Tag: Mammals

  • Reflections on International Mountain Day: Choughs, Chamois, Kilimanjaro

    Today is International Mountain Day http://www.un.org/en/events/mountainday/ We don’t have any mountains in Surrey. The highest point is Leith Hill near Dorking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Hill at between 293-295m above sea level which is the second highest point in South East England after Walbury Hill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walbury_Hill, East Berkshire at 297m asl. Gibbet Hill at Hindhead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbet_Hill is the second highest point…

  • Sorrow and delight in the same breath: a quantum conundrum as a noctule #bat comes my way

    Ranger Gemma bought me a present this morning and since its very nearly my birthday I got excited. Then she produced a small plastic bag and out of it pulled this Noctule bat who had caught her last insect on the wing. Gemma had found her at  at Wisley Common and by the look of the…

  • Song For A Fox by @RachelSermanni

    http://youtu.be/PudOwf44GOw I know its not strictly wildlife and conservation but how many times have you seen a fox and just been caught by the simple primal connection that exists in that moment. The physical fox leaves but he’s still in your head. “Sense her like my best kept thought/There still with my thickest blot/Like bees…

  • The Essex Otter and The Mayfly Knight

    A week or so ago I found myself in Essex on the Rivers Colne and Stour http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=51.91318812737575&lon=0.8061829263453214&gz=11&oz=6&gt=1   I was meeting up with other otter ecologist colleagues from neighbouring counties where otters are few and far between to keep our hand in with surveying for otter and water vole signs. After about our third attempt at…

  • Otters and water voles in Surrey: i do like a challenge, me

    Sadly last week we said goodbye to Chris Matcham, the SWT Otters and Rivers Project Officer who has retired to his home in Hampshire. Its doubtful whether he will be idle for long though, with a new project proposal in the off-ing. It just means he doesn’t have to drive into work anymore. Otters have…