This Friday Dec 4th at 8pm, join Sean McCormack for an online discussion about a potential reintroduction project of Harvest Mice in Ealing. We’ll be exploring whether we have Europe’s smallest rodent species in the Borough, how we might find out with some help from our members, whether we still have suitable habitat and why such a project might be beneficial to people and biodiversity.
This is hopefully the first in a series of talks exploring rewilding and nature conservation in Ealing.
There are 100 spaces; first come, first served. Please do join live so you can take part in the Q&A afterwards. A recording of the session will be posted after for those who missed the live event.
The meeting will be on Zoom, details as follows:
Ealing Wildlife Group is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Rewilding Ealing: Harvest Mice
Time: Dec 4, 2020 08:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
Hi
Interested in the project but wondered if you have carried out a survey for harvest mouse presence first. Devon considered a re introduction program but when we asked about survey s they had not done any and have sine found the species to be wide spread.
This year the Mammal Society will be running a national survey for Harvest mice and this should include training sessions on searching for nests.
Hi Derek,
You might be interested in watching the briefing session I presented on what is involved in the project.
It’s available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNbY6TtgJnA&t=2s
Obviously with Covid restrictions we haven’t been able to get masses of volunteers out on the ground surveying for nests but many of our members have been keeping an eye or actively searching in the key areas and habitats where we think a) they could persist, or b) if they’re now absent would be good sites for reintroduction. Personally I’ve been looking for years and have never found a nest. And one of our local naturalist groups have scoured their records with the last one recorded in their area in the 1980s. So yes informal surveys have been going on, we’ve delivered our own survey training to members and so far not turned up any. Looking forward to the Mammal Society national project kicking off, but might not wait another year to get started over here with our own project. A lot still depends on what we are allowed to do with volunteers this year of course.
Cheers,
Sean