Dormouse Blog.

I went to my usual place, Andrew had asked for volunteers to do the survey, and as I hadn’t been all this season, I’d agreed to go–well, it’s always good research material for Bike.

It’s been a bad season, with very few dormice seen in the nesting boxes, which tends to suggest either dormouse numbers have plummeted or they’re not using the boxes. We checked fifty or sixty nest boxes, we found one dormouse. A couple of nest boxes had been used–nesting material was in them, but no dormice. It looked like a bird had used one–we found an egg in one of them and the remains of a bumble bee nest in another.

The weather was warm and humid with heavy rain forecast, fortunately that didn’t happen until I got home again, so it was hard work walking up and down the hanging woodland we were working in. My knees certainly feel worse for it and I was dripping wet when I got back to the car.

Was it worth a three hour drive there and back? Yes, my knees might not agree but I thought it was good fun. I’m mixing with like minded people, most of whom are ecology graduates, but occasionally rank amateurs like me turn up as well. I’m still intent on getting a dormouse licence, so I suspect some more traipsing up and down the hill will be necessary before that happens. Oh and we did see one dormouse, that’s always worth the effort. Mind you, cyclists were out in force and I did feel a little envious of them, especially the one or two who were cruising up the hill like it was flat.