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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 25 6:50 am Post subject:
Seem to be quite a lot of wasps around here still, but think they are now on fruit mainly. We got some footage on the camera we put up by the inhabited dormouse box, so son is going to change the chip today and see what is on that one.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44721
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 25 1:49 pm Post subject:
the local ones are still busy taking "meat" to the nest smaller than usual as delinquent pensioners they will probably be ok i need to pop outside for a further report

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 25 7:35 am Post subject:
Son got the video of the dormouse off the camera and some stills as well. Also good news, that after taking a while near the box fiddling with the camera yesterday, there were more signs of activity today, so presumably didn't upset whoever is in residence.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 25 7:49 am Post subject:

Son found a leveret near one of our wood stacks earlier in the week. He didn't see it until it moved as they have amazing camouflage. The fungi are also doing very well; I have been able to identify penny buns, porcelain fungus and oyster mushrooms, but none with such absolute certainty that we ate any. The penny buns are now going over and really stink, and I what I think might be death caps are coming up in the same area.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 25 5:37 pm Post subject:
Our son and I were sitting having lunch in the woods on Thursday and I saw something fall out of a tree into the fallen leaves. The leaves were moving, so I thought it was something live, and when I looked, it was a couple of hornets mating. They later flew off. The dormouse in the box we know is occupied has been collecting more nesting material.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44721
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 25 2:35 pm Post subject:
one of my hand feeding pigeons asked and was fed

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 25 1:33 pm Post subject:

Have been out dormouse wrangling again this morning and a very productive day. The box we have been monitoring had a nest, but nobody at home, and hadn't been for a little while as the nest was cool. Another box had a partly built nest, and in another we found 4 extremely lively juveniles; 3 females and 1 male. We had a large plastic bag with us to put the box in that must have been 3feet or more hight and some of them tried to climb out. All weighed and sexed and returned to their home. Another had 2 in that got away, and another had some in as well. The final box we looked at had a female and some very small young. We didn't find out how many as they had fur but their eyes weren't open, so perhaps 8 days old. One got out of the nest and fell into the bag on its back and couldn't get up again, so got quickly popped back in the nest just as another got out, but both returned safe. Mother was weighed and returned to her babies.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 25 7:54 am Post subject:
Son went to see if there was any sign of activity in the dormouse box we have the camera on. Although there was nobody home when we looked a couple of weeks ago, there is still at least one dormouse there as it showed up on the camera. We think there are now dormice in at least 4 or possibly 5 of the boxes.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 25 2:55 pm Post subject:

Not exactly wildlife, but countryside. We drove into the woods yesterday and the beech leaves on either side of the track were amazing; gold, green and yellow. The trunks were wet so they were almost black, which enhanced the colour of the leaves. The track at that point has grass either side, so another contrast. The light was just right to make it a most superb spectacle.

The leaves are coming off the beech trees fast now, and it has been quite windy here, so having to remove leaves from everything, including ourselves. The light level in the wood is increasing a lot, even in dull weather. Once we have cleared the fallen leaves off the solar panel, it should start to produce more electricity again.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 25 8:35 am Post subject:

Plenty of wildlife today. We found a dormouse nest in a box at the bottom of the woods, but unfortunately the lid had been knocked off, probably by debris from flailing the other side of the hedge. First evidence we have of dormice in that part of the wood though.

Going up the wood, we found a magpied inkcap fungus which is the first we have seen in that part. We moved three empty dormouse boxes as they were in a coppice coup we want to cut this winter, then carrying on up we found a total of 10 dormice and 1 woodmouse. Both son and I were bitten by dormice, but they don't give a bad bite as they are quite small.

The woodmouse was very active and did about 10 circuits of the bag it was in before being caught by our surveyor. She showed us how to handle them; catch them by the scruff of the neck so they can't bite, but she still got bitten. It had put in plenty of stores as the box had quite a lot of nuts in it; mainly hazel.

Getting a bit better at handling, tuening dormice so they can be sexed, and putting them in bags and back in their boxes. Some of them have got up to a good weight; mainly the males, but some of the females were still quite small.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 25 9:42 am Post subject:
Son and I went back to the birch today to do the first cut. The stuff we cut last year has come back beautifully. It is large enough to cut, but think we might leave it another year if we can so that we don't weaken the root.

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