Ron’s Wildlife Blog 30 October 2023
Stroud mammals
9-15th October was National Mammal Week and so I thought I would review our local parish mammals. Over the years, we see many different mammals in our garden, also from the footpaths around the parish. We find our smaller mammals under our wildlife refugia, pieces of rusty corrugated iron placed for them in the garden, and which warm up in the sun attracting wildlife, also with our wildlife cameras.
The smallest we find must be the tiny Pygmy Shrew with a body length of up to 50mm, only weighing up to 6 grams and a typical life span of only 2-4 months (image 1). They are dark brown-black above and paler below. More often we find the only slightly larger Common Shrew weighing up to 14 grams and dark brown (image 2). Both shrews have long noses and tiny ears.
We also get reddish brown Bank Voles which grow up to 11cm long and rear their young under our wildlife tins (image 3). Similar-sized Field Voles which are greyer, only occasionally appear in the garden being mammals of open grassland and the favourite prey of kestrels, buzzards, and barn owls. Wood Mice are common and we see them running along hedgerows and taking bird food (image 4), and we have also had the larger Yellow-necked Mouse, both of these mice having large obvious ears and a long tail, the yellow-necked having a broad yellow band round the underside of their necks. The grey-brown House Mouse occurs in the house from time to time. Brown Rat is also common.
We once had a Dormouse in the garden found in a bag of hay and reported to the national and county dormouse recorders (image 5). These nocturnal animals spend their time high in the trees and along the tops of high tree-lined hedgerows where there is honeysuckle (that they use for their nests) and so are seldom seen.
We often see Bats in the evening and our ultrasound recorder has identified Pippistrelle and Myotis bats, but the precise species remains unclear. There are several species of pipistrelle and of Myotis bats with similar calls and I am nowhere near practiced enough to distinguish them.
Black velvety Moles are abundant in the parish as we can tell from the many mole hills in the fields (each cluster of hills being made by a single mole). Moles live underground, feeding mainly on earthworms that fall into their tunnels.
Hedgehog sadly seems unusual in Stroud parish, and we have only seen them from time to time in our garden (image 7). The Big Hedgehog Map (https://bighedgehogmap.org/) shows a few records at Finchmead Lane, Ramsdean Road, Willowdale Close, and our garden; and with a great many in Petersfield Town where they are more common.
Rabbits are common with their warrens in the hedgerows and feeding around the grass and arable fields (image 8) and Brown Hare is frequent around the arable fields (image 9). Grey squirrel is common in our hedgerows and gardens, having been introduced to the UK from the USA in the late 19th century.
Red Fox is regularly seen about the parish (image 10). Foxes live in territories as family groups, the territories abutting and forming a mosaic across the countryside. Badger, the largest of our mustelids, is mainly nocturnal, picked up on wildlife cameras or dead on the road, and relatively frequent in Stroud (image 11). Badger families (clans) live in a system of tunnels and chambers call setts and generally emerge about dusk and return about dawn. Like foxes, badgers defend and live in family territories, and which can overlap with those of fox.
Red Fox is regularly seen about the parish (image 10). Foxes live in territories as family groups, the territories abutting and forming a mosaic across the countryside. Badger, the largest of our mustelids, is mainly nocturnal, picked up on wildlife cameras or dead on the road, and relatively frequent in Stroud (image 11). Badger families (clans) live in a system of tunnels and chambers call setts and generally emerge about dusk and return about dawn. Like foxes, badgers defend and live in family territories, and which can overlap with those of fox.
Mark Rowdon, manager at New Buildings Farm, explains that there is a small population of the dog sized Muntjac on the farm and sent me this photograph (image 14) and that they also occur elsewhere in the parish. I recently found a dead muntjac on the north-bound A3 by the Liss turnoff and a good opportunity to see one close. Originally from China, Muntjac escaped from deer parks in the early 20th century and are now classed as an invasive alien species making it illegal to import, release, breed, or sell muntjac deer. Muntjac can cause havoc in gardens and regenerating coppice woodland. Red deer and Fallow deer occur in southern Hampshire and fallow have been reported from Petersfield near Penns Place, but neither species is likely to occur in Stroud.
