The Derbyshire Mammal Group events programme for 2008 is now available to download.
Below is a selection of events from the last five years.
A trip away to Hertfordshire for the weekend included a look around the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum on the Saturday and provided opportunities to see the Edible Dormouse Glis glis close at hand on the Sunday.
The latter are the subject of a study (rather than a conservation project) by Dr. Pat Morris and his team. Since being introduced to the Tring area in 1902 the population has thrived, with numbers estimated to be 10000 animals!
The photograph shows DMG member Ian Wildbur checking one of the 145 nest boxes.
Photo: Steve Docker
Held
by Derbyshire Mammal Group and Sorby Mammal Group, the event attracted
over 70 people, including members of Staffordshire
Mammal Group and
Cheshire
Mammal group.
The event saw the launch of the Mammal Atlas Project, which aims to produce an Atlas of Derbyshire Mammals as a book and in digital format.
Photo: Debbie Court
Although no water voles were seen, there were plenty of indications that they were around, including droppings, feeding signs and footprints.
Later in the day, we dropped in at the nearby Ramsley resevoir, where a brown hare put in an appearance.
Photo: Steve Docker
Surveying for evidence of harvest mice takes place in winter.
This involves searching for their summer nests in reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) and common reed (Phragmites communis) in wetland areas as well as in cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata) and tufted hair grass (Deschampsia cespitosa) in rough grassland.
Photo: Anna Evans
Mammal trapping was concentrated at Carsington Water in 2005.
Longworth traps were placed in suitable spots on the ground.
Early morning inspection of the Longworth traps put out the previous evening revealed, amongst other species...
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...
a bank vole, placed into a box for further inspection, before being released next
to where it was trapped.
Other species trapped included common shrew, wood mouse and field vole.
Photos: Jenny Docker
A
trip to the seaside? In December? Were we mad? Well, not when such excellent
views of grey seals and their pups were on offer.
Photo: Steve Docker
About 80 traps were set on the Saturday evening, the majority being Longworth traps, with a few Trip Traps.
Photos courtesy of : Jenny Wheeldon.
On Sunday morning we were out bright and early to find that 25 of them were occupied. The final count: 5 Bank Voles, 16 Wood Mice and 4 common shrews. Each animal was weighed, sexed and then released.
One of the first DMG events. A successful day at Erewash where a group of around 15 volunteers found a total of 20 harvest mice nests and also signs of field voles.
Photos courtesy of : Mike Ashford, Jenny Wheeldon.