-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
John's mammals 2007 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Cracking day (and night) out on Saturday, on a PTES bat trip with Wiltshire Bat Group at Savernake Forest. I can thoroughly recommend this particular trip, I've done it twice and had a good time with lots of bats both times.
Marion came along on this one and got no less than four mammal ticks in one go, putting her UK mammal list onto 52.
We convened at the car park on the edge of the forest at 1000 on Saturday morning, splitting into two groups to keep numbers sensible and to check bat boxes in two separate areas. Each group was to go through 49 boxes which can require some speed and determination to get round them all if there are a lot of bats to be processed.
When we started off there were Tawny Owls calling and someone quickly put up a Woodcock that turned out to be a September tick for me. A good start before we even saw any bats!
The third pair of boxes we struck lucky: one had a Common Pipistrelle in it - seen and listened to loads, but never seen one in the hand before so that was really good - the other box had 26 Brown Long-eared Bats in it - no. 50 for the year list and 49 on Maz's UK list! The bat handlers split into two processing lines to get through them all, while still making sure us trippers got decent views and pix. Brown Long-ears are delightful little bats - how could they be anything else with those Disney ears? By the time we'd got through them and checked a few more boxes in that section of the forest it was time to break for lunch.
While we were woofing sandwiches, bananas etc two things happened: a licensed mammal handler went to check a particular box out and the other group rang up and asked if anyone wanted to see a Noctule in the hand. Yeahhh! Just as the requested bat arrived, back came the other bloke with a juvenile Common Dormouse and Marion got her second tick of the day - a cracking one for her no. 50, Common Dormouse must be the cutest animal in Britain, surely! One or two of the Savernake boxes have dormice in, but as one of the bat group said, some of the dormouse boxes have bats in so fair enuffski. I managed some in the hand dormouse shots to knock off another photo-tick for the year.
We turned our attention to the Noctule which on being removed from its bag started shrieking in the audible part of the spectrum at such intensity that the call had physical force. It actually hurt the ears if directed straight at your head, from up to six feet away. Considering how big they look in flight I was surprised how small it was, but even so it was at least twice as big as any other bat I'd seen up close and a lot more bulky. As for the teeth.....
All that sorted, we headed off to get on with our bat box check. A few dry holes later on, our leader was up a tree peering into a flat box when bats began pouring out of it - they'd been so lively that before he could get it closed up they were crawling over the lip and then he couldn't. No less than twelve Barbastelles came out and a couple circled several times before winging off into the woods, so in daylight we could see how black they are all over. The bat people seemed fairly unworried, saying we'd probably get them all on the way round, and in fact we did find eleven over the afternoon so its a fair bet they were the ones we'd seen emerge. We went through the processing, inspecting and photographing again with the bat equivalent of Pete Postlethwaite, admiring the frosted fur and plug-ugly features. 51 on my year list and 51 on Maz's life list, a nice coincidence. Soon after this we recorded our only Grey Squirrel of the day.
After a nice meal in the Green Dragon in Marlborough we met up again at a disused railway tunnel for harp net and mist net trapping in the evening. A Serotine hunting fairly high overhead was never going to get itself caught but showed well in the dusk.
Once the light went the bats came out in the warm evening (I have to say we could not have had better weather on Saturday, no rain, warm sunshine, essentially windless, a bit of cloud cover towards evening) and we began to trap Natterer's. And more Natterer's. And more - and eventually a Daubenton's. A side-by-side comparison demonstrated how different these bats look in detail, whereas when you see them apart you keep thinking of them as similar. The Daub was Marion's fourth tick of the day, putting her up to 52.
A Bank Vole scuttled along the bank behind us, visible in my night scope. By 0100 when we gave up (the bat group was still carrying on) we had trapped and seen forty odd Nats, half a dozen Daubs, a couple more Brown Long-ears and another Barbastelle.
On the way home we added Rabbit, Red Fox and a group of Fallow Deer for a trip total of 13 mammal species. Bats to the point we left amounted to about 110 individuals. Bed was reached after a decompression drink at home at about 0345.
John
Marion came along on this one and got no less than four mammal ticks in one go, putting her UK mammal list onto 52.
We convened at the car park on the edge of the forest at 1000 on Saturday morning, splitting into two groups to keep numbers sensible and to check bat boxes in two separate areas. Each group was to go through 49 boxes which can require some speed and determination to get round them all if there are a lot of bats to be processed.
When we started off there were Tawny Owls calling and someone quickly put up a Woodcock that turned out to be a September tick for me. A good start before we even saw any bats!
The third pair of boxes we struck lucky: one had a Common Pipistrelle in it - seen and listened to loads, but never seen one in the hand before so that was really good - the other box had 26 Brown Long-eared Bats in it - no. 50 for the year list and 49 on Maz's UK list! The bat handlers split into two processing lines to get through them all, while still making sure us trippers got decent views and pix. Brown Long-ears are delightful little bats - how could they be anything else with those Disney ears? By the time we'd got through them and checked a few more boxes in that section of the forest it was time to break for lunch.
While we were woofing sandwiches, bananas etc two things happened: a licensed mammal handler went to check a particular box out and the other group rang up and asked if anyone wanted to see a Noctule in the hand. Yeahhh! Just as the requested bat arrived, back came the other bloke with a juvenile Common Dormouse and Marion got her second tick of the day - a cracking one for her no. 50, Common Dormouse must be the cutest animal in Britain, surely! One or two of the Savernake boxes have dormice in, but as one of the bat group said, some of the dormouse boxes have bats in so fair enuffski. I managed some in the hand dormouse shots to knock off another photo-tick for the year.
We turned our attention to the Noctule which on being removed from its bag started shrieking in the audible part of the spectrum at such intensity that the call had physical force. It actually hurt the ears if directed straight at your head, from up to six feet away. Considering how big they look in flight I was surprised how small it was, but even so it was at least twice as big as any other bat I'd seen up close and a lot more bulky. As for the teeth.....
All that sorted, we headed off to get on with our bat box check. A few dry holes later on, our leader was up a tree peering into a flat box when bats began pouring out of it - they'd been so lively that before he could get it closed up they were crawling over the lip and then he couldn't. No less than twelve Barbastelles came out and a couple circled several times before winging off into the woods, so in daylight we could see how black they are all over. The bat people seemed fairly unworried, saying we'd probably get them all on the way round, and in fact we did find eleven over the afternoon so its a fair bet they were the ones we'd seen emerge. We went through the processing, inspecting and photographing again with the bat equivalent of Pete Postlethwaite, admiring the frosted fur and plug-ugly features. 51 on my year list and 51 on Maz's life list, a nice coincidence. Soon after this we recorded our only Grey Squirrel of the day.
After a nice meal in the Green Dragon in Marlborough we met up again at a disused railway tunnel for harp net and mist net trapping in the evening. A Serotine hunting fairly high overhead was never going to get itself caught but showed well in the dusk.
Once the light went the bats came out in the warm evening (I have to say we could not have had better weather on Saturday, no rain, warm sunshine, essentially windless, a bit of cloud cover towards evening) and we began to trap Natterer's. And more Natterer's. And more - and eventually a Daubenton's. A side-by-side comparison demonstrated how different these bats look in detail, whereas when you see them apart you keep thinking of them as similar. The Daub was Marion's fourth tick of the day, putting her up to 52.
A Bank Vole scuttled along the bank behind us, visible in my night scope. By 0100 when we gave up (the bat group was still carrying on) we had trapped and seen forty odd Nats, half a dozen Daubs, a couple more Brown Long-ears and another Barbastelle.
On the way home we added Rabbit, Red Fox and a group of Fallow Deer for a trip total of 13 mammal species. Bats to the point we left amounted to about 110 individuals. Bed was reached after a decompression drink at home at about 0345.
John
Last edited:
Result of two nights' driving, bumped into a few mammals myself this weekend - family of Wild Boar on the roadside in Hel, not in the slightest fussed by my car stopping by them, and a Racoon Dog near Vilnius. Both at 3.00 a.m. on subsequent nights!
Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Five days away and very little to show for it. Had to go to Cumbria last Thursday for in-laws fiftieth wedding anniversary (coincided with Maz and my sixth but not many people noticed that) and stopped at Fishpond woods on the way up. Strongish bitter wind and grey skies = no small mammals (except 1 Bank Vole).
Continuing we had 6 Blackcock at Langdon Beck, a September tick but a worryingly low total. Fortunately, returning by the same route on 1 October 20 males was much more satisfying and an October tick.
Back at Fishpond Woods the weather was balmy, sunny periods, mild, windless: we both saw two and possibly three Water Shrews on and off for over an hour before they disappeared for a nap - but still no photos!
A fast run home untroubled by traffic problems got us in for Nature's Calendar and my two seconds of fame with the American Robin.
Continuing we had 6 Blackcock at Langdon Beck, a September tick but a worryingly low total. Fortunately, returning by the same route on 1 October 20 males was much more satisfying and an October tick.
Back at Fishpond Woods the weather was balmy, sunny periods, mild, windless: we both saw two and possibly three Water Shrews on and off for over an hour before they disappeared for a nap - but still no photos!
A fast run home untroubled by traffic problems got us in for Nature's Calendar and my two seconds of fame with the American Robin.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Sunday 7 October and at last the previous best mammal year list of 51 was broken.
Marion and I went to Thetford Forest to join Norfolk Bat Group's autumn box check. Its a bit of a race round as they have 360 boxes secreted around the forest (actually there are more but these are the ones that get done on the public check.)
I had a particular ambition for this trip, as the group often finds Leisler's Bat - which I needed - in a few boxes. Tension was kept at absolute zero as they pulled one out of the first clump of boxes to be checked! 52 for the year, 66 for life in the British Isles, and my 51st species photographed in these islands - fantastic!
I did actually enjoy the animal as well, smaller than a Noctule but bigger than anything else I've seen in the hand, with a shaggy mane and a distinctive squeak, higher pitched than Noctule in the hand (and not so forceful!) with a sort of hissing slur to it.
Based on that we decided only to do the first half of the day (in case anything broke on the Norfolk coast) during which we enjoyed another Leisler's, a Natterer's, about 30 Brown Long-ears, 3 Noctules and about 15 Pip sps. The group doesn't ring - apparently the ringing research in Thetford Forest is complete, but they didn't explain why and I didn't think to ask till the evening at home. They also don't bother doing Pips to species, which was a bit disappointing. However, I must emphasise that the trip was free, with all the volunteers putting up with us for no gain even for their group, so I rate it pretty highly - especially as I got a tick out of it!
In the afternoon the Lesser Grey Shrike turned up again at Holkham but unfortunately it disappeared again just before we got there. We had excellent views of Pinkfeet and other wildfowl, and both Marion and I think we detected an Otter (careful use of language here).
Alongside the track we were walking looking for the shrike, there was a hedge with a land drain type ditch beyond it. We couldn't see the near side because of the hedge, so when we heard something slide into the water we were left peering over on tiptoe at the expanding waves lapping at the far bank. We heard a swirl as the creature dived from in the water - more expanding circular waves - then saw the left side of a bow-wave heading off up the channel. I chased it but lost it behind a higher section of hedge.
I see Mink regularly and of course a whole range of waterfowl, and Mink don't produce waves anything like as big as this and a bird would have showed (and wouldn't have dived in straight underwater off the bank as this thing did) so I can't think what else it might have been. Ideas anybody?
John
Marion and I went to Thetford Forest to join Norfolk Bat Group's autumn box check. Its a bit of a race round as they have 360 boxes secreted around the forest (actually there are more but these are the ones that get done on the public check.)
I had a particular ambition for this trip, as the group often finds Leisler's Bat - which I needed - in a few boxes. Tension was kept at absolute zero as they pulled one out of the first clump of boxes to be checked! 52 for the year, 66 for life in the British Isles, and my 51st species photographed in these islands - fantastic!
I did actually enjoy the animal as well, smaller than a Noctule but bigger than anything else I've seen in the hand, with a shaggy mane and a distinctive squeak, higher pitched than Noctule in the hand (and not so forceful!) with a sort of hissing slur to it.
Based on that we decided only to do the first half of the day (in case anything broke on the Norfolk coast) during which we enjoyed another Leisler's, a Natterer's, about 30 Brown Long-ears, 3 Noctules and about 15 Pip sps. The group doesn't ring - apparently the ringing research in Thetford Forest is complete, but they didn't explain why and I didn't think to ask till the evening at home. They also don't bother doing Pips to species, which was a bit disappointing. However, I must emphasise that the trip was free, with all the volunteers putting up with us for no gain even for their group, so I rate it pretty highly - especially as I got a tick out of it!
In the afternoon the Lesser Grey Shrike turned up again at Holkham but unfortunately it disappeared again just before we got there. We had excellent views of Pinkfeet and other wildfowl, and both Marion and I think we detected an Otter (careful use of language here).
Alongside the track we were walking looking for the shrike, there was a hedge with a land drain type ditch beyond it. We couldn't see the near side because of the hedge, so when we heard something slide into the water we were left peering over on tiptoe at the expanding waves lapping at the far bank. We heard a swirl as the creature dived from in the water - more expanding circular waves - then saw the left side of a bow-wave heading off up the channel. I chased it but lost it behind a higher section of hedge.
I see Mink regularly and of course a whole range of waterfowl, and Mink don't produce waves anything like as big as this and a bird would have showed (and wouldn't have dived in straight underwater off the bank as this thing did) so I can't think what else it might have been. Ideas anybody?
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Postscript to yesterday:
Marion and I were playing roadkill bingo on our way round, and we were amazed by the quantity of dead Brown Rats on every road around Norfolk. They were everywhere! Around us you might see one a month if you get about a lot, but up in Norfolk they were every quarter mile or so and near farms, multiples. They must have had a bumper year, I don't remember seeing so many on previous visits.
Other victims included a dead Stoat on the A14, several Muntjacs, quite a lot of Grey Squirrels in Thetford Forest, loads of mashed Rabbits, a few Brown Hares, a Hedgehog and a Badger.
John
Marion and I were playing roadkill bingo on our way round, and we were amazed by the quantity of dead Brown Rats on every road around Norfolk. They were everywhere! Around us you might see one a month if you get about a lot, but up in Norfolk they were every quarter mile or so and near farms, multiples. They must have had a bumper year, I don't remember seeing so many on previous visits.
Other victims included a dead Stoat on the A14, several Muntjacs, quite a lot of Grey Squirrels in Thetford Forest, loads of mashed Rabbits, a few Brown Hares, a Hedgehog and a Badger.
John
...bar a slight geographical niceity
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Now I've beaten my own record the pressure's off on mammals this year, but I'm still keen to hit the October high tides on the Wirral (if there isn't a mega that day) - anyone know when the big ones are due or somewhere to look for the details?
John
John
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Hi John
Have a rummage around in here
http://www.deeestuary.co.uk/
Go to links, from there to tides, should sort you out, although I think the September tides tend to be the highest ones. Let me know if you plan to come up, I may join you.
James
Have a rummage around in here
http://www.deeestuary.co.uk/
Go to links, from there to tides, should sort you out, although I think the September tides tend to be the highest ones. Let me know if you plan to come up, I may join you.
James
Isurus
Well-known member
I'm curious what you're hoping for megawise john - cetaceans or off the mammals to bird sp.?
Loving this thread btw - really interesting and informative; when I'm back in the UK I might have to try for some of the more interesting sp. - the best I get out here is the odd mongoose.
Dead polecat type on the B4000 Ermin Street today between the A34 and M4, a pretty regular casulty since Ive been driving this road for the last 4 years.
Gareth
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I was really thinking of birds but a Walrus would go down really really well!
I've seen Harp and Bearded Seals (not this year) but Ringed (last one was taken into care too quick) or Hooded would be excellent.
The trouble with cetaceans is that usually they are either brief or dying/dead. Sperm whale would probably be top of the wish list.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Thanks for that James, the 10.0m on 27th Oct looks the best bet but of course it is dependent on getting that weather push from the NW: otherwise 9.8m the day before and 9.9m the day after. I shall be keeping those days free and keeping an eye on the forecast.
Off topic the first wintering Bramblings are back at Sandhurst outside my office this morning.
John
dafi
Well-known member
Morning John I was thinking if you are going to be on a sandy shore at the lowst of tides have you ever tried spoots. This is a lot of fun. Check out post 153[i think].
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=78594&page=6
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=78594&page=6
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I haven't and one day I will: but the objective here is to see the small mammals pushed off the saltmarsh by an extra-high spring tide (EHWS) pushed up further by a wind blowing straight up the estuary.
On a good day it can produce Moles, Water Shrews, Harvest Mice, Weasels, you name it. This spring the wind veered and it was a total flop, so I am hoping for a better day.
Cheers
John
On a good day it can produce Moles, Water Shrews, Harvest Mice, Weasels, you name it. This spring the wind veered and it was a total flop, so I am hoping for a better day.
Cheers
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Never seen a live one here. They certainly look good for the genuine article whenever Ive examined one closely. Ive been a bit lazy with this one, havent even stopped for a close look.
The stretch between Newbury and the A338 is fast and generally wooded, mixed plantation over ancient woodland, and plantation over heath near stockcross, mostly private estates. Always high mammal mortality on this road.
If you go past the A338 and continue on the B4000 the road is much less wooded here, and quieter too.
I travel the road regularly at night in the winter and have never had one run in front the car, but who knows, if you put in some effort and detour down the minor roads running to the lambourn valley/newbury road or down to the A4 at Hungerford?
Gareth
ps when I say regular I mean one or two a year at the most, which is more than other roads I travel along regularly. Hope that helps.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Yes, that is all helpful. It will definitely be worth having a look round when I can organise it.
The final question: are there any farms by the road that would have chickens round the yard, or barns full of straw bales, or cattle milking sheds where grain is dispensed? Any of these would attract rats/mice which would in turn be a big draw for Polecats.
Cheers
John
The final question: are there any farms by the road that would have chickens round the yard, or barns full of straw bales, or cattle milking sheds where grain is dispensed? Any of these would attract rats/mice which would in turn be a big draw for Polecats.
Cheers
John
Not directly on the road, but down the minor roads there are farms. All the polecat roadkill has been south of the M4 crossing. Good luck if you try, I think its a long shot. If you send me a pm when you do, Ill offer you a cuppa if you want, assuming im around, as im not too far away.
Gareth
Similar threads
