Crazy lady coming through!

Wednesday 18th November 2020

I went for a walk over to Coates farm (part of the university) to look for birds - but turned into a mammal tracking crazy lady! We watched a mammal identification video a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that there were some animal paths going into the woodland to the right of the path - so I followed them! There I found a lot of rabbit burrows - the picture on the left - identifiable by the size and the rabbit droppings at the entrance. I took a photo and put it on the Mammal Mapper app - this is an app from the Mammal Society to help track mammals in the UK. You will have seen from previous blogs that one of the problems for wildlife conservation is that we have is not enough data on mammals. The app allows you to input what you have seen - whether it is alive, dead or you see signs (like the burrow). You should all get it and start tracking!

The second photo was a larger track further along so I followed that as well! I found a set of holes like the third picture - I think they are fox earths - they are not big enough or the right size for badgers - but I am not certain so I didnt add them to the app. I had a great time looking around - luckily not many people around to question what I was doing. Never got to looking for birds!