Brian Hammond gave members of The Wild Bunch reminders of the coming events which include a moth trapping night, a trip to Threave Osprey viewing hide and a field trip to Talkin Tarn. He then introduced the speaker Andy Riches who is the county recorder of mammals for Dumfries & Galloway. We were given a brief insight into Andy’s role as recorder as he collects, verifies, maintains and assesses records. He then prepares reports from this data. There is a limit to how much information can be collected by one person and so Andy relies heavily on reports from individuals, organisations and internet sources (e.g. iRecord) for many of his figures. Examples were given of the signs to be aware of when trying to identify mammals but things are not always as easy as Springwatch might have us believe. Simple devices to capture the paw prints in a ‘run’ with ink pads and paper sound fine until a fight breaks out or the animal decides to roll on the paper! Animal droppings are a good way of identifying what is around and what they have been eating, even the droppings of birds and the skeletons they leave behind give clues as to the mammals they have been catching. Slides of what mammals we have in the county were then shown. For each species there was a picture, an assessment (e.g. Hedgehog - Fairly common/Fairly widespread/stable population) and a distribution map. It became noticeable that the maps showed greater data along the A75 corridor because drivers and road maintenance crews report their findings of dead animals to Andy. In some cases it was stressed that although there were few records of sightings for certain species it wasn’t that they weren’t there but people prepared to act as recorders were scarce and then the reports tend to be for unusual sightings, like polecat, but not the more common, like rabbits. But rabbit populations can be a good indication of healthy Buzzard populations. Andy kindly answered individual questions at the end of his presentation and reinforced his plea for records of sightings even if only the dead bodies found at the roadside. The more accurate the location the better but for example ‘A75 near Annan junction’, would narrow it down enough. Andy can be texted on 07792 142446 or emailed at Slioch69@aol The next meeting will be on Thursday, July 18th, 7pm in Nelson House when the guest speaker will be Sally Henderson from the South of Scotland Wildlife Hospital with a presentation entitled “Spring/Summer babies”. New members and visitors are always welcome.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 16:55:35 +0000
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