Mad 'March' hares

Our Brown Hares can be madder in February than March and with little vegetation to get in your way, now is the perfect time to try and spot them. Like many of our secretive mammals, they are more active at dawn, so consequently this is the best time to see them.

It was once believed that boxing hares consisted of two males sparring for a female. However, we now know that it is in fact the female rebuffing the males amorous intentions!

The best place in Montgomeryshire (that I know of ) to see Brown Hares is Dolydd Hafren Nature Reserve, near Forden. So whilst dawn is not too early, why not get yourself down there to witness this spectacular display?

Badger births

Badger cubs are born underground from mid-January, but births are peaking about now. This also marks the start of the Badger's main mating season, leading to increased territorial behaviour.

All this means that now is a perfect time to start looking for signs of your local Badgers. If you find an animal path, see if you can follow it; if it is a Badger path it will eventually lead to either a latrine or a sett.

Badger latrines are distinctive, being a series of scrapes in the ground, filled with piles of, often sloopy, poo.  If you manage to find a sett, the D-shaped holes, freshly 'ploughed' spoil heaps and discarded bedding should give it away.

Badger - Mochyn Daear

Well done Tammy for starting up a mammal blog for our county - I look forward to reading what different folk see throughout the year, and hopefully contributing myself with some interesting sightings. Here's a cheeky chappy that comes, sometimes with his family, to our garden on a nightly basis.

Stoat at Cors Dyfi

Rob Haigh, Reserves Officer for the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust reports seeing a Stoat in the car park at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve; some people have all the luck!

2010 record collating time

No, I am not cataloguing my record collection! At the beginning of each year, a local recorders first task is to ensure that all of the previous years biological records are safely in the database, before sending an update to the local record centre.

So, January and February finds me inputting & verifying records from all my merry mammal recorders.  If you have spotted any mammals in Montgomeryshire in 2010, now is the time to send your sightings to me!

If you are not sure what information I need, check out the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's biological recording page.

Send me your records, or the Water Vole 'gets it'!

From one blog to another!

Check out the lovely photograph of a Brown Hare on the Montgomery Bird Blog, taken at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's Dolydd Hafren Nature Reserve; the best place I know (in the area) to see hares!

Molehill spotting

Winter is a tough time for many of our mammals and moles are no exception. They remain active throughout the year, but their prey (mainly earthworms) move deeper as it gets colder, forcing our industrious diggers to extend their tunnel networks to find enough food. It is for this reason that so many molehills pop up during the winter and with the snow melting, now is the perfect time to spot these unmistakeable signs.