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John's mammals 2007 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Ok. According to "A review of British mammals: population estimates and conservation status of British mammals other than cetaceans" (JNCC 1995)
Polecat (Mustela putorius)
After discussing the finer details of where in west Wales the Ploecat (whoops, typo, but I quite like it, so I'll keep it in) stronghold remained early in 20th century - "At this time Polecats where either extinct or virtually so over most of England and Scotland". Also mentioned are various introductions (Cumbria, Oban & Speyside) but "both the purity of stock ... and their current fate are unknown".
Feral Ferret (M. furo)
Status is described as "Introduced. Established on a few islands and some mainland areas". This includes Mull (since at least late 1920s), Harris, Islay Shetland & the Uists; it is reckoned that they do best on islands with fewer mammal predators and plenty of Rabbits
For what its worth Ferret seems well established on Islay (survived a two year eradication attempt in the '80s) so should probably be considered tickable.
So it looks like Tim's sightings would have been Ferrets, but part of a self sustaining feral population, rather than random escapes.
James
Polecat (Mustela putorius)
After discussing the finer details of where in west Wales the Ploecat (whoops, typo, but I quite like it, so I'll keep it in) stronghold remained early in 20th century - "At this time Polecats where either extinct or virtually so over most of England and Scotland". Also mentioned are various introductions (Cumbria, Oban & Speyside) but "both the purity of stock ... and their current fate are unknown".
Feral Ferret (M. furo)
Status is described as "Introduced. Established on a few islands and some mainland areas". This includes Mull (since at least late 1920s), Harris, Islay Shetland & the Uists; it is reckoned that they do best on islands with fewer mammal predators and plenty of Rabbits
For what its worth Ferret seems well established on Islay (survived a two year eradication attempt in the '80s) so should probably be considered tickable.
So it looks like Tim's sightings would have been Ferrets, but part of a self sustaining feral population, rather than random escapes.
James
Hi John, Ive enjoyed reading this thread. Im assuming you cannot count trapped mammals for some reason, eg Longworth traps/Dormouse tubes etc (I didnt see any explanation when I read the thread)? Why is that ?
Ive just returned from Shetland; White Sided Dolphin from the ferry, and Otter was just about the first mammal I saw on the Islands. I probably did see Rabbit first, but that dont sound so good.
Cheers
Gareth
Farnboro John
Well-known member
No. I've no objection to ticking out of traps, I just prefer to see things doing their thing in the wild if possible, ditto photos.
Congrats on the White-sided Dolphin, the only ones of those I've ever seen were off Scilly in (I think) October 1994.
Glad you enjoy the thread, I enjoy posting on it. Others are welcome to add their bits especially any tips on species I'm struggling with (Weasel springs to mind immediately but Polecat is a strong contender...) Locations, habits or techniques appreciated.
John
Congrats on the White-sided Dolphin, the only ones of those I've ever seen were off Scilly in (I think) October 1994.
Glad you enjoy the thread, I enjoy posting on it. Others are welcome to add their bits especially any tips on species I'm struggling with (Weasel springs to mind immediately but Polecat is a strong contender...) Locations, habits or techniques appreciated.
John
Ok. Cant help on the mustelids you mention, they are pot luck. Dormouse are not so difficult if you know someone who has a good nestbox monitoring scheme. Im monitoring a couple of woods, but have yet to see a Dormouse in 2007, and only saw 2 in 2006, so you would have to be very lucky if you came along to one that I do.
Im hopefully going give Bechsteins Bat a bash this year. I'll let you know details on an email if I do go and get it.
Gareth
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'm going to be busy today so just a brief sketch of the weekend, might put more on later in the week.
Saturday morning paid a call on the Lancashire Eagle Owls. Wow. Had hen harrier on a different ridge on the way up, also Buzzard and Kestrel, the last within about half a mile of the EOs. Mammal wise saw the adult male EO fly at something on our side of the gorge, kill was out of sight. He took it back to feed to one of the chicks: Field Vole. Glad I'd already year-ticked it or that would have been gutting. Amazed he (a) bothered with it and (b) detrected it from over fifty yards in habitat with plenty of cover for voles. Away from the nest area heard a Rabbit screaming in rushes but couldn't find the mugging going on. Vole holes in profusion all over the hillside.
Saturday evening started testing the new mammal book by going to Middleton in Teesdale. OK, it works. Whiskered Bats emerging from the Filed Studies Centre (yes, ID'd by their emergence from the Field Studies Centre.)
Noctules whizzing about over the field on the other side of the road.
Pip sps. in among the trees (no bat detector). Daubenton's Bats in good numbers skimming the Tees below the bridge. Record shots of them zipping over the water taken from the stony beach under the bridge.
Sunday lie in, then cross country from Cumbria (staying with in-laws) to Fish Pond Plantation between Hickleton and Hooton Pagnall, just off A1 J37 and A635 towards Barnsley. Water Vole, Bank Vole, Common Shrew and excellent views (tick for Marion) but failed on pix of Water Shrew despite 5 hour stake out. This is an awesome site for WS and pretty respectable overall.
Red Fox when nearly home.
John
Saturday morning paid a call on the Lancashire Eagle Owls. Wow. Had hen harrier on a different ridge on the way up, also Buzzard and Kestrel, the last within about half a mile of the EOs. Mammal wise saw the adult male EO fly at something on our side of the gorge, kill was out of sight. He took it back to feed to one of the chicks: Field Vole. Glad I'd already year-ticked it or that would have been gutting. Amazed he (a) bothered with it and (b) detrected it from over fifty yards in habitat with plenty of cover for voles. Away from the nest area heard a Rabbit screaming in rushes but couldn't find the mugging going on. Vole holes in profusion all over the hillside.
Saturday evening started testing the new mammal book by going to Middleton in Teesdale. OK, it works. Whiskered Bats emerging from the Filed Studies Centre (yes, ID'd by their emergence from the Field Studies Centre.)
Noctules whizzing about over the field on the other side of the road.
Pip sps. in among the trees (no bat detector). Daubenton's Bats in good numbers skimming the Tees below the bridge. Record shots of them zipping over the water taken from the stony beach under the bridge.
Sunday lie in, then cross country from Cumbria (staying with in-laws) to Fish Pond Plantation between Hickleton and Hooton Pagnall, just off A1 J37 and A635 towards Barnsley. Water Vole, Bank Vole, Common Shrew and excellent views (tick for Marion) but failed on pix of Water Shrew despite 5 hour stake out. This is an awesome site for WS and pretty respectable overall.
Red Fox when nearly home.
John
Jane Turner
Well-known member
Allen; said:
I lost the ability to hear Noctules when I was about 20.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Yippee! Finally nailed Hedgehog last night. I had just left the Prince of Wales (a top real ale pub near Farnborough North railway station) when I noticed a ball of prickles between two parked cars. Unfortunately there are lots of double yellow lines around there, so by the time I had parked and run back, the little blighter had uncurled and disappeared into a garden. A brief torchlit search didn't come up with him and there is a limit to how much you can flash a light around other people's houses at half past eleven at night so I had to give up.
37 for the year.
John
37 for the year.
John
Apologies for quality of photo - it was only an hour and a bit short of midnight, but a tip on mole spotting ...keep an eye on the the beaks of all your neighbourhood storks
I know, I know, there is one slight disadvantage in this technique for Hants-based mammal spotters, but...Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Guess I'll just have to head for Harewood then.
The other disadvantage is that the mole must be still thrashing about!
Bravo Jos
John
The other disadvantage is that the mole must be still thrashing about!
Bravo Jos
John
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
Hi John,
Still enjoying this thread. Just wondering if you have any tips when IDing voles in the field. At the Yorkshire Birdforum meet last Sunday we had a couple of voles under the feeders at Forge Valley. Is it possible to identify the species from a small distance i.e. from a vehicle?
Still enjoying this thread. Just wondering if you have any tips when IDing voles in the field. At the Yorkshire Birdforum meet last Sunday we had a couple of voles under the feeders at Forge Valley. Is it possible to identify the species from a small distance i.e. from a vehicle?
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Should be, yes.
If you can see the whole animal then Field Vole aka Short-tailed Vole really does have a disproportionately short tail. Its fur is greyish-brown, sometimes with a yellowish tint especially on the flanks.
Bank Voles are a bit smaller (though this probably needs field experience to judge!) and distinctly reddish brown, with a tail that is much longer, about the same length as the body or nearly so I should think.
Its not really safe to make clear judgements based on habitat (for instance the place I have been watching Field Voles this year is relatively small patches of short turf with longer grass and other herbaceous vegetation, surrounded by woodland) but if you are in closed canopy woodland you will almost certainly get Bank rather than Field Voles.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
This weekend's news: I took Friday off and left for Wales at lunchtime. By evening I was circling the roads in the vicinity of Usk Reservoir SW of Sennybridge. There are substantial conifer plantations, upland sheepwalk, and valleys of bubbling rivulets, copses, fields with big hedgerows and plenty of Rabbits, and narrow lanes.
It took me until 2230 to get a view of a Polecat crossing a road with a distinctive rocking-horse gait that surprised me: I was expecting the bounding of a Stoat or the bounce and float of a Pine Marten.
I also encountered a big fox cub adventuring alone away from his den, who having slipped away from the road through a hedge then stopped to see what he had escaped from and got photographed for his pains; a Brown Hare that seemd confused by the headlights and sat up in the middle of the road while I craned out of the window with camera, one foot on brake, one on clutch, and reeled off four frames before he lolloped to my left and pushed through thick vegtation and out of sight, and two Hedgehogs on a first date whose nose sniffing was interrupted by the sound of locked wheels as I rounded a corner ten yards away. They shot off the road before I could leap out with camera.
About 2300 it began to rain heavily and I began to run out of steam, so I parked up and slept in the car for four hours.
Roughly awake again at 3 in the morning I drove to and through Crychan forest, seeing another lightning fast Hedgehog disappear into undergrowth and judging that it would be possibly even better for Polecat than round Usk Res. Over the mountain road to Tregaron, where the tower hide seems to be no more (anyone shed any light?) as a result of which I walked clear across the bog on the old railway line, to the river: about twice as far as I should have had to go. I did hear half a dozen Groppers and eventually photographed one right by the track, as well as a pair of showy Whinchats.
Next stop was Gilfach, a Radnor Wildlife Trust reserve just north of Rhayader. In theory you can see Weasel, Stoat, Polecat, Otter and Badger here but just you try it! It has all the typical central Wales birds and I filled in a few gaps with Pied and Spotted Flycatchers and Wood Warbler as well as kites, Buzzards, Peregrine and Goshawk roaming overhead.
After an afternoon wandering about and a three hour stakeout I nailed the Weasel in the wall, a long-term resident in a dry stone wall between the reserve centre and the warden's house (a distance of about twenty yards). I got a better view of its hindquarters than its front as it whisked through the wall hunting Common Shrews (I saw 2 of them as well). The warden suggested winter/early spring would be better, before the long grasses, foxgloves etc grow up to obscure much of the wall.
I had planned a second night of driving roads, but had got chilled waiting for the Weasel and opted instead for a straight run home, arriving before midnight. No pix of the two new year ticks but the list up to 39 for the year and a great wildlife experience.
John
It took me until 2230 to get a view of a Polecat crossing a road with a distinctive rocking-horse gait that surprised me: I was expecting the bounding of a Stoat or the bounce and float of a Pine Marten.
I also encountered a big fox cub adventuring alone away from his den, who having slipped away from the road through a hedge then stopped to see what he had escaped from and got photographed for his pains; a Brown Hare that seemd confused by the headlights and sat up in the middle of the road while I craned out of the window with camera, one foot on brake, one on clutch, and reeled off four frames before he lolloped to my left and pushed through thick vegtation and out of sight, and two Hedgehogs on a first date whose nose sniffing was interrupted by the sound of locked wheels as I rounded a corner ten yards away. They shot off the road before I could leap out with camera.
About 2300 it began to rain heavily and I began to run out of steam, so I parked up and slept in the car for four hours.
Roughly awake again at 3 in the morning I drove to and through Crychan forest, seeing another lightning fast Hedgehog disappear into undergrowth and judging that it would be possibly even better for Polecat than round Usk Res. Over the mountain road to Tregaron, where the tower hide seems to be no more (anyone shed any light?) as a result of which I walked clear across the bog on the old railway line, to the river: about twice as far as I should have had to go. I did hear half a dozen Groppers and eventually photographed one right by the track, as well as a pair of showy Whinchats.
Next stop was Gilfach, a Radnor Wildlife Trust reserve just north of Rhayader. In theory you can see Weasel, Stoat, Polecat, Otter and Badger here but just you try it! It has all the typical central Wales birds and I filled in a few gaps with Pied and Spotted Flycatchers and Wood Warbler as well as kites, Buzzards, Peregrine and Goshawk roaming overhead.
After an afternoon wandering about and a three hour stakeout I nailed the Weasel in the wall, a long-term resident in a dry stone wall between the reserve centre and the warden's house (a distance of about twenty yards). I got a better view of its hindquarters than its front as it whisked through the wall hunting Common Shrews (I saw 2 of them as well). The warden suggested winter/early spring would be better, before the long grasses, foxgloves etc grow up to obscure much of the wall.
I had planned a second night of driving roads, but had got chilled waiting for the Weasel and opted instead for a straight run home, arriving before midnight. No pix of the two new year ticks but the list up to 39 for the year and a great wildlife experience.
John
I think it was closed because it was unsafe when I last visited in 2002. Still standing at that point.
Gareth
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Something I forgot to mention: in conversation at Gilfach it was mentioned that a friend of the warden had been having trouble with squirrels chewing his nuts in his barn. Putting in cage traps resulted in catching a male Polecat, which was released unharmed. then a female was caught - and recaught - and recaught.
I've had this conversation before in Wales. When is someone going to wise up and start selling tickets?!!
John
I've had this conversation before in Wales. When is someone going to wise up and start selling tickets?!!
John
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
Thanks for the vole info. Sounds like I saw Bank Voles the other Sunday. Also well done with your Polecat and Weasel.
James Blake
chasing the shadow of a lowskimming gull
Hi John
Your thread continues to be a great read.
I'm going to be very near Buckfastleigh in a few weeks and will go and look at the horseshoe bats. I assume these are the ones mentioned in the new mammal guide.
Where exactly do you think is the best place to watch from? And when did they appear?
Cheers
James
Your thread continues to be a great read.
I'm going to be very near Buckfastleigh in a few weeks and will go and look at the horseshoe bats. I assume these are the ones mentioned in the new mammal guide.
Where exactly do you think is the best place to watch from? And when did they appear?
Cheers
James
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I haven't tried to watch the emergence as the book suggests, or for that matter to watch around the bar lights, so I can't comment on how good those options are.
What I do is follow the road up the hill past the abbey. Where it crests the ridge there is a left turn which leads to the ruined church whose spire is floodlit and visible from several miles up the A38! Park there and walk down into the path that leads down the hill past the back of the churchyard. It is completely overhung with trees and forms a green tunnel within which the bats can be seen whipping literally past your face.Red torch or NVA obviously a great help but you can make them out without when they first emerge, half an hour to an hour after sunset.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Cheers
John
James Blake
chasing the shadow of a lowskimming gull
Many thanks John. I'll be in Devon in either July or August and will report back.
James
James
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