Warwickshire Mammal Group
News & Articles
2021
Events in 2021 were limited owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. However:
- Members investigated sites for evidence of water voles
- A "pips and pints" evening was held
- There was a joint harvest mouse project event with Worcestershire Mammal Group
- New committee members came onboard
- Mole records were collected during "Year of the Mole"
Talks Programme
Winter 2019/20
The winter season saw talks on badgers and TB by Richard Delahay, moles by Derek Crawley and the mammals of Warwickshire by Ben Wood.
Year of the Rabbit
2019
Rabbits appear to be under-recorded in Warwickshire so throughout 2019, we asked our mammal volunteers to go out searching for signs! More information can be found here.
Small mammal trapping
October 2019
Committee member Dr Deborah Wright ran a small mammal and owl pellet dissection workshop for the Dunsmore Living Landscape project on October 17th. The event took place at Coombe Country Park and 10 out of 22 longworth traps were filled with common shrew, bank vole, field vole and wood mouse species.
Small mammal trapping
June 2019
Pips and Pints
August 2019
We held a pips and pints night at The Wharf Inn, Fenny Compton. It was a great night with many a bat heard on the detectors, including the large noctule bats that come out early in the evening.
The mammal group demonstrated humane small mammal trapping at Foundry Wood on June 30th. Despite only being able to put the traps out for a few hours (owing to the heat!), several bank voles were found.
Hedgehog surveying
May 2019
Mammal Group volunteers got involved this May with nocturnal searches for hedgehogs. The surveying was part of a monitoring programme run by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, and involved counting and checking the health of 'hogs seen by torchlight as two "hedgehog hub" sites across the county. For more information on the Trust's hedgehog work and how to get involved, click here.
Dormouse footprint tunnels
Spring 2019
Following the reintroduction of hazel dormice to two sites in Warwickshire in 2017-2018, the mammal group and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust have been involved in finding out where our mice are moving! We want to know if they are dispersing outwards and moving around to other woods and footprint tunnels are a great way to do this. A tunnel making workshop was followed up by two practical sessions putting the tunnels out, and now volunteers can get involved in checking those tunnels. See our dormice page for more information.
Talks Programme
Winter 2018/19
The winter season saw some great talks and workshops on a range of species and habitats including dormice, bats and rabbits. We are looking to mix up the locations of our talks for the new season so please get in touch to let us know where you would like to see them!
Small Mammals and Owl Pellets
October 2018
© D Wright
Committee member Deborah Wright ran small mammal and owl pellet analysis workshops for the Dunsmore Living Landscape project at Coombe Country Park and the Tame Valley Wetlands project at Kingsbury Water Park.
Field voles, bank voles, wood mice, common shrews and even harvest mice (one weighing as little as 3g!) were all found in the humane traps.
Edible Dormouse Trip
September 2018
© D Wright
WMG members went on another in mid September to help out Roger Trout with the Edible Dormouse Monitoring Project in Tring, Hertfordshire. There were many many animals to monitor this time, because it is a breeding year. There were lots of new young very late in the season so a great chance to see all age ranges.
Talks Programme
Winter 2017/2018
© D Wright
The winter season saw some great talks on a range of species and topics including hedgehogs, water voles, pine martens, ecotherapy and bats in trees.
Badger ecology day
November 2017
© BadgerHero
On November 7th, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust held a day workshop on badger ecology, with a theoretical session in the morning, followed by a practical session onsite in the afternoon. The session was run by the Mammal Society's Derek Crawley and proved to be a highly interesting, if wet (!), day!
Edible Dormouse Trip
September 2017
© D Wright
© D Wright
Committee members went on another annual trip this September to help out Roger Trout with the Edible Dormouse Monitoring Project in Tring, Hertfordshire. Work was hands on, surveying nest boxes in a woodland for the edible dormouse Glis glis, an animal you don't see in Warwickshire. Animals were weighed, sexed and chipped as part of a monitoring programme, before being returned to their nesting box.
We hope to continue our annual trips to Tring, so keep on the look out!
Tame Valley Wetlands Wildlife Discovery Day
July 2017
The Mammal Group were at Kingsbury Water Park on Saturday 8th July for a 24 hour BioBlitz! Committee Members emptied humane small mammal traps in the morning, and found 2 field voles and a common shrew. Hedgehog Officer Debbie also checked footprint tunnels for signs of the elusive hedgehog. Mammal expert Derek Crawley was there to discuss all things mammaly!
Wild Fest
June 2017
Committee members went along to Nelson's Wharf and Taskers Meadow in June. They emptied humane small mammals traps and ran a guided walk, where they found a wood mouse. Other walks and demonstrations took place such as on butterflies, reptiles and amphibians.
Cherishing Churchyards
June 2017
Coventry diocese ran a 'Cherishing Churchyards Month' in June. Churches across Warwickshire held special events and services to celebrate their churchyards.
Mammal lovers could particularly get involved in three of the events. St James' Church in Alvestone emptied small mammal traps (and even found a yellow necked mouse!), Hedgehog Officer Debbie surveyed for hedgehogs at St Leonard's Church in Birdingbury, and All Saints Church in Leek Wootton built hedgehog homes.
For details of all of the events, please see www.dioceseofcoventry.org/DEG.
Coombe Country Park BioBlitz
May 2017
Committee members Tanya Carey and Debbie Wright went along to Coombe Country Park for a BioBlitz in mid May. They emptied humane small mammals traps and checked hedgehog footprint tunnels to see what they could find. Other taxonomic groups, such as beetles, were also surveyed, with a central results hub set up in the Visitors Centre.
Committee members Ben Wood and Tanya Carey gave a guided walk at Stake Park on May 5th. They were on the look out for bats and signs of other mammals.
Stoke Park Event
May 2017
Mammal Society Conference
Spring 2017
The annual Mammal Society conference took place 31st March-2nd April in Cambridge. The conference covered a wide range of topics from genetics, to climate change to landscape mapping. The legendary Simon King was keynote speaker on the Friday evening! Committee member Deborah Wright spoke about both hedgehogs and harvest mice on the Sunday.
Talks Programme
Winter 2016/2017
Our autumn and winter 2016/2017 programme of talks was a great success. Topics covered hedgehogs, deer, lions and otters and talks were held at different locations across the county.
Small Mammals and Owl Pellets
January, March, October and December 2017
© D Wright
Mammal Group committee member Debbie Wright has run a variety of introductory small mammals events and owl pellet dissection workshops for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Tame Valley Wetlands. Volunteers have had lots of fun learning how to ID small mammals both alive and from their bones!
Pips and Pints
August 2016
© B Wood
August saw the return of the annual 'Pips and Pints' night. This walk was from the Hatton Arms in Warwick.
There was a chance for a drink, an informal bat talk and then a walk along the Grand Union Canal listening out for bats using bat detectors. These picked up both common and soprano pips. This time included the added bonus of otter checks with spraint discovered along the way!
BioBlitz Events
Spring 2016
We went to several Bioblitz style events this spring, including the Earlswood Springwatch, Coombe Country Park BioBlitz and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Family Wild Life Discovery Day. Attendees were able to take part in guided walks and see how longworth trapping works. Hedgehog footprint tunnels were also set up.
It was great to see so many mammal enthusiasts. Hope to see you again next year!
Talks Programme
Winter 2015/2016
We enjoyed a winter 2015/2016 season of wonderful talks on mammals such as polecats, brown hares, grey squirrels
and harvest mice. A big thank you to all our great speakers!
© J Birks
© D Wright
© D Wright
Mammal Society Conference
Spring 2016
The annual Mammal Society conference took place in Staffordshire. Committee members Tanya Carey and Deborah Wright went along to talk all things mammals. There were interesting talks about a wide range of topical issues including invasive species, genetic advances, diseases, sharing data and citizen science. It was a great place to meet other mammal enthusiasts and get up to speed on current developments. It was also a good chance to enjoy Mammal Photographer of the Year entries.
Harvest Mouse Project
October 2015 - April 2016
Committee member and former Harvest Mouse Officer, Deborah Wright, worked with the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust for 6 months on a small mammals project. The work was funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and sought to investigate the distribution of harvest mice across the county. Deborah spent her winter out and about looking for signs of this elusive and tiny mammal.
The harvest mouse is very small, weighing in at only 6g. It is russet-coloured above and white below, with small furry ears, a short muzzle and a long, prehensile tail. This long tail can help to differentiate harvest mice from voles. Their main habitat is tall and dense grassy vegetation. They weave distinctive nests from grass leaves, situated between grass stems, which are often above the ground.
Unfortunately, numbers are thought to be declining due to habitat loss and changes in farming practices. Deborah's project aimed to find out more about where harvest mice are living in the county and what habitats they are using, to aid future conservation work for the species. She found evidence of the little mammal across the county in a range of habitats from farmland to wetland to drier grassland. A key message to come from the project was the importance of keeping habitats connected.
The final report of Deborah's project can be downloaded by clicking on the PDF icon to the right.
A harvest mouse (left), characteristic nest (right) and a group conducting a nest search (below)
© Photos by Deborah Wright.
© D Wright
Grand Launch Day
May 2015
The Warwickshire Mammal Group grand launch day on 9th May was a great success. With fantastic talks from our guest speaker, mammal ecologist Roger Trout, and practical sessions of small mammal trapping, owl pellet analysis and a search for tracks and signs around Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, 11 species of mammal were recorded during the day from mice, shrews and voles to badgers, foxes and otters. Guests were able to meet a captive hazel dormouse (an incredibly rare species in Warwickshire) and lots of new ideas were put together for future mammal group events.
Roger Trout shows the small mammal traps to the group, guests search for tracks and signs around the reserve and a wood mouse is found in a trap set in the bramble scrub.
© Photos by Steven Cheshire.