JCL
Well-known member
Cracking stuff, John. Was hoping to try again on the way back from my own lammergeier dip, but the crew was too knackered. Still need them beavers.
James
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John's Mammals 2016 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
Cracking stuff, John. Was hoping to try again on the way back from my own lammergeier dip, but the crew was too knackered. Still need them beavers.
James
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Surrey Bat Group trapping last night, East end of the county (finished 0430 this morning, I actually had to take a nap this afternoon - wasted!): 3 Whiskered, 4 Alcathoe, 2 Soprano Pip, 1 Common Pip, 5 Brown Long-eared Bats.
Other than that only a couple of Bank Voles at Crookham Wharf recently.
John
Other than that only a couple of Bank Voles at Crookham Wharf recently.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Had another bat survey on Wednesday night. We caught quite a wide variety of bats at Bookham Common, but it was another lateish finish, into bed at 0330. That's the last one for a while as the bat group is taking time off while bats actually breed. Nobody wants a female popping a sprog into their hand at a processing site.
I have no current ambitions to be a bat handler, I'm not under training or anything: but bat groups can always do with someone for portering of kit from vehicles to trapping and processing sites, people to sit and scribe while the experts weigh, measure and otherwise assess what has been caught (often just identification can take a little while and involve magnifying glasses). In return you do learn a lot quite quickly, get the opportunity for in-hand and release photos, and get to see bats really close up. Plus you will make new friends and actually sitting round between trap checks retailing "war stories" is always a laugh. So if you are into mammals and aren't a member of your local bat group, I suggest you join. Sleep is over-rated.
Anyway, Wednesday night we had 15 bats (again). No Alcathoes this time, but Brown Long-ears, three Whiskered including one that for a short while had us going it might be a Brandt's (it wasn't but I'll put a pic in a later post, I'm days behind on pix right now), Natterer's, Daubenton's and both Common and Soprano Pips.
My foxes are pretty much OK: the core team of the super-intelligent Black Notch, still with his left hind leg useless, Double Top with fur growing back including her stick tail, and Spook, are all coming in frequently and last night Spook arrived with a fox I didn't recognise, though I will look at the pictures I got later.
John
I have no current ambitions to be a bat handler, I'm not under training or anything: but bat groups can always do with someone for portering of kit from vehicles to trapping and processing sites, people to sit and scribe while the experts weigh, measure and otherwise assess what has been caught (often just identification can take a little while and involve magnifying glasses). In return you do learn a lot quite quickly, get the opportunity for in-hand and release photos, and get to see bats really close up. Plus you will make new friends and actually sitting round between trap checks retailing "war stories" is always a laugh. So if you are into mammals and aren't a member of your local bat group, I suggest you join. Sleep is over-rated.
Anyway, Wednesday night we had 15 bats (again). No Alcathoes this time, but Brown Long-ears, three Whiskered including one that for a short while had us going it might be a Brandt's (it wasn't but I'll put a pic in a later post, I'm days behind on pix right now), Natterer's, Daubenton's and both Common and Soprano Pips.
My foxes are pretty much OK: the core team of the super-intelligent Black Notch, still with his left hind leg useless, Double Top with fur growing back including her stick tail, and Spook, are all coming in frequently and last night Spook arrived with a fox I didn't recognise, though I will look at the pictures I got later.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Right. Here's a Whiskered Bat photo. I hope I can describe it accurately for you. The bat group leader was sufficiently pleased to ask for a copy - maybe I should have asked him for a commentary...
We're looking at the left upper jaw. Big front tooth is the Canine, just behind that Premolar 1 (P1) is peeking out. Between that and the next big tooth is P2, which is tiny - I promise you that is really a tooth. Then P3 is massive. On the inner side of P3 you can see a protuberance: that, I'm assured, is a protocone and because it is substantially higher than P2's totality this is a Whiskered Bat.
Now look at the fingers holding the bat and consider just how small those teeth really are.... bat identification even in the hand isn't always easy!
John
We're looking at the left upper jaw. Big front tooth is the Canine, just behind that Premolar 1 (P1) is peeking out. Between that and the next big tooth is P2, which is tiny - I promise you that is really a tooth. Then P3 is massive. On the inner side of P3 you can see a protuberance: that, I'm assured, is a protocone and because it is substantially higher than P2's totality this is a Whiskered Bat.
Now look at the fingers holding the bat and consider just how small those teeth really are.... bat identification even in the hand isn't always easy!
John
Attachments
MarkHows
Mostly Mammals
A quick catch up, several hedgehogs including one garden resident, Sika deer, water vole and brown rat at Arne, roe deer everywhere, dead stoat in New Forest, weasel in Dorset, and of course the beaver in Devon along with an otter at the same time.
Mark
Mark
Attachments
MarkHows
Mostly Mammals
Farnboro John
Well-known member
final found time to review the last couple of pages above this post and realised I have failed to complete the Scottish tour and missed out a load of stuff since. I can't wax as lyrical at this distance in time but at least the photos will look as good as they did at the time....
When last heard of in Scotland we were cruising around on a cloudy afternoon failing to find very much. We ate early in order to be ready for our second session at the Speyside Wildlife Hide, which we were now much more rested for and with Pine Marten already under the belt, quite relaxed as well.
We got lucky, with visits from two female Pine Martens - the local adult and the younger one which is one of its offspring. They were around at roughly the same time but didn't really interact: they did produce another crippling performance from which I got a few decent pictures. The mini-Badgers also put on a lively performance and by the time we went home we were pretty content.
John
Pine Marten X 4
When last heard of in Scotland we were cruising around on a cloudy afternoon failing to find very much. We ate early in order to be ready for our second session at the Speyside Wildlife Hide, which we were now much more rested for and with Pine Marten already under the belt, quite relaxed as well.
We got lucky, with visits from two female Pine Martens - the local adult and the younger one which is one of its offspring. They were around at roughly the same time but didn't really interact: they did produce another crippling performance from which I got a few decent pictures. The mini-Badgers also put on a lively performance and by the time we went home we were pretty content.
John
Pine Marten X 4
Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Farnboro John
Well-known member
The following day we drove up to the North coast to try to clock some of the bird goodies up there - clanged out on White-billed Divers, which had been seen the day before (and were seen again the day after, blast them) but connected with an Iceland Gull and a drake Green-winged Teal. Mammal-wise we were delighted with very close views of Grey Seals fishing for dabs or flounders inside Burghead harbour, and we also had distant views of a big seal roost up near Findhorn that included a load of Commons.
Clare finished the day off on a high note, finding a brilliant male Hen Harrier "somewhere in the Cairngorms" - a pox on all grouse-shooters and gamekeepers that put me off sharing the location. I hope the ticks and midges give them a really hard time.
John
Grey Seal X 2
Common Seal
Clare finished the day off on a high note, finding a brilliant male Hen Harrier "somewhere in the Cairngorms" - a pox on all grouse-shooters and gamekeepers that put me off sharing the location. I hope the ticks and midges give them a really hard time.
John
Grey Seal X 2
Common Seal
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
We didn't see anything else of note in Scotland unless you count a Surf Scoter at several miles range from Ruddon's Point (it was off Lower Largo!) so onwards to a successful Wild Boar trip to the Forest of Dean.
Boar are not easy to see in the Forest even by searching carefully, except when large numbers of piglets necessitate almost round-the-clock feeding and wandering through the woods. Of course, at those times the females are very wary and a big sounder can disappear into a thicket in a couple of seconds, so fieldcraft is at a premium.
Anyway, we struck lucky with a youngish male.
Wild Boar X 5 (100mm lens)
John
Boar are not easy to see in the Forest even by searching carefully, except when large numbers of piglets necessitate almost round-the-clock feeding and wandering through the woods. Of course, at those times the females are very wary and a big sounder can disappear into a thicket in a couple of seconds, so fieldcraft is at a premium.
Anyway, we struck lucky with a youngish male.
Wild Boar X 5 (100mm lens)
John
Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Two days later I was in Norfolk with Steve and we had some really splendid boxing Brown Hares around Choseley before finding three Muntjac in paddocks at Holme (best one illustrated) after we had knocked off distant Bean Goose.
Brown Hare X 4
Muntjac
John
Brown Hare X 4
Muntjac
John
Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Continuing with the catch-up, I had an afternoon twitch to Minsmere for Thayer's Gull (which I was duly underwhelmed by) and enjoyed a short while photographing Rabbits near the North Bushes, where a youngster panther crawled after its litter-mates before pouncing on them (honestly, never seen anything like it - that Rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide!)
Not long afterwards I spent a day at Woodwalton Fen looking for Chinese Water Deer.
Then on 23rd April I was back in the Forest of Dean photographing two litters of humbugs travelling as a single crèche with two sows in charge. One Piglet came almost right up to us and had a good look before retreating to a safer position near its mum.
John
Rabbit
Chinese Water Deer
Wild Boar X 3
Not long afterwards I spent a day at Woodwalton Fen looking for Chinese Water Deer.
Then on 23rd April I was back in the Forest of Dean photographing two litters of humbugs travelling as a single crèche with two sows in charge. One Piglet came almost right up to us and had a good look before retreating to a safer position near its mum.
John
Rabbit
Chinese Water Deer
Wild Boar X 3
Attachments
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Finally (I think) the First of May (Maz's birthday: she really does let me get away with murder) the team was over in West London for the male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that sadly was generating far more excitement than it would have twenty years ago. A Grey Squirrel was just getting up.
And two from a bat survey: a Soprano Pipistrelle and a Bechstein's Bat, the latter a scarce animal in Britain and one that even experienced bat group members still get excited about catching. I think it is one of our most handsome bats, though that may not be a very high bar.
John
Grey Squirrel X 3
Soprano Pipistrelle
Bechstein's Bat
And two from a bat survey: a Soprano Pipistrelle and a Bechstein's Bat, the latter a scarce animal in Britain and one that even experienced bat group members still get excited about catching. I think it is one of our most handsome bats, though that may not be a very high bar.
John
Grey Squirrel X 3
Soprano Pipistrelle
Bechstein's Bat
Attachments
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
Our local mammal group trapped Filey Country Park last night and made several interesting observations. Using 30 BioEcoSS live traps and 15 Longworths we enjoyed over a 90% trap success rate including 11 Common Shrews and 4 Short-tailed Voles. Bank Vole and Wood Mice made up the other species. The biggest surprise of the morning was finding a Bank Vole and Common Shrew sharing a single Longworth. A close second was finding 4 Bank Voles in the same Longworth. Clearly small mammal populations are high at the moment. In the past the same site has produced Harvest Mouse and both Pygmy and Water Shrew.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Beaver kits are now out on the River Otter, same place:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckoo76/27979826651/in/pool-bbcsummerwatch
If anyone's planning a trip, now would seem to be a good time.
John
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckoo76/27979826651/in/pool-bbcsummerwatch
If anyone's planning a trip, now would seem to be a good time.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Popped down to Amberley Wild Brooks this evening to listen to a Quail singing: the place was also littered with Fallow Deer in rushes and flowering plants shoulder-high to the cattle also grazing on the marshes. There was Stoat scat all along the track North from Amberley village but I didn't see the animals.
After leaving there I had two Little Owls on wires along the main road that skirts the South side of Petworth.
I came back via Ebernoe Church not long after sunset where I saw Barbastelles, Brown Long-eared Bats, Common and Soprano Pips and a Serotine that just about parted my hair as it came at me with the bat detector banging like a small artillery piece.
A pleasant evening out, especially since there has been a sudden outbreak of summer.
John
After leaving there I had two Little Owls on wires along the main road that skirts the South side of Petworth.
I came back via Ebernoe Church not long after sunset where I saw Barbastelles, Brown Long-eared Bats, Common and Soprano Pips and a Serotine that just about parted my hair as it came at me with the bat detector banging like a small artillery piece.
A pleasant evening out, especially since there has been a sudden outbreak of summer.
John
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