A Focus on Nature

Alistair is now listed with the Mentoring Scheme for A Focus On Nature. This Scheme offers guidance, support and advice to aspiring conservationists aged 18-30 as they develop their CV and apply for work supporting wildlife conservation.

Mentoring is managed through www.afocusonnature.org/mentors but feel free to post ad hoc questions if you think any of my summarised experience could help you with preparing for a job application or interview or finding the right volunteering for the skills required for the jobs you are looking for.

Azure damselfly at local SuDS pond

Azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella) is known at only a handful of sites in North East Scotland, but we found it in Robert Gordon University SuDS pond. 

We have observed frogs, toads and palmate newts here (all three of our local amphibian species in a single SuDS). 

A living example of the biodiversity that a well thought out SuDS pond can support!

Badger field signs and surveys

We had a fantastic day with the National Trust for Scotland North East Ranger Service delivering our 'Badger Awareness for Surveyors' and 'Badger Fieldsigns and Surveys' presentations and field visit.

Kaimhill ecology presentations

Latin proverb "Docendo discimus" (widely translated to "by teaching, we learn") is thought to have been derived from the writing of Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger.

  

We have been developing some introductory presentations to help teach others the knowledge and field skills they need to start looking for certain wildlife.  This is a slide from one of two presentations on badgers launched last night to the Aberdeen University Conservation Society.  It has also been a lesson for ourselves as we have carefully checked through the content of our presentations, checking for the sources of what we ourselves had been taught. Do you have knowledge to share with the next generation of surveyors, researchers and citizen scientists?

We have Nathusius pipistrelle!

We retrieved some of the records off the Anabat Express and we have the elusive Nathusius pipistrelle! :)

Biosecurity - doing your bit!

As keen naturalists, how many of us think that by roaming the countryside we might be doing more harm than good? With high profile diseases such as Chalara dieback of ash, and if you are old enough to remember, the foot-and- mouth crisis of 2001 many people are more aware of the concept of biosecurity.

In Scotland we have great outdoor access laws and you can pretty much roam as you wish as long as you do so responsibly. This is where an awareness of biosecurity comes in.

It is everyone’s responsibility to take proportionate measures to minimise the risk of transmitting pests/diseases onto or off any sites that they visit!

Professional ecologists will be well aware of biosecurity and carry specialist equipment. But for citizen scientists and amateur naturalists there doesn't seem to be a lot of information floating around on this increasingly important area. For many volunteer surveys you will be issued with a specific set of instructions for health and safety; ALWAYS read these!

I will not dwell on the intricacies of biosecurity here, that's what the links in the sections are for. I will instead want to ensure you are aware of the concept of biosecurity, how what you do relates to it and give you some simple instructions on how you can avoid spreading things around!

Among what can be spread are;

• seeds and regenerating vegetative parts, especially from Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) such as Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed
• spores responsible for disease in plants such as Phytophthora
• microbes responsible for animal disease (viruses, bacteria, fungi)

Most citizen science and volunteer surveying will require only to be aware of Level 1 and 2 Biosecurity Control. This basically means wearing footwear that can be easily cleaned with a brush and soapy water. Wellingtons are excellent to clean, but can be awkward to walk in longer distances. I always recommend a pair of synthetic waterproof walking boots; these will not suffer from washing if done right.

Level 1 and 2 biosecurity measures

• Respect any notices or instructions!
• Ensure footwear is clean prior to the visit (visually free from loose soil and plant debris)
• Ensure that vehicles are cleaned regularly to remove any accumulated mud, especially from wheels and wheel arches
• Keep vehicular access to a minimum and keep to established hard tracks
• Don't forget to wipe down / wash dogs! 

Cleaning footwear
If you are visiting several sites in one day it might be easier to pack several pairs of footwear so that you can just clean them all when you come back home instead of carrying equipment in your car. Or you can make up a Virkon S solution in a garden sprayer. You can find Virkon S tablets in farm shops or on Amazon but please make sure you read the instructions! Virkon S is not effective against Phytophthora, Forestry Commission Scotland recommends Cleankill Sanitising Spray, which may be available from a farm shop. Neither of these are suitable for aquatic use! Please use Virkon Aquatic for this.

What you need:

• Water
• Plastic cat litter tray (to catch dirt for disposal and to soak boots)
• Hoof pick and stiff dish washing brush

Tools of the trade!

1) Remove visible dirt: If your boots are wet, allow them to dry a bit. Brush any visible debris into the cat litter tray and put it into the household bin (not your bin for garden/food waste!). I use a hoof pick (for horse grooming) and an old dish washing brush - the hoof pick makes light work of getting soil out of deep ridged soles! A dish washing brush is usually very stiff and gets into all the nooks and crannies of your boots.

2) Washing: For this step I use a litter tray for cats as they are big enough for the majority of shoe sizes! Rinse out the tub if you used it to catch dirt. Make up a solution of 1 part household bleach to 9 parts water and let the soles of your footwear rest in this for 15 minutes. Don't let the solution onto the fabric of the boots, you only need it on the rubber soles. Carefully rinse to remove the bleach solution or the materials of your footwear could suffer! Always pour washing solution down the sink, NEVER into street drains or onto the ground. You can use a solution of Virkon S or Cleankill instead of bleach in this step, please follow the instructions if you do!

Vehicle disinfection
Consider where you drive and park your vehicle; park on hard standing away from plant materials and ideally park off-site if you can. This is especially important if you are driving through farmland or forestry woodland. You should clean the wheel arches and tyres of your car by using a hose or high pressure washer but don't do this at home! The drains in your street are only meant to carry surface water runoff (ie rain) and should not be contaminated with foreign soil or chemicals. The best place to clean your car is at a petrol station car wash or other commercial car wash as their drains by law have to be connected to so-called 'foul water drains/sewers' which means the water will be decontaminated.

SPECIFIC INSTANCES

Amphibian surveys/pond dipping
There is detailed guidance from ARG-UK, Froglife and SNH how to prevent the spread of amphibian disease, mainly chytrid fungus and Ranavirus. For our NARRS survey, even though we only visit the same pond, we disinfect the equipment carefully. This is best done in a bathtub due to the size of the equipment cleaned.

• Buckets and net: wash carefully to remove all visible debris.
• Measure out 1 part household bleach to 9 parts water and soak for 15 minutes. Rinse very carefully to remove the bleach solution as it may otherwise enter the watercourse/affect the creatures you are trying to survey.
• Wash your clothes in 40C machine wash!
• Wash footwear as previously

Tree biosecurity
Always, always heed signs and instructions where there are restrictions to access due to infected trees! Phytophthora are a large group of pathogens that cause diseases in plants including many species of tree. The name is derived from Greek and literally means 'plant destroyer' from phyto (plant) and phthora (destroyer). There is only one disinfectant that has been proven to be effective against Phytophthora ramorum spores and it's called Cleankill Sanitising Spray. It is classed as a substance harmful to health and should ideally not be used unless you are trained in Control of Substances Harmful to Health (COSHH). Therefore if the area you are going into is likely to have Phytophora ramorum present you may wish to reconsider going there. You will not be able to kill Phytophthora with a bleach solution. There is more detailed information here.

FAQ

Why do I need to scrub all visible dirt off if I can just soak my boots?
Seeds, spores and microbes are easily picked up in dirt on your shoes and clothing. For example, seeds of Himalayan Balsam are small and will easily transport themselves on your shoes to a more sensitive habitat where they will then spread like wildfire! Fungal spores may attach to your clothing, and so spread between sites as you brush against vegetation. Microbes are invisible to the human eye and are everywhere - hence why dirt must come off AND bleach solution must be applied.

Why do I need to chemically treat my shoes and equipment as well?
Just because your shoes have no dirt on them doesn't mean they won't carry microbes or spores. The only way to kill these effectively is by high temperature washing or chemical treatment.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Forestry Commission Scotland Keep it Clean Campaign

Bumblebee queen hibernation hole

In August or so, the new bumblebee queens go off to find a hibernation site. They usually dig a tunnel about 10 cm long, ending in a small chamber. They will then hibernate from end of August to March/April. The new queens are the only bumblebees that hibernate - the rest of the colony, the males and the old queen all die off at the end of summer!

By chance whilst out surveying a badger sett, I saw this large Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) queen flying about above the grass and when she landed I thought I would take a few photos but realised she had entered a small hole with a bit of earth dug out. So I watched and waited... And sure enough a minute or so later her back-end emerged, digging earth out of the hole! I realised she must be digging a hibernation tunnel.

I've seen bumblebee nests in the past, but I can't recall ever seeing this before!

The Wood Mouse - very common but rarely seen or appreciated!

Spot the Wood Mouse...

This article contains links - these are not affiliate links and we are not sponsored by anyone!

After attending a small mammal trapping event recently I've grown to appreciate just how common the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) is. It is literally everywhere. And apparently, it loves hanging round people because we are messy so there is plenty of opportunity for food and shelter. So what's so special about the Wood Mouse?

Wood Mice live in large social (family) groups in a  burrow, and have a territory they defend from other social groups. They are highly adaptable to different living situations but as they preferably eat grains and seeds, they are mostly prevalent in agricultural settings, and are considered a serious agricultural pest species. Normal life span of a wild mouse is about 9 months, and they are mature at 21 days. This means that a female mouse can breed several times in the year and can produce up to 30 young in her lifetime. That is why some years mice can reach plague proportions in farm settings, as was the case in Australia in 1993. It is not easy to control mice numbers with trapping or poison, and with their rapid rate of reproduction they are almost unbeatable.

Mice are naturally heavily predated upon by cats, birds of prey, foxes and various mustelids. This will in a naturally balanced setting control the population but in an artificial environment like an intensively farmed area, predation cannot control the numbers of mice.

A lot of people are afraid of mice, perhaps because in our distant past they could be a cause of famine due to their effect on agriculture and also carriers of disease. In terms of health, humans can contract leptospirosis from contact with mouse urine. Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection and in 90% of cases, it only causes mild flu-like symptoms, such as a headache, chills and muscle pain but in some cases it can cause more serious complication called Weil's Disease. Mice are also a carrier of Lyme's Disease that can transfer to people through tick bites, although in many places deer is the main source of ticks infected with Lyme's. Mice are also reportedly responsible for a lot of fires, as they have a penchant for chewing electrical wires and cables! In a modern domestic setting however you are most likely to get in contact with a mouse through 'presents' your pet cat may bring you occasionally, so you shouldn't need to worry about mice.

Despite being called House Mouse (Mus domesticus) the mice you would usually find in and around your house is not House Mouse but rather Wood Mouse! House Mice are considered fairly rare nowadays, possibly due to competition with the more aggressive, highly adaptable Wood Mouse. So how do you tell what mouse your cat has graced you with?... Wood Mice are brown on the top and have white-grey fur on the belly. A House Mouse will have a dark greyish fur all over. And how can you easily tell them apart from voles? As opposed to voles, mice have a very long tail, easily the length of their body. Voles have very small ears which cannot really be seen through their fur, but a mouse's ears are large and protrude from their head. The mouse's bouncy gait also separates them from the more bumbling run of the voles.

This video from our training day shows the characteristic face and ears of the Wood Mouse, and it's unmistakable pale tummy that separates it from the House Mouse!

For scientific study, Wood Mice are trapped the same as most other small mammals, using a humane trap. The one used in our course was a Longworth trap with a shrew hole. It is a legal requirement to have a shrew hole on your trap unless you intend to capture shrews, in which case you need a license to do so in both England/Wales and Scotland. The shrew hole allows all species of shrews to escape as they cannot tolerate capture for more than 4 hours due to their high metabolic rate.

The traps are usually baited with peanut butter and porridge oats. The peanut butter has a strong smell so attracts the mice in from as far away as 25 meters. The porridge oats gives them some food and there should also be some straw/hay in the trap chamber to keep them warm during the night. It is not wise to use shredded paper as insulating material as this gets damp very quickly and then won't provide the warmth and it also absorbs urine and becomes soggy.

Trail cameras can be used to great effect to see if mice are present. Just bait, and wait...

Again, if using trail cameras, peanut butter and raisins are good bait. Cats don't tend care for these so leaves the site alone, but foxes apparently love it and of course, most small mammals will take any opportunity. Peanuts can attract squirrels and badgers, dog food and dried mealworms will also attract hedgehogs, however dog food is also likely to attract cats so it might be an idea to hide the bait in a box where cats can't get access! As the season progresses we will work on a post on how to use camera trapping to record wildlife, so stay tuned.

Footprint tunnel insert with the ink pads at the entrances and the bait in the middle.

You can also check for small mammals including Wood Mouse in your garden using a footprint tunnel! These are messy things but can made easily enough and be fun to check. A quick internet search will let you know how to make one. Use ink powder mixed with vegetable oil (won't harm the animals) on the 'ink pads' and just plain printer paper for the impressions, bait it with peanut butter, oats and peanuts and wait to see what visits! You can also place a camera in the tunnel if you want to actually see what's been visiting, as the footprints of various small mammals can be very hard to tell apart...

A little known fact to finish off is that bumblebee queens favour old mouse nesting sites for their nests, so they hone in on the smell of mice when they search for nest sites. So if you do find an old bit of a mouse nest in your garage or shed, use it to make a bumblebee nest to help the bees! :)

What does the fox say? Something pungent!

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) observing from the long grass and scrub close to RGU at Garthdee

I have been taking more of an interest in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) of late having seen by far many more foxes in and around Aberdeen in the last 3-4 years than I can remember seeing in all of my life before. Whether this reflects an actual change in urban numbers or fox behaviour (or perhaps my own behaviour) I do not know.

The red fox is native across Europe, Asia and North America ranging between arctic and near desert habitats and is found in lowland and upland areas across the UK.

Fox earths (fox dens) are often described as being taller and narrower than badger (Meles meles) entrances. This allows foxes to emerge in a more or less standing posture. They are described as being of 20 to 25 cm diameter with a fan shaped arc of excavated soil from the entrance. Foxes are not as capable at digging as badgers or rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and will often occupy disused or used badger setts - it is not unusual for both animals to emerge from the same entrance! Foxes also enlarge rabbit holes or make use of spaces under buildings or under trees. 

Mistakenly presuming I could use a slightly modified badger sett survey technique to locate earths, I have since established from the Mammals of the British Isles Handbook (4th edition) that the use of earths is very variable. Outside of the breeding season many foxes lie above ground in dense cover but they may use earths during bad weather. Breeding earths are most conspicuous during the period when fox cubs have food brought to them in the earths (food remains may be in the entrance and the earth may smell of fox), or as cubs begin to emerge between May-June and trample down vegetation around entrance(s) through play. Being mid-way through July, I should probably not feel too disheartened not to have found an entrance matching the textbook descriptions.

Secondly, I presumed that as many sightings of adult foxes are of single animals, that they are solitary outside of the breeding season. The dog fox (male) brings food to the vixen (female) and cubs in the earth. I was surprised to also find from the mammal handbook that they are a social animal which live in family groups across a joint territory. A family has a dominant male and dominant female who will breed and may be supported in better conditions by one or more subordinate adults which could be female or male.

Red foxes reputedly use at least 28 categories of sounds though more recent research suggests 12 adult sounds and 8 cub sounds). They use barks, which they would do with a higher pitch than dogs. They are more renowned (or infamous) for 'vixens screams' during the late winter (their mating season) - though it would appear both dog foxes and vixens use screams. Cubs may also be heard making 'gekker' noises during play and similar sounds are made when fighting.

Most of the time you are more likely to smell foxes than hear them - they are notorious for using scent with great effect - both urine and faeces - often marking conspicuous objects such as large stones or tussocks or along pathways (particularly at junctions) where they can be found by other foxes. The scats (faeces) are more often than not the most obvious field sign of fox presence. I do not have a particularly good sense of smell but once I get a wiff of the acrid smell of their scat or urine I find it is difficult to get rid of!

Being omnivores, droppings can contain animal and fruit remains - particularly berries. They eat birds, rabbits and smaller mammals such as voles. In common with other carnivores, faeces are often long and twisted with remains of fur and feathers or insects, or can even be purplish with berries. This contrasts with dog droppings which are not twisted and do not tend to have obvious remains of contents. The droppings start off a dark colour but can go white over time due to the high bone content.

Variability in red fox (Vulpes vulpes) scats - all photographs taken on the same day at the same site: Top - White patches in contents which could be bones of prey or bits of feathers
Middle - Obvious fur content and superficially resembling a bird of prey pellet
Bottom - A more dog like fox scat. Very much whiter due to the high bone content

There is a huge overlap between fox scat forms and those of other carnivores. It is not unknown for professionals to mistake fox scat for something more exotic such as pine marten (Martes martes) or Scottish wildcat (Felis sylvestris grampia) scat - so scats are never the best field sign for identification unless supported by DNA testing.

They may also mark urine over emptied food caches or leave droppings on food remains.

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) scat over an abandoned meal adjacent to the Lunan Water

A distinctive feeding sign of foxes is that they shear the feathers off from birds that they eat, tearing them off with their teeth leaving broken or ragged quill tips. Birds of prey also remove feathers from birds but pluck them leaving the quill tips intact.

The feathers of a pheasant sheared off by a red fox (Vulpes vulpes), leaving ragged quill tips, Hill of Canterland

Fox hairs may also be caught in barb wire fences, but not having the distinctive nature of badger or deer hairs, I have never yet confidently identified fox hair on its own.

A further sign is foot prints. The clarity of the print can be dependent on the substrate and age of the print. Foxes have a relatively narrow print compared to most types of dogs. You will often hear people talking about drawing a line (or imagining) a line or cross over the print - the lines of which will not touch any pads. The picture below shows an actual fox print (unfortunately I do not have any clear photos of fox prints at the time of writing), with the picture below showing approximately the location and shape of heel pad, toe pads and claws superimposed along with both techniques of drawing lines across the print. It is not possible to use either technique on a dog print without touching/crossing one or more pads.

Demonstration of the two techniques of drawing lines between the toe pads and heel pads of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) without any pads touching the line. This is not possible to do with a dog print without a pad touching the line(s)

Country foxes tend to be very shy and secretive, which is hardly surprising given their persecution. Urban foxes can be quite bold. I have encountered a pair of foxes being playful with people - something I saw a few years ago at Aberdeen Pleasure Beach. As charismatic as they are, I would not encourage anyone to entice foxes into becoming more comfortable with approaching people - they can be a nuisance around gardens uprooting garden plants and interfering with bins. I am also sure that anyone with a sense of smell will come to regret closer contact!

One of a pair of playful red fox (Vulpes vulpes) which spent time being chased and chasing a party of people down at Aberdeen Pleasure Beach in the early hours of the morning

 

There is an excellent website about foxes - www.thefoxwebsite.org which promotes itself as "the one site with all the answers about foxes". I would thoroughly recommend it to learn more about foxes and to separate fact from fiction - particularly at this time of debate about fox hunting with dogs in England and Wales.

On the trail of the red squirrel

Squirel (Sciurus sp.) eaten spruce in the grounds of Haddo House. Some cones appear to have been subsequently eaten by wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) 

With some time to spare yesterday in the grounds of Haddo House, I opportunistically found a quiet looking path adjacent to a tree plantation to slowly creep past looking for wild mammals and their field signs.

There is a very obvious clue to amateur trackers of any skill level that red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) use the grounds at Haddo -  there are road signs along the drive to the car park which state "Kill your speed NOT a red squirrel."

Following a mammal path under a canopy of spruce trees (with the occasional beech tree), I quickly found an abundance of spruce cones which displayed clear squirrel feeding signs on the woodland floor and on tree stumps.

Squirrels like to sit on a tree stump or mound whilst eating for a good view for predators. Around a third to half of the cones were found on top this stump already, whilst the others were found within around 1.5 metres or so around the stump and placed on top of the stump for the photo just to give an impression of the density of feeding signs in one small space.

Some of the spruce cones  have probably also been eaten by another species after the squirrels! Cones which have been fed on by squirrels alone have frayed ends where the scales have been removed. Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) will often feed on the cone after the squirrel, removing ragged and frayed ends and removing the tip of the base of the cone leaving a rounded base. The mice often move the cones to a more concealed place to feed on them.

Encouraged by the abundance of squirrel feeding signs, my attention changed from looking at the ground to looking into the canopy for squirrel dreys (their nests). Dreys are constructed from twigs and leaves and are almost spherical (or flattened to be wider than tall). They are usually around 25 to 50 cm in diameter (football size and larger) and normally found against the trunk of the tree (held up from where a branch leaves the trunk) from around 6 metres above ground upwards, though they can also be at a fork in branches.

The darker object is approximately football sized and is a squirrel (Sciurus sp.) drey. Seen in the grounds of Haddo House

The squirrel (Sciurus sp.) drey is the darker object behind many living branches and twigs in the forefront. Seen in the grounds of Haddo House

Crow and magpie nests can be superficially similar in appearance but tend to be found further from the trunk and are usually made of dead twigs without leaves.

A squirrel may use three, four or occasionally more dreys in their territory. Reds and greys are both also known to use more open saucer like dreys during the summer as resting places. I could not decide if another structure that I saw in the woodland was one of those or just an old drey which had started as a spherical form and fallen apart.

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) feeding signs cannot be told apart and there are no obvious and reliable differences in the appearance of their dreys to tell them apart. Both species may even use the same drey at different times!

Unfortunately the strong wind at the time of the visit made detecting squirrels themselves difficult and survey guidance suggests that they are less active in those conditions anyway. I will take the word of the road signs on the drive and presume that I was looking at the field signs of red squirrels.

Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels is an award winning partnership project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and includes Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Land and Estates and the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. It is directed at conserving our native red squirrel and managing the grey squirrels which threaten the reds through competition and disease. SSRS welcome records of sightings of both species to help target efforts where they can make the greatest difference.