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.