Start of Project

[Amylou]

We set 5 longworth traps today! Just as a test so we got used to setting them. We will check them early tomorrow, very early Again its just to have practice at checking them and IDing the finds and we need to sex them and weigh them. Then next week we will start our 6 weeks of trapping. We have a lot of traps!

Gotta say its a bit more exciting than the beginning of our bird watching today.
Though we did see a sparrowhawk! And the remains of a pheasant eaten by a fox. The fog really did not help

Will let you know if we see anything exciting!

[zan]

Nice one Does this mean you've found some ecology work, or is this part of your course?

Zan

[Amylou]

This is my 4th year project. Or dissertation i spose you can call it. I got my exam results today! I passed everything but i am just sitting in the 2:1 level so a good mark on this will guarentee me a good overall mark
We are mainly doing longworth trapping and hair traps. But are also doing some bird lists (mackinnon) and IDing plants and trees. They also said there are some badgers around but we havnt seen any sign of them yet. We are also going to record and look at the tracks in the sand. We saw some Roe deer tracks as well as rabbit and fox. So lots of work to do!!

[Amylou]

Well we got one wood mouse today! It managed to jump out the bag before we could sex it Lol! We need to work on our technique a bit i think!

[shirl]

Well done on your results, lets hope you get a good project result too. I know during my penultimate year of my degree we were at Malham Tarn Field Study Centre, and the tutor there said, you can't do much about what you catch etc etc, what is really important is how you analyse the data you have, that was certainly true in the bird project I did. We had to use coloured bait to see if birds had a preference - the wood mouse always ate it first! Nature is wonderfully unpredictable!

Shirl