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Wiltshire Mammal Group

Spring 2020 Welcome to the spring 2020 edition of the Changes to the Committee Mammal Group newsletter where we update you on activities in 2019 as well as Following the AGM last November, Ben Williams some plans for 2020. has stepped down as chair of the WMG committee. Ben will still be involved in the group A huge thank you to all who have supported but I hope you’ll join us in sending him our thanks the group in 2019 and shared their mammal for his contribution to the group. records. We also have two new committee members: 2020 A turbulent year Rhodri Gruffydd

As we finalise the mammal group’s spring 2020 Hello! I started getting involved with the WMG newsletter (19th March) the UK and the world is in committee last autumn and have since assisted the midst of events that current generations, with checking the email inbox, helping to organise certainly in the UK, will never have experienced on Ric Morris’ mammal bone identification workshop this scale. As spring unfolds our thoughts turn to (which is now unfortunately postponed) and strategies for slowing the spread of Covid-19 and putting this newsletter together! we become increasingly accustomed to “social I have a conservation and ecology background, distancing” and “self-isolation”. Increasingly, having studied BSc Zoology and MSc Applied advice is offered on coping mechanisms for Ecology at the University of Exeter. I’m currently managing your mental health whilst in self- working for the Wiltshire Landscape isolation when contact with family and friends is in an engagement and visitor experience role restricted. At the time of writing (but will this where I look at ways to connect people to nature. change, I wonder?) government advice I have a general interest so keen to get involved encourages us to partake in isolation in the great with various projects and also hoping to start water outdoors too. vole surveys on the . It’s important that we all heed the, admittedly I’ve met a few of you so far and looking forward rapidly changing, government advice to slow the to meeting the rest of you at some point! spread of Covid-19 in the UK, as part of measures to support our beloved National Health Service. Jessie Forster But we also need to stay healthy in mind and soul, I've been a volunteer on various conservation and we therefore encourage you to enjoy the projects in the past, now moving into a career in advancing spring, the queen bumblebees ecology. I'm keen to get involved in some searching for nest sites, the return of songbirds from recording projects with WMG, looking forward to Africa, and the burst of spring blossoms. A good setting up some water vole surveys this year and year perhaps to focus on wildlife close to home meeting some fellow mammal enthusiasts! My such as the hedgehogs in the garden. background is in education (I've taught all ages), Let us know what you see in your garden through so happy to help or advise on events or talks. I will the Wiltshire Mammal Group Facebook Group. be leading some activities for school groups with Record your sightings with the Mammal Society’s the Kingfisher project in June which encourages Mammal Mapper app. And most importantly, look children to develop their interest in wildlife and the out for yourself, your loved ones, your neighbours countryside. Do let us know if you'd like support and community. starting a new project or a one-off event. Hope to see some of you out and about soon...

Website

Check out the Wiltshire Mammal Portal: https://wiltshiremammals.wordpress.com and the WMG Facebook group (search for us on Facebook).

Red , stag, Plain military training area, September 2019 (C) Steve Dewey

A reminder that the atlas was published in March 2016 and that it remains an up-to-date record of the current known distribution of mammal and bats in Wiltshire. Entitled, Mammals in Wiltshire, 2nd Edition, it can be downloaded here, free of charge. Mammals in Wiltshire_2nd edition_ver 1.0 Furthermore, work has already begun on the next edition! So, a huge thank you to Wiltshire’s active mammal recorders who continue to monitor and survey across the county, generating the data for Weasel, garden near , December 2019 (C) Phil the next update to the atlas. Since the publication Smith of the atlas in 2016, the county has seen significant progress in our knowledge of species such as Mammals in Wiltshire (2nd harvest mouse, barbastelle bat and Bechstein’s bat. New records of hazel dormouse require Edition) further updates to the distribution maps, whilst a new bat species for the county has been Gareth Harris confirmed not once, but twice!

Please get involved! Join Wiltshire Mammal Group (or Wiltshire Bat Group), get involved with projects such as dormouse monitoring and hedgehog survey, or simply submit the records of the mammals you see. Help us make a difference. Notes from the County Recorder

Gareth Harris

Once again, survey and monitoring effort in the past year by many volunteers has yielded some exciting results. Several projects have made important findings that extend our knowledge of our county’s mammals and their populations.

The bat group leads the way in this regard with the discovery of new breeding sites for species such as Barbastelle bat, new roosting sites for greater & lesser horseshoe and new sites for Bechstein’s bat as well as the county’s second record of roadsides, whilst sad, reflect the increasing otter Alcathoe bat: read the forthcoming bat group population in the county, and the increasing newsletter, published alongside the mammal dispersal of young animals. group newsletter on the Wiltshire Mammal There isn’t the space to write anything meaningful Portal, for more details. on the impact of the Badger cull in Wiltshire, nor is Building upon the success of recent years, further there yet the data available to conduct any harvest mouse surveys confirmed new sites for this analyses, but clearly there is concern amongst species in the county, confirming perhaps, that this many of the expansion of cull zones in Wiltshire, species is widespread in the county. This is all the and indeed neighbouring counties, particularly more impressive, given the sparsity of records with growing evidence that this isn’t a long-term available to the atlas project, when we published solution to the problem of bovine TB. in 2016. Some of the landscape-scale farmer I noted in last year’s newsletter that there had groups in Wiltshire have taken the harvest mouse been an apparent reduction in the numbers of to their hearts and have initiated their own surveys records of polecats reported and indeed of too, confirming new sites in doing so. With thanks stoat. (Weasel records are always very low to Simon Smart and the Chalke Valley Farmer in number). This has continued in 2019 with very Group for their efforts in this regard. few (but some!) records reported (5 records of Natural have continued their small roadkill thus far, with a small amount of data still mammal studies on (with regards to coming in for 2019 via iRecord & Mammal Mapper the monitoring of prey items for a potential so this number may increase a little). reintroduction of Hen Harrier) and benefitted from I mentioned last year that rabbit numbers have the involvement of a number of Wiltshire Mammal been very low in Wiltshire in recent years, due to Group members in 2019. repeated infections of Myxomatosis and other Dormouse surveys have expanded again in 2019 infectious diseases such as Rabbit Haemorrhagic with new monitoring sites in the , Virus (type 1 and 2). Some recovery was noted in Hazel Hill Wood and a new site in autumn/early winter 2018, before faltering and The Donheads (near ). Amazingly, one some tentative recovery has been seen during of the sites in the Pewsey Downs confirmed the 2019 (a field with 30 rabbits of varying ages took presence of dormice before the end of the first me back to my childhood!). season of monitoring, whilst elsewhere in the Clearly, there is little data nationally or locally that county, dormice were confirmed on a further two accurately tracks populations trends of mustelids new sites. One of these sites is on the edge of an such as Polecat and Stoat – but it’s hard not be industrial estate in , quite some distance concerned about their status at the moment. from woodland, but confirmed with photographs of a dormouse in a bird feeder! We will initiate I circulated some information in autumn 2018 monitoring at this site in Devizes in 2020, whilst regarding disease in hares – this was widely monitoring will continue on the other two sites as circulated by many of the farming and shooting well. groups in the county, whilst nationally a number of Wildlife Trusts and other organisations helped to Meanwhile, dormouse monitoring continues in the spread the word. I recently spoke to Dr Diana Bell Savernake, at Grovely Wood, Nockatt’s Coppice at University of East Anglia, who is leading the and at several other sites in the county, research on hares, and she reiterated the need to coordinated by their own brilliant monitoring remain vigilant and to continue reporting groups. instances of dead/dying/diseased hares – indeed, Surveys searching for the presence of dormice she has continued to receive reports through was discontinued at one site in West Wilts after two 2019. seasons without yielding evidence of dormice. Please record all of the hares you see and please 2019 saw the submission of a multitude of records report any diseased individuals you encounter. For of Otters on several catchments across the further information, and for details of where to county, thanks to increasing use of camera traps report diseased hare, please and some excellent fieldcraft from some notable see https://wiltshiremammals.wordpress.com/201 photographers, some of whom kept us enthralled 8/12/18/urgent-disease-in-brown-hares-your-help- on the Facebook Group. Several Otter deaths on needed/. Whilst are routinely recorded across the Download Mammal Mapper and give it a go. county, (thanks to their diurnal habits and Thank you to everyone who has contributed tendency to forage in the middle of large open their records, time and expertise in 2019 – we fields), other species are less frequently recorded, continue to learn more of Wiltshire’s mammals and despite being widespread in some parts of the with your help, this will continue in 2020! county. Of particular note, despite the large herds of Fallow Deer in the Bowood/Calne area, we receive almost no records; likewise, the large herds on the New fringe (e.g. Redlynch area) likely go largely unrecorded. I frequently Harvest Mice in Wiltshire mention that appear to be moving northwards into Wiltshire, but we’ve received few Gareth Harris records beyond third hand accounts, typically The WMG harvest mouse surveys continued in from deer managers; Steve Dewey’s image of a 2019. Working with Simon Smart of Black Sheep stag on Salisbury Plain elsewhere in this Countryside Management, three landholdings newsletter confirm the ongoing presence of this were identified in South Wiltshire to plug a few species, but unfortunately we receive very gaps in the distribution map whilst also few records. contributing to other farmland wildlife House Mouse perhaps remains the most under- conservation projects. recorded species in the county (especially when its likely distribution is considered)! So, some words of encouragement, if I may; please consider downloading the Mammal Society’s Mammal Mapper app;

As the Mammal Society’s website states “Mammals can be recorded along a route whilst you’re walking/running/cycling or even a passenger in a car, or as one-off sightings, for example a hedgehog in your garden.” The app enables you to easily submit records of field signs as well as sightings of mammals (dead or alive).

And all records submitted are available both to Wiltshire Mammal Group, the local environmental records centres as well as the Mammal Society. The Mammal Society are able to use the records to understand the distribution, abundance and conservation status of British mammals. Harvest mouse nest in situ in water side sedges The main advantage of Mammal Mapper is “the (C) Gareth Harris ability to record where you are looking for animals, or “effort”……it provides information about where people are recording and more importantly, The first farm, Standlynch Farm, near Downton, where animals are absent. In the past, it has been included arable margins and the floodplain difficult to understand if gaps in records are marsh on the banks of the River Avon. A caused by a true absence in animals at those few nests were found in the arable margins as well locations, or if it is simply an artefact one of as a fresh dormouse nest. It was the floodplain nobody recording in those areas. In addition, the grazing marsh, however, that was really exciting, inclusion of “effort” provides the ability for with large numbers of nests found in reeds, sedge researchers to calculate the density of animals. and rush along the banks of the Avon and various These important biological data are necessary to side channels. A quick peek in some bat boxes estimate the total population of a species and (supervised by a licensed bat worker, just in case understand its conservation status.” anyone is concerned!) also produced a dozen or so soprano pipistrelle bats. A few field voles and Wilton Estate, as well as the Chalke Valley Farmer roe deer completed the day. Group and everyone else who took the time to look and to share their findings.

However, questions remain! We lack recent records for harvest mice in a number of areas, despite the great efforts of a number of recorders. So more to do in 2020!

Whether you search suitable habitat in your own leisure time, or join organised survey events with WMG, please get involved. With your help we can achieve so much more.

Underhill Wood Nature Standynch Farm, The meadows shortly before the Reserve (UWNR) – Barn deluge of rain (C) Gareth Harris

The second farm, Norrington Farms, Owls and Mammals near in the Chalke Valley, also Jonathan Thomson produced lots of harvest mouse nests on arable margins, along with a few brown hares and roe We bought UWNR in the summer of 2014 and from deer. And finally, Wilton Estate, near Wilton, also the outset I managed the largest field, cutting to produced a few harvest mouse nests, with most a 3-year rotation, to ensure the field vole found along the dense hedgerows rather than the population was as healthy and numerous as long-established beetle banks. possible. This abundance of prey would potentially attract barn owls, kestrels, buzzards, tawny owls Following this, additional harvest mouse nests and small mustelids. have been found by mammal group members in reeds along the Kennet & Avon Canal (near Just over 5 years on and UWNR has a resident pair All Cannings), in arable margins near Alton Priors, of barn owls, who have raised, over that along near Barbury Castle and intervening period, at least 4 broods of owlets. In near , whilst in South Wiltshire, further 2017 Wiltshire Mammal Group did some barn owl nests were found at Gore Cross, on the banks of pellet analyses for me and the following results the Nadder in , and on Sutton were attained; 60% of prey was field voles, 30% Down (the Chalke Valley Farmer Group). wood mouse, 8% common shrew and 2% bank voles. At that point it appeared UWNR could Interestingly, staff with Pete sustain a breeding pair of barn owls. The second Thompson (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) ‘beast from the east’ storm of 2018 shattered what found a series of nests in unharvested crop and I perceived was a settled situation for the barn field margins at in mid- owls. I arrived at UWNR, the week after the storm, November, including a nest with 2 pinks (new to find a dead barn owl. young)!

Finally, Karen Rosier’s owl pellet analyses have highlighted a harvest mouse skull amongst the vole and shrew pellet contents. Nice work!

2019 has therefore been another good year for harvest mouse surveys in the county, supplemented by the efforts of other organisations and additional survey techniques such as owl pellet analyses.

Thank you to everyone for supporting this work, including the large group of people who supported the surveys in Downton, Alvediston and Dead barn owl (C) Jonathan Thomson At the same time as this upsetting event, I was reading an extraordinary book by J.R. Martin, called The Barn Owl, Guardian of the Countryside. In it he writes superbly and at some length about the history of barn owls in the British countryside. One thing that stood out was how critically dependent this bird is on barns for winter hunting – barns that are open, filled with hay, straw and grain. These types of barn were prevalent in the UK in the early 1900’s, but have largely vanished – many converted into houses. So, after much talk and thought, in November 2018 we built a barn owl barn at UWNR. This building reflects what Martin describes – it is open, contains hay bales, and I regularly scatter grain to encourage small Camera trap footage of barn owls at UNWR (C) mammals to live and breed. Additionally, it has Jonathan Thomson multiple built-in perches.

Rick Lockwood, a Senior Conservation Officer at the Barn Owl Conservation Trust, provided valuable input and advice throughout the design Gopher Wood Dormouse and construction of the barn. Tubes

Kip D’Aucourt

Seventy tubes were put into Gopher Wood and other copses in the Pewsey area last spring and checked three or four times during the summer and autumn. No signs of use were found until October when a dormouse in a nest was found in one, plus two caches of mast in tubes in the same copse.

North Wraxall Dormouse Barn owl barn at UWNR (C) Jonathan Thomson Boxes

Kip D’Aucourt Interestingly, pellet analysis from the early 1900’s showed that the diet of the barn owl was different Due to ash-dieback in the wood, the owner than the current diet – specifically, they used to decided to remove the diseased trees this year. predate on rats. In fact, rats formed a significant Although it is sad to lose many trees, there is the part of their diet then. Camera trap images show advantage that the wood will be opened up to that the dominant mammal species in the new allow more undergrowth and so a greater diversity barn are brown rats and owl pellet analysis shows of habitats for any dormice that manage to stay a large number of rat skeletal remains. in the surrounding area. We have now removed as many boxes as we could find and Colin is kindly The barn owl barn has been a huge success and has provided the resident pair with valuable refurbishing them. Hopefully, we will be able to put indoor hunting through the winter of 2018/19 and the boxes back up during the spring and resume the winter just gone. Climate change is likely to monitoring. increase rainfall levels in the UK over the coming years and indoor hunting habitat will become increasingly important for barn owls.

or brown leaves with sometimes moss or other plant material adjacent to a particular box. Dormouse Box Checks An unusual find in the past four years has been a dormouse body turned inside out and only Sarah Jupp recognisable by its furry tail. The most exciting find After four years of low dormice numbers, 2019 was a female with two pinks in June 2018. Fur proved a good year for finding the highest clipping of adults has shown animals have been number; evidence of breeding and winter survival found in the same or adjacent boxes in the plus ‘return’ of animals to the ‘north’ side of the subsequent months to November 2019. This track. It will be interesting to see if the proposed includes a male called ‘white half tail’, indicating introduction of grazing* has an effect on dormice strong site fidelity to a copse area and cluster of although probably too small a sample area to get boxes of about 30-50m diameter conclusive results. This higher number of dormice is likely linked to the coppice re-growth stages within and outside deer-fenced compartments, including areas with fruitful raspberries (makes a nice snack on the transects!), blackberries plus sweet chestnut and hazel nuts.

Torpid male dormouse in nest, November 2019 (C) Sarah Jupp Torpid male dormouse from box check, November 2019 (C) Sarah Jupp

Fur clipping is providing some interesting insights into how individuals are using the woodland; living Plea for Licenced in family relationships and winter survival weights. A male found in April 2019 at 21.5g had made it Dormouse Worker through the 18-19 winter losing 40% or so of his chunky 36g weight from Oct 2018. Hopefully, two Gareth Harris males, likely siblings, found in September 2019 had We are fortunate in Wiltshire to live in a county with a few more weeks to forage with the good crop a diversity of habitats on our doorsteps. Although of autumnal nuts & berries although they had very Wiltshire is perhaps best-known for its chalk- different weights of 20g and 13g. A torpid male at dominated landscapes (think of Stonehenge and 14.5g found in a well woven nest in November Salisbury Plain as well as the rolling chalk 2019 may not be so fortunate. downland of the North Downs, Cranborne As for other sites, many of the dormice boxes are Chase and Downs AONBs), Wiltshire used by breeding birds. Our dormice nests are a also supports some rich wooded landscapes too. mix of tightly woven honeysuckle and dried The wooded landscapes, with large blocks of greenish leaves or looser arrangements of green woodland, parkland, and hedgerow networks, often associated with river corridors, support a number of rare species, from Bechstein’s and Small Mammal Surveys at barbastelle bats to the hazel dormouse.

Thankfully there are a number of projects across Hazel Hill Wood the county studying these species including Charley Miller several sites studying and monitoring dormice. In fact, there are nearly 25 dormouse sites being We ran "Dormouse Day" in February 2019 at Hazel monitored by volunteers across the county, Hill Wood, welcoming 25 volunteers (including 12 ranging from projects coordinated by Wiltshire University students and 3 children) to Mammal Group, Wildlife Trust volunteer groups learn about dormice and assist us in setting up 50 and the National Trust. (This doesn’t include tubes around the 70-acre wood. Thank you to additional sites monitored by consultant ecologists WMG and Gareth in particular for loaning us the as part of development projects or infrastructure tubes and giving guidance. Our fantastic projects). volunteers Annette, Seb and Mel have completed surveys of the tubes over the year (fighting some We are looking for additional people to help with dense vegetation and adverse weather survey and monitoring projects coordinated by conditions). No dormice found yet, but we are Wiltshire Mammal Group, and specifically, for hopeful for 2020! licensed dormouse workers willing and able to commit to longer-term monitoring. At the In 2019 we also bought five Longworth small moment, we lack experienced licensed people mammal traps and have so far recorded bank and have a number of sites where vole and yellow-necked mouse. Not the most landowners/managers are willing to host projects, exciting you might think, but the site is under- if we have sufficient people able to manage these recorded, and these are first records. projects. We are running our third annual 24th-25th If you live in Wiltshire (i.e. wouldn’t need to travel a May 2020 - all welcome! long way) and are licensed and would be interested in coordinating surveys of a site, please get in touch.

Trainees, who are working towards their licence, Natural England Hen are very welcome to get involved in survey events too (we’re not trying to exclude you!) but at the Harrier Project 2019 moment, the numbers of projects and surveys are Flemming Ulf-Hansen & Robyn Owen, limited by the number of available licenced Natural England dormouse workers, rather than willing volunteers and helpers. Update on small mammals associated with Hen One such site is a large woodland in south-west Harriers Southern Reintroduction. Wiltshire, near , where the landowner In the Spring 2019 newsletter my colleague Robyn is willing to support dormouse surveys. Excitingly, Owen reported on the first year’s small mammal dormice were confirmed in the nearby village of trapping at Parsonage Down NNR and Salisbury East Knoyle in 2019. Plain. In 2019 we repeated surveys of four sites at If you’d like more information, contact me on Salisbury Plain which showed a similar pattern to [email protected]. 2018. The central site just off the Central Range Road near Barrow Plantation had very good Thanks numbers with nearly half of the traps occupied at Gareth Harris, Wiltshire Mammal Group the first visit. The species were mainly field vole, followed by bank vole, common shrew and pygmy shrew. The other sites had far less occupied traps of generally the same species, except the western site at Compton Down which had wood mice present too. No water shrews were caught this year. We are grateful for volunteer help with the trapping including Pete Thompson, Paul Timlett, Tom Raven, Camilla and Paul Poutain, Jan Freeborn, and Margaret Herman. Partners & funders

At Parsonage Down, we moved the trap site into Wiltshire Mammal Group enjoys the support of a number the arable field that has been sown with crops of organisations across the county. designed to benefit hen harriers when they are The , supporting projects in The released (now planned for this year). The field was Savernake, Collingbourne Wood, West Wood, the in intensive arable but is now a mosaic of spring Braydon Forest, Grovely Wood and the Harewarren, and winter arable, pollen and nectar mix, wild bird continue to be mega supportive. Our thanks to Tom Blythe and Colin Elford. seed and rough grass, with beetle banks and protected by an electrified fence. Trapping in Simon Smart & Jemma Batten, Black Sheep Consulting, June 2018 when winter crops had established who supported the harvest mouse surveys in 2017 & 2018 caught only a few wood mice but there was as well as so much more! evidence of use by voles when we left the traps Jonathan Thomson (Underhill Wood) for supporting open. Activity of voles under four corrugated tins ongoing studies of small mammals and bats (and much placed on the ground showed abundant vole much more!) activity as the year progressed. Pete Thompson James Monk (Longleat Centerparcs) for supporting the (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) visited the ongoing dormouse studies site on the 6th November and we found harvest Our thanks also to a considerable number of private mice nests in the unharvested cereals, including landowners across Wiltshire who host various surveys one nest with two pinks. and monitoring projects and who routinely provide access and a warm welcome. Equipment to borrow!

Don’t forget the group has a range of equipment available to loan out free of charge to our members including:

Hedgehog tunnels

The Wiltshire Hedgehog Project has footprint tunnels available to borrow, for anyone who wishes to carry out a hedgehog survey. Surveyors are also welcome to borrow a wildlife trail camera alongside a tunnel; this is a great way to capture visitors to the tunnel on film and help identify any footprints.

Please find more details at our project webpage https://wiltshiremammals.wordpress.com/wil tshire-mammal-group/projects/the-wiltshire-hedgehog- project/ and contact Ben Williams at Harvest mouse (C) Flemming Ulf-Hansen [email protected] if you are interested."

As before, we would be keen to talk to anyone Spypoint Trail Camera interested in the reintroduction project so please Find out what mammals are living in your local area! Any contact either one of us for more information. members who wish to borrow our WMG trail camera would be most welcome, please contact Ben Williams Simon Lee (Project Manager) on [email protected]. [email protected], We ask for a small deposit, this will be returned to you so Flemming Ulf-Hansen (Lead Advisor) flemming.ulf- long as loss/damage to the camera does not occur. [email protected], This can be by cheque that we will not cash unless loss/damage occurs. Robyn Owen (Field Officer) [email protected], If there is any other equipment that you would like to use or think the group should purchase, then let us know and Simon Lester (Field Officer) 07785 633082 we will look into the feasibility of it. [email protected]

Upcoming events

In light of recent events relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is impossible to plan any events too far in advance at the moment, and indeed most events have been subject to cancellation or postponement already. Any events that can go ahead may be subject to restrictions in line with government advice to minimise potential transmission of the virus.

• 28-29th March – Ric’s Skull & Bone Identification Workshop *POSTPONED – no new date set* • 7th May – Evening Lecture: the prickly problem facing hedgehogs *POSTPONED – no new date set* Our very own Ben Williams will be giving a talk all about hedgehogs at Chapel. There will be five free tickets available to WMG members (more information coming soon). You can find out more here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/463a4c24- a642-482c-b5fc-d7135484cfcd/pages/details • 13-14th June – Mammal surveys at Standlynch Farm *This may be postponed* We will be conducting various mammal surveys as well as surveys for other taxa. More information to follow. Please email Gareth if you would like to help out: [email protected] Further information

For further information regarding the group, membership and recording please email [email protected].

Committee members;

• Lisa Wade (Treasurer & Membership) [email protected] • Gareth Harris (County Recorder & Website) [email protected] • Rhodri Gruffydd • Jessie Forster • Purgle Linham (Website)