real highlight was seeeing an Otter at 1pm from the hide.

Afterwards the traps revealed 18 out 40 traps had caught 5 speices wood mouse field vole bank vole and common shrew plus 4 rare yellow necked mice (see picture) also being caught.


The 61 members of the public who saw all of this really made the day.

24th August 2008 - Dormice at Hell Wood

9 SMG members but only 1 licence holder joined 9 National Trust Holiday makers (Acorn camp on Dormice conservation) to survey the 210 boxes in the wood.

Only 2 dormice were found one on either side of the wood with nests found more on the left then right. 2 new nests were found at the top of the wood showing the dormice have expanded in to that area.

Pygmy shrews were found in serveral boxes ( photo) but no wood mice were seen.


The NT Volunteers went on to make 100 boxes 30 of which will replace the rotten and mising boxes from the wood. the remaining boxes will be put up to find out were else the dormice are expanding to.

23rd July 2008 - Pill Box Update

It took 10 people from 7 - 11.30 to finish the pill box. Its a great achievement for the mammal group to take on the task and it was great for people to respond to the challenge.
Thank you very much to everyone who was involve

d.

20th July - Pill Box Conservion

6 people worked hard to clear out and internally modify the box for bats. Unfortunately they run out of time to sealing all the windows and the doorway. We hope to finish the work latter in the week

The pictures show new roost structures that the group created

17th July 2008 - Dormice at Loggerheads

A good start in dry weather after another wet day, 7 people managed to check the main woodlands at cowlease wood by 9.15pm, unfortunatley not finding any evidence of dormice. So with plenty of light left in the sky we split to check the 2 smaller woods.

It might have been light out side wood but trying to find boxes and see whats inside was avery different matter in heavy canopy wood land.

The last box I checked had hazel nuts in but itt was to dark to see them clearly expect by flash on checking these the next day some of them had been eaten by dormice. So they are using the boxes sometimes!

The next check will be in September