The first 50 Dormouse boxes produced just 4 occupied ones .
A Yellow-necked Mouse was in one . This particular specimen had two ticks on it , one can be seen behind the right ear .
I was really looking forward to this box , as last survey , it contained a 15gm. male , and a plump 22gm. female . Today it contained 5 juvenile Dormice , each weighing 9gm. , just about ready to leave the box . No adult in the box , probably too noisy and cramped .
An adult male was found in another box .
The other 20 boxes at the other site produced just one occupied box , but it was by an adult female and 6 juveniles , each of the youngsters weighing in at 7gm.The Reptiles were very few at the first two sites , with just a few Slow Worms being recorded .
Eventually at the third site , a female Adder was found in the same spot as on the last survey .
The last site was by far best , with 6 Adders , 5 males like the one above , and a single female being recorded . None of the Adders found today were under refugia , but were found within 5 metres of the refugia .
5 Grass Snakes were also recorded at the last site , 1 adult and 4 juveniles , 3 of which were under refugia . 
Just 2 Speckled Wood butterflies were recorded all day , but a Silver Y was found at the last site .
On the path back to the car park , a dead Mole was found lying in the open .
5 Grass Snakes were also recorded at the last site , 1 adult and 4 juveniles , 3 of which were under refugia . Just 2 Speckled Wood butterflies were recorded all day , but a Silver Y was found at the last site .
On the path back to the car park , a dead Mole was found lying in the open .Apart from the Dormice and Reptiles , vast amounts of fungi were found , and I mean vast .
Fly Agaric-Amanita muscaria numbers alone were well over 200 on a conservative count .
Some other interesting species were also found , and as we are unlikely to find much wildlife with machinery running tomorrow , I will post today's finds then .
6 comments:
Great stuff Greenie. What is it about Dormice that always brings out the aaaaah factor! It seems incredible that the youngsters weigh just a quarter of an ounce in old money. Hope to see one in the flesh one day.
So pleased there are some healthy looking juveniles and very sweet they look too :) Would I be right in thinking though that the overall numbers were not too good?
Aaaaaah! And that's not for the dormice, but for the adders hehehe.
Fungi are certainly flourishing, and unusual ones too by the look of posts on various blogs.
Shysongbird ,
You are right that the overall numbers are low with just 4 out of 70 boxes being occupied .
On then upside , at least one family on each site is hope for the future .
I wish I could have got a shot of the opening of the box with the 6 juveniles and the female . As I slid the top off , the 6 juveniles came out like 6 Jack-in-the-Boxes .
That must have been quite a sight! A special moment. I loved the 4th photo from the top :)
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