Saturday, 30 August 2008

Training Day

Rosemary finds some feeding

Smashing day in Tilstock training up new water vole surveyors. We spent the morning indoors, with Malcolm and Anne Monie looking at how to spot field signs and ways to map and to record them, plus I did a brief spot on mink rafts.
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Then after lunch we went out to Steel Heath and did some survey work there. Happily we were able to tick off pretty much all the signs we'd been discussing - prints, feeding, trackways, burrows and latrines. There was the usual field/water vole overlap, but much of it was positively water vole.
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Thanks to Clive Dean and Shropshire County Council Countryside Service for organizing the day. Because this course was so over-subscribed, there'll be another training day in the Spring.
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2 comments:

  1. Jane Adams31 August 2008 at 00:09

    I think these sort of training days are brilliant. I wish there were more of them. I've been on a few (bats, otters, etc) but not water voles. One coming up soon though! Thanks for posting this. Jane

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  2. Kate31 August 2008 at 00:28

    I love training days too! I remember how exciting it was, after seeing the slideshow of field signs, to then go out and spot them.

    The WI did us a fantastic lunch, too.

    Only downside was we think we may have found a mink print in one of the ditches.

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