The Final Tally

We have been keeping a close tally on all the British mammal species for which we have seen either the animal themselves, field signs of, or heard on a bat detector, so here is our final tally:

1. Badger; 2. Woodmouse; 3. Muntjac Deer; 4. Fox; 5. Mole; 6. Water vole; 7. Field vole; 8. Roe Deer; 9. Otter; 10. Hedgehog; 11. Common pipistrelle bat; 11. Soprano pipistrelle bat; 13. Brown long-eared bat; 14. Noctule bat; 15. Leislers bat; 16. Serotine bat; 17. Rabbit; 18. Brown rat; 19. Grey seal; 20. Greater horseshoe bat; 21. Grey squirrel; 22. Bank vole; 23. Brown hare; 24. Harvest mouse; 25. Common shrew; 26. Dormouse; 27. Pygmy shrew

Personally I'm hugely proud of that record with two young children and hopefully we can reach our target for fundraising on behalf of the Mammal Society. If nothing else, it's given them something to focus on over the past few months and perhaps given, at least Turtle, a small insight into the work their mum does!

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.

The last push

 I knew we were leaving finding our last seven species right up to the last minute, but I had a cunning and (hopefully) fool-proof plan... I scheduled a job involving Longworth trapping of small mammals at a site where last year we found a plethora of species to finish on a Saturday morning, meaning I could take along at least one willing helper!

On the way into site Turtle herself noticed a brown hare nestled into the stubble and new shoots of the winter wheat, getting our day's tally off to a fine start. We had 60 live-capture traps to check in addition to three small-mammal camera trap boxes, and in the days before had already had four separate species.

We were not disappointed! Turtle was soon off, happily finding the trap points, collecting in the traps and pointing out the distinguishing features for each of the animals we caught. We had a flurry of field voles to begin with, shortly followed by bank voles and woodmice in the traps.

We were also confident that there were harvest mice on site and with the help of a colleague soon found an abandoned nest which was later confirmed by siting a live harvest mouse on one of the small mammal camera traps. With the addition of common shrew and a brief glimpse of a pygmy shrew on camera, and evidence of dormouse from another site, we calculate our final total to be a healthy 27 different species with one whole day to spare!

According to Turtle, this was THE BEST DAY EVER!  High praise indeed for having got her up super-early on the first day of holidays to get wet and muddy chasing after little critters!

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.

Bat girls, or Dandelion and Burdock

 A whats-app message on Saturday morning kick-started a great run of species for us:

    'Hiya. Is this wee guy okay here?' followed by a couple of photos:

After quickly establishing where it was I asked Turtle if she was interested in undertaking a spot of bat rescue with me - and I've never seen a 6yr old get dressed so quickly! I've done a number of bat rescues over the years, so Turtle is quite accustomed to watching me check over and deal with captive bats (to be clear, I am a licensed bat worker - not something anyone without experience should be undertaking).

We headed off and quickly found the unlucky bat held captive by a burdock plant. Turtle had the important job of holding the box in the car, and providing 50% of the audience at home while I carefully checked it over and removed the tiny hooks of the burdock from it's wings and tail. Seahorse at this point kept asking more and more loudly if she could cuddle the bat (err, No - but I'm very glad you're so interested and caring!).  It was a common pipistrelle, and probably a young of this year which would also explain it's ill-judged proximity to barbed vegetation, but otherwise looked in good condition with no obvious injuries once the hooks had been removed. Long discussions ensued about what we would call her - I opted for Dandelion, after all it was hooked up on Burdock, but the girls out-voted me with Bluebell. I'm still not impressed with that!

We left it in a darkened box with water during the day, and I took Turtle back with me that evening to release it, along with the young family who had first alerted me to it's presence.  She took very little time to warm up, but was reluctant to fly immediately - quite possibly discombobulated by the sheer noise two young children can make, especially when they are apparently being 'quiet' so as not to scare the bat, so I hung her on a tree and we kept an eye on her. Shortly afterwards she flew away, jut as we were picking up calls from other common pipistrelles, and also soprano pips. Thanks to Louise and Jonathan for letting us know she needed help!

Obviously we were out and about, so it was the perfect opportunity for a short bat walk, which quickly raised our species tally considerably: as well as two pipistrelle species we heard brown long-eared bats, several Noctules and a Leislers. I also haven't' yet had a chance to mention the Greater Horseshoe bat we found on the bat camera at Cardigan Castle on the last day of our holiday, but all in all it was a very batty week. 

Finally we had some great views of rabbits when releasing Dandelion (Bluebell) too. 

British mammal tally: 19 

Learn more about all sorts of bats as well as rabbits here

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.

The case of the curious rat

When packing for a week away with two young girls, the list of things to take is long and mainly seems to feature toys, cuddly toys, more toys, and vital toys that they didn't know existed a week ago, but now they simply cannot live without.  Oh, and a camera trap, obviously!

Turtle had long discussions with Seahorse about where this camera trap should be placed (I'm not entirely convinced Seahorse was allowed much of a say in the matter), but eventually they settled on a low wall holding the compost heap. I'd already noted some holes in the mound of grass cuttings so I was optimistic that we would get something on camera. 

Bingo. One brown rat who clearly noticed the camera and spent some time checking it out, before exiting stage left in order to do a complete pass across the camera. This animal had obviously seen some action at some stage in its' life, obvious from the little kink in the end of its' tail, but otherwise looked clean and healthy. 

There are two species of rat in the UK, with the brown rat being by far the more common - so much so that there have been rumours for years that you're never more than 6ft away from a rat! Is this a true representation of fact or mere scare-mongering? Check out this old article to learn more  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20716625

Personally I quite like rats. I've spent some time live-trapping them as part of a research project - not the easiest of species to trap but once they learnt they would be fed in the trap and re-released the same individuals would come back every night (very frustrating when my aim was to get as many different rats as possible...). Rats in your garden however shouldn't be cause for concern - in my humble opinion!

British mammal tally: 13 - WE ARE FINALLY HALF WAY THROUGH!

Learn more about brown rats here

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.

Away from Oxfordshire

 Like so many others we've been corralled close to home for months, however this week we're spreading our wings and have made it to Cardigan, West Wales for a week's holiday. I'm acutely conscious of the fact that our mammal target is not quite as advanced as I was hoping, but the reality is that spotting anything with small kids in tow is not the easiest and my idea that they would happily skip alongside me as I carry on working was way out. I had a great view of a bank vole last week, but by the time I'd managed to get their attention and they'd made it to where I was standing it was long gone. Similarly I've managed at least eight different bat species over the past few weeks, but never with the girls by my side, otherwise we would have smashed our 26 species target long ago!

Still, this week will hopefully provide different opportunities...  So far on our first day we made it to the coast and a well-known seal-spotting spot. I was well prepared - binoculars (my 'proper' ones, rather than their smudgy, bleary children's models), more snacks than you can shake a stick at, oh, and an off-road buggy with a flat tyre, which obviously filled me with joy when it made itself known at the furthest point of the walk (my husband and I had great 'fun' carrying it back up the cliff with Seahorse inside)!

Nevertheless, this was one time when we wouldn't be disappointed as we watched three grey seals playing in the water below us. The binoculars weren't even required, which was probably just as well, and even Seahorse commented on how they were all playing together and were friends. We spent a good ten minutes watching them before the girls got bored and demanded yet more snacks as we carried on our way  Further round the cliff we found two other individuals with more glimpsing views as they soon dived underwater and out of site.  

We had also been hoping to see common dolphins, but that level of luck unfortunately wasn't with us - but we have a few more days in the area so there may yet be another chance. As for now, well in typical Welsh fashion it's raining rather heavily, so mammal spotting is on hold for a little longer...

Ignore the finger - instructing on correct use of binoculars whilst taking a photo is not my forte!

There are the heads of two grey seals down there - honest!

British mammal tally: 12

Learn more about grey seals here

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.

   

Little grey squiggles

It's been a few weeks since my last post - Turtle's school opened up allowing her back a couple of days a week, and that, combined with early dawns and late dusks throughout July made mammal-spotting with two youngsters more tricky.

Nonetheless, we recently made a short trip up to see Grandparents in a socially-distant manner at their local park, and encountered no fewer than 4 grey squirrels. According to the girls the squirrels were playing peek-a-boo, and I really didn't have the heart to tell them that running straight up to whichever tree the squirrel was sat on, causing it to dodge around the back of the trunk fairly swiftly was more due to terror than game-playing!

    
Grey squirrels are possibly one of the most successful invasive mammals in the UK, and their seemingly cheeky antics have resulted in mixed reactions to their presence here. There have been widespread calls for culling to protect our slightly smaller red squirrel, and certainly there are some areas in the UK where this is a valid course of action. Grey squirrels carry a disease to which they are immune, but which has catastrophic impacts on the native reds, and will also compete for the same food source. However, in areas where the native red is absent - which in reality is large swathes of central and southern UK, mass eradication of the grey squirrel won't magically bring back the red without additional programmes to reintroduce it, even if there was a magic money-tree to fund all of this!  

The grey squirrel was the very first mammal I introduced to the girls on one of our many, many trips to the park. Their inquisitiveness and familiarity with people make them easy to get fairly close to in many urban parks and they can often be seen on domestic birdfeeders too.  Whilst they may not be a native species, it surely can't be wrong to love the one mammal that so many people actually see and can relate to on a daily basis?

    

British mammal tally: 11

Learn more about grey squirrels here and red squirrels here

If you are interested in supporting Turtle & Seahorse, and through them the Mammal Society please click here for our fundraising page - thank you.