Species of the Year 2022 - The Hazel Dormouse

After our exciting find of field evidence for Dormice earlier this month, we can now confidently say that these elusive creatures are living on "The Mound" in Winkleigh Biodiversity Area. As we come to the close of 2022, we take a closer look at this endearing, but increasingly rare animal. You can find our photos of the Dormouse nest and the chewed hazelnuts in the previous blogs.

Hazel Dormouse with Rowan Berries

"Haselmaus (cropped)" by Danielle Schwarz is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

As a declining species, protected under British and European Law, we will need to be very careful how we manage the area in future to avoid disturbing them. We always welcome volunteers to get involved with our activities.  The best way to contact us is via Facebook - Winkleigh Community Action or by contacts given in Distinctly Winkleigh.

People's Trust for Endangered Species says on their website:

"Our national monitoring shows the population of hazel dormice has declined by half since 2000, with the species hanging on mostly in southern parts of England and Wales. Climate change, as well as changes in woodland management, farming practices and loss of hedgerows, have all taken a heavy toll on their living space. Dormice are good indicators of animal and plant diversity, and dormouse-friendly habitats are also good for woodland birds, bats and butterflies"

So the presence of Dormice is a good sign for us that this wild space is good for other species. All our records for 2022 have been sent to Devon Biodiversity Records Centre and our Dormouse records have been entered onto the National Dormouse Database.

Hazelnut Survey and Dormouse Nest

Hazel Dormice spend most of their lives in the woodland canopy, rarely going down onto ground level, other than to hibernate in a nest of leaves during winter. They favour deciduous woodland, hedgerows and scrub.  So, we have always been aware that they are probably present on The Mound, now that the shrubs have grown to a reasonable size.  A couple of years ago we put up a two boxes, but we did not expect to find some possible Dormouse nests during our Harvest Mouse Survey last week.

Feeding on nuts, berries and seeds, we have provided them with good food sources.  As their name implies, hazelnuts are favoured and one way to survey for them is to do a nut hunt.  PTES (People's Trust for Endangered Species) recommends that you survey hedgerow under hazel trees for any discarded nutshells.  Each species nibbles or cracks the nuts in a different way.  It is really quite fascinating!  So we gathered together a handful of shells from just three of our Hazel bushes.  After sorting through them, I selected those that looked most like tell-tale feeding signs of a Dormouse and sent photographs to Devon Biodiversity Records Centre at Devon Wildlife Trust for verification.  

Dormouse-nibbled Hazelnut 1

Smooth inner rim of Hazelnut 2

Surely enough, it was confirmed that these three nuts showed the distinctive smooth interior and outer scrapings of a Dormouse. Some people have likened them to a small Dutch clog, because it opens up the nut from the side when they are still green.

Hazelnut 3

So now we can be sure we have yet another species to record in our small (quarter of a hectare) wildlife space.  This brings us to 104 plant and animal species in 2022.

And here we captured on video the finding of the Dormouse nest in the brambles.

Successful Harvest Mouse Survey

When we carried out our first Harvest Mouse survey in January 2021, we found no nests. So this year I was pleased to come across a solitary nest in a tree-tube in April.  After finding another in early December, we realised it was a good idea to carry out a more systematic search.  Devon Mammal Group are running a Harvest Mouse Survey, where they train volunteers to search suitable habitats for old nests during the winter.  The most suitable habitat is rough grassland with Cocksfoot or other coarse grasses, Culm grassland or bramble.

So, we met up last week and carried out a dedicated search along a bramble patch, lasting about an hour and a half.  Maggie found the first nest in a matter of minutes and I found one soon after.  In all we found five nests in bramble and one in tall grass.

The Harvest Mouse is losing suitable habitat, due to the loss of rough grassland. The clumps of grass need to be thick enough to hide a tennis ball and, even in our wild space, these are uncommon.  This photo shows just how well they are hidden among the grass stalks. It is made entirely of woven grass and was 30cm above ground.

Harvest Mouse Nest 

Nest 1: Harvest Mouse 65mm diameter

Each nest is different, some are more neatly woven than others.  This one above is woven from coarse grasses.  Nest 2, below is woven from fine grasses and is smaller.  It was discovered in bramble.

Nest 2: Harvest Mouse 55mm diameter

The third nest was bigger with an 80mm diameter and also located in bramble. The larger nests are summer maternity nests, where one nest is built for each brood and then abandoned.

Nest 3: Harvest Mouse 80mm diameter

Our next nest was also found in bramble, but there are a few leaves incorporated into it. This makes is interesting, as it is possible that this is a Hazel Dormouse nest.  We sent a photo to People's Trust for Endangered Species and their Dormouse Officer has confirmed that it is very likely a Dormouse nest.  This is really exciting news to know that we definitely have this elusive mammal on our site.  See also my next post about hazelnut surveys.

Nest 4: Dormouse 75mm diameter

The Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) is an endangered species and is protected under British and European Law. Nests 5 and 6 also had some tiny leaves around the outside, so at the moment we do not know if they were made by a Harvest Mouse or a Dormouse.  To my mind, Dormice are more untidy nest-builders compared with the Harvest Mice!

Nest 5: Unknown 60mm diameter

Nest 6: Unknown 50mm diameter

We are looking forward to more opportunities to do further surveying during the winter months.

Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

Ten years ago this week, on a cold and frosty morning, a dozen volunteers from Winkleigh and Hollocombe Parish came together to plant the first trees on the top of The Mound. These trees were planted to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

This area had been given rent-free to a group of interested people to develop as a space for nature by the Trustees of the Winkleigh War Memorial Recreation Field.  At that point it was rough ground, covered in thistles, docks and nettles which had been left alone since the building of the Sports Centre in 2003.  At first, we had romantic visions of a wild flower meadow, but our first work-parties showed us just how fertile the ground was and how it would be very difficult to restore without using pigs or stripping off all the topsoil.  Initially there was no fencing or rent to pay, as the rest of the field had not yet been let out to a sheep farmer.  This blog tells our story of joys and challenges over the past decade in more detail. Thanks to the many people have been involved, of all ages, in so many ways to support this project. Just look at these photos to see the Area's development!

Before we started in
 2012

First trees planted 1st December 2012

Sheep invasion in May 2014!

Involving young people June 2015

Volunteer topping the grass May 2017

Families tree-planting in January 2020

View from field in June 2021

Wild Cherry 2022

Silver Birch

Knapweed and Yarrow

We welcome everyone to join in our maintenance work-parties and citizen science events.

First post-pandemic winter work-party

Today, for the first time since the winter of 2019-2020, we were able to gather a larger group of people together for a work-party on The Mound without restrictions or fear of spreading coronavirus. 

It is also the first time we have been able to celebrate together being Winners in the North Devon Biosphere Pledge for Nature Award in Spring 2021.  Winkleigh Biodiversity Group won the Community Group Award and Kim was nominated a 'Community Champion'. Kim and Penny are proudly holding up the plaques we won.

Our Pledge for Nature Awards

 

The weather was cold but dry, so the ten of us spread out over the Area each to our separate tasks. James replaced many of the plastic tree-spirals with the plant-based biodegradable ones we bought recently with funds raised from the Winkleigh Tree Hub in April.

Replacing plastic tree-guards

David trimmed back some of the most flowery patches on the grass path.  Cutting grass back now will help the Knapweed, Yarrow, Oxeye Daisy and Marsh Woundwort which flower there in mid-Summer. 

Strimming the flowery patches

The rest of us, Kim, Trevor, Catherine, Maggie, Ian, Sue, Penny and Philip all set to snipping bramble around the smaller whips so that they don't get shaded out next year.  The taller trees actually benefit from bramble around them, as this stops the deer from damaging the bark. During the morning's work we also had three visitors to see what we have been doing here.

Trimming back some bramble

To our delight we found two small nests made of woven vegetation.  This one is 8cm in diameter and is definitely a Harvest Mouse nest. It was found by Maggie in some bramble which had been cut back by Alan last week. We will register this find with the Devon Harvest Mouse Survey which is run by the Devon Mammal Group. It is the first nest found in our 10km x 10km square this winter survey season.  The only other one this year was found by Kim here (photos on the April 2022 blog).

Harvest Mouse nest of woven grass

What is truly amazing about Nature, is that if you give it space and leave it in peace, many species move in.  For the first time this year, we have lichen growing on two of the trees.  Firstly, a foliose lichen on a Wild Cherry and secondly a script lichen on English Oak, both planted in 2012.

Foliose lichen

Script lichen

The site has changed since the summer, when the dead Leylandii hedge between the Old Bowling Green and the Biodiversity Area was removed. We can now see the Sports Centre and a certain amount of shelter from the westerly winds has gone.

View to the South West

On our tenth anniversary we are celebrating our achievement and yet we are also awaiting anxiously the outcome of a proposal by the current Trustees to develop a sports pitch across part of the Biodiversity Area, which would cut into the Spiral Maze and displace many trees, shrubs and plants, which feed and house many of the species that make their home here.

Young hazel, oak and rowan

Summer fruits and next year's butterflies

It was a warm sunny day at the end of August when I took a stroll around the Biodiversity Area to see what was there.  Blackberries were ripening on the brambles, providing fruit for birds, wasps and small mammals, such as voles, dormice and harvest mice.

In addition, I found some black aphids clustered along a stem, looking like a good meal for hungry birds.

One of the Silver Birches had a good crop of catkins, to provide seedlings for the future, but also good to sustain birds and voles through the coming winter.

Birch catkins August 2022

The cycle of life was also evident in the hope for next year's butterflies and moths.  One brightly-coloured Cinnabar Moth caterpillar was chewing on Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), before spending the winter as a pupa, to emerge in May to July next year.

Cinnabar moth caterpillar

And finally, I was enthralled to watch a pair of Small Copper butterflies mating in the warm sunshine on a bramble leaf, promising more of these delightful small butterflies for 2023.

Small Copper pair mating

The Small Copper is usually only seen in ones or twos.  We usually have some on the site each year, as the caterpillars feed on Sorrel, which is abundant. They sometimes eat Broad-leaved Dock, too.  Warm, dry conditions are favoured, unlike some of the other butterflies which prefer our damp grassland. So perhaps this unusually dry hot summer has been beneficial to them. Wing Span (male to female): 32-35 mm.

Devon's driest Summer for decades

This Summer has seen so little rain that an official drought was declared this month and a hosepipe ban introduced.  Naturally, this has affected the smaller trees in particular and it is possible we may lose some of those planted last season.  When I visited in early August, many of the trees were surviving, but had autumn colouring and they were losing their leaves prematurely.  The recent rain will have helped them enormously.

Bird Cherry from 2022

On a brighter note, the warm sunshine has helped the many butterfly, bumblebee and insect populations.  Here are some photos of butterfly species observed in the grass.  This is the second year running that I have seen the beautiful Marbled White in flight, so am hopeful a colony may be established.

Small Skipper - Male

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

1. Can be seen as a butterfly end of June to the start of August.

2. Female lays her eggs on the grass known as Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus).       

3. The caterpillars spend the winter cocooned inside the grass stem.

4. Typical habitats are rough grass, grass verges and woodland clearings.

Marbled White

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea):

1. Beautiful patterns of striking black and white.

2. Flies late June to early August.

3. The female drops her eggs to the ground, rather than choosing a specific grass species to lay upon.

4. Caterpillar eats shell then hibernates.

5. The Red Fescue (Festuca rubra) and Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina) are the main plants that the caterpillars use.

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper butterfly

Flies in July to August and feeds on various grasses with a preference for fine grasses such as bents (Agrostis spp.), fescues (Festuca spp.), and meadow-grasses (Poa spp.). Common Couch (Elytrigia repens) is also used. 

There were plenty of other insects there too, and I managed to catch a mature grasshopper resting on a blade of grass. These adults will be around until winter sets in and their nymphs will emerge next April or May.

Meadow Grasshopper (mature)

 

All these records will be sent to Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, as well as informing the Big Butterfly Count and the Big Meadow Search 2022.

In May, we carried out some summer maintenance.  A small group of us met to clear grass around the smaller trees. Here Peter and Alan are at work.  

Home to many creatures

Over the past few weeks, we have made a few visits to weed around the tree spirals and to plant a further 20 trees donated by The Woodland Trust.  These included some Spindle, Silver Birch, Osier Willow and Field Maple.  We have also added a few primroses in the far corner. Last week I saw a Willow Warbler along the hedge-bank. But the most exciting find was a Harvest Mouse nest inside a tree-tube!  It was the solitary nest of a young mouse and could have been there since 2021, or the previous Summer, as that particular tree was planted in late 2019.

Solitary Harvest Mouse Nest

 

Later on I found another nest, this time it was closely packed at the base of the tree-tube and made of leaves, some grass, fur and chewed polythene.  This was most likely the nest of a Wood Mouse. They like the warm, dry tree-tubes and treat them like an underground hole. It is difficult to see, but here is the photo:

Wood Mouse nest

There were Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queens scouting around for holes.  Some trees are in blossom now, such as Crab Apple and Wild Cherry, with Hawthorn, Rowan and Whitebeam not far behind.  Today was warm and sunny.  Maggie was taking advantage of the dry weather to cut the grass path for the first time.  We saw several butterflies, including Peacock, Holly Blue, a pair of Tortoiseshell, Brimstone and a female Orange Tip.  The Lady's Smock (food-plant of the Orange Tip) is in flower both in the Biodiversity Area and in the field outside. Maggie also saw a couple of lizards.

Peacock butterfly

Drinker Moth caterpillar

Oak Marble Galls

It is wonderful to see how each year we are finding different creatures settling in.  We have insects (bees, beetles, moths, butterflies, wasps) breeding on site.  We have small mammals (voles, wood mice, harvest mice). Also reptiles (lizards and slow worms) and a plentiful population of snails - white-lipped, brown-lipped and Garden Snails, which are a good food source for voles and thrushes.