Land Mammal Identification - Day 1

This weekend I am attending the third and final module (this year) for the MMU Certificate in Biological Recording and Species Identification – a three day course on Land Mammal Identification.  I am back at the Field Studies Council centre at Preston Montford, this time in one of the newly refurbished rooms in the old house. A few people dropped out so we have ended up with a group of eight students plus our tutor Gareth, which is a good number as we get more hands on experience and can see what is going on when out in the field.

Today, Saturday, was our first full day.  Yesterday evening after arrival we had a short session on small mammal trapping, and learned how to set a Longworth trap. We placed them out in the grounds, but locked them open so that no animals would be trapped but they would have the chance to get familiarised with them being there.  This morning we revisited the traps and set them to trigger.

Our focus today has continued to be on small mammals, so this morning’s lecture session was on the identification and ecology of mice, shrews and voles.  We also looked at a different sort of trap, a plastic tube trap, learned how to set this up and placed them out at another location nearby.  When we checked the traps later in the day we had captured a Common Shrew, a Field Vole and a Bank Vole ... not an overwhelming result but nice to see some specimens in the flesh nevertheless. We will continue to do the trapping all weekend so hopefully will catch some more, and different species, as it would be great to get some experience in handling them.

This afternoon we had a field trip to look at water voles. The minibus took us up to Nantwich to look at a site on the Shropshire Union Canal. We saw field signs for Field Voles and also found some Otter spraint, but after walking a mile or so there were no signs of water voles. We turned and came back to the minibus, and came across a couple of juvenile Field Voles on the path – one was dead, the other was still alive but a little subdued – possibly victims of a cat attack.

We then drove on to a small nature reserve – Stags Brook at Whitchurch. This was a more typical water vole site, with a small stream running through it and abundant vegetation. alongside. We saw field signs for badger, and - after a bit of a scramble to get under the bridge - we also found three sets of footprints for fox, water vole and rat. It was a little disappointing not to see an actual water vole, but it was useful to look at different field signs.  I was sad to learn that this site, which holds the largest population of water voles in Shropshire, is facing redevelopment as a marina.

After dinner we had a short lecture on water vole ecology and conservation. I was surprised that in many parts of the country mink predation is not a major problem and the two species can co-exist quite happily if habitat is suitable.  In Yorkshire, however, water vole do make up a much larger part of the mink diet so predation is a more serious issue. The evening drew to a close as we joined students on one of the other courses to watch 30+ Soprano Pipistrelle bats emerge from the stable block at dusk.

Invasive Plant Surveys

I am currently volunteering 2-3 days per week on the Invasive Non Native Species project for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.  The main aims of the project this year are to map the presence and abundance of eight particularly problematic species that occur across South and West Yorkshire (and much of the rest of the UK).  Although we have a number of volunteer surveyors helping us with this task, there are still a number of sub-catchment areas that need surveying. To this end, I have spent much of August out and about carrying out invasive species surveys.  This basically involves walking an area, concentrating on water bodies and rivers, and looking for invasive plants. A lot of our volunteer surveyors key the results directly to PlantTracker on a mobile phone app, but I have an older phone so have been noting the results down and then typing them onto the PlantTracker website when I get home. 

So far I have carried out surveys along the stretches of the Lower Aire and much of the Upper Dearne including it's tributaries. Himalayan Balsam is prevalent along most of the lowland water courses, but I have also come across some quite big stands of Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed.  The photo shows a particularly large stand of Giant Hogweed that I found near Ferrybridge.  I will be carrying on the surveys in September, probably focusing on the west of the county and the Upper Calder catchments.

OU Hydrology & Meteorology Residential

On 25^th July I left home to take part in the second residential element of my Practical Environmental Science course. I had a lovely drive through the Yorkshire Dales, and stopped en route to carry out a few quick surveys for invasive plants along the Upper Aire catchment including Otterburn and Winterburn Beck - none were visible thank goodness.

I arrived at Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre and we met up over dinner. There were a few familiar faces and also some new ones. It quickly became apparent that this would be a slightly more relaxed weekend than the first residential – perhaps because we knew what to expect - but it did also feel there was slightly less work to do and data to crunch.

For the first two days we were in learning mode. We visited the met station by the tarn and learned about the various instruments used to measure rainfall, wind speed, sunshine hours etc.  The infrared thermometer blew my mind a little … it was used to measure the temperature of the clouds, and I just can't get my head around how you can measure something so far away!

We then practiced taking some readings of our own, using an anemometer to measure wind speed and a whirling hygrometer to measure wet and dry bulb temperature and thus calculate humidity. 

Over the course of the three days we were split into groups, each having a different site and different project task to complete. Part of this involved walking up the hill to our met station to measure rainfall, temperature, wind and humidity.

On the first day we learned how to take readings of ground water. This including using surveying equipment to measure the gradient of the land and the water table.  We also learned about dip wells and how to calculate soil water flow from the rate of infill.

On the second day we learned more about stream hydrology.  We looked at the various methods for measuring the cross-sectional area of a stream and how much water is flowing through it. The most fun of these was lobbing an orange in the water and timing how long it took to travel ten metres, though there were more complex methods to learn too!

On the last day, our group was free to use whatever skills we had picked up over the weekend to gather data for our own catchment project.  With the weather being warm and dry in recent weeks, we were one of the few groups to have running water in the catchment, so we used a hydroprop to measure the flow rate of the stream.  We also took some water chemistry measurements, which gave quite interesting results that suggest the water is coming from outside the catchment and deep underground, as it is cold and acidic.

It was an enjoyable few days with good company. I've already made a good start to my project write-up, so hopefully this will be a fairly painless assignment to complete.