Bisham Woods, near Maidenhead, I’ve been discovering, is a
highly varied collection of woods, from Goulding’s Wood in the south through
Park Wood, Inkydown Wood up to Fultness Wood and Quarry Wood in the north. Turns
out, the variety isn’t just confined to the names.
Over the course of 2019 we’ve conducted four trapping
surveys and one nut hunt, at various places across the range. The woods are
owned by the Woodland Trust who are interested in updating their records of
what they have here, so these mammal surveys have been part of a larger survey
being conducted into the whole range of flora and fauna which has ranged from “forest
bugs” (a type of shield bug) to roe deer,
with buzzards and a variety of woodpeckers along the way.
The southern end of the woodland has a large variety of trees, good
understory, fallen trees, and other great hiding places for our small furry
friends. The northern end is very much a beech wood with patches of brambles and
the odd holy bush here and there but very little cover.
Human usage also seems markedly different. Quarry Wood has a
bewildering array of footpaths with, ironically, the official Public Footpaths
left almost unused, and nearly invisible in places! The southern end gets a share
of human, and canine, visitors too, but much less, or at least it seems that
way. Certainly fewer high-speed cyclists!
So, what did we find?
The four trapping events attempted to sample, approximately, a
quarter of the woods each. Each event, we set 45 traps up in three locations
across the section being surveyed. These had been decided on previously through
recces of the area, looking for places with cover and food.
Between three and eight amazing volunteers from Wild Cookham,
Wild Maidenhead and Berkshire Mammal Group, some with significant previous
experience and others with none, dragged themselves along at ungodly hours of a
Saturday morning to check and reset the Longworth traps, set out on the Friday
evening; and then once again on the Saturday afternoon. Whatever the weather,
and it was a bit damp underfoot on one or two occasions, or the slopes I had us
clambering up and down.
On the very first event, in May in Park Wood, we were
treated to a roe deer quite stubbornly standing her ground while we reset the
traps. From her curious calls, and scratching at the ground, we concluded she
had probably just given birth, so we made all haste to move on and not upset
her further. I’ve also seen muntjac deer in this part of the woods previously,
and their territorial marking spots were clearly present in several places.
A good collection of freshly excavated earth, especially in
Goulding’s Wood, indicates a fairly healthy mole population, to go with the “Rocket
Mice”. Apologies to those who now have that song ringing round their head, but
the wood mice do seem to have bundles of energy and springs for legs; emerging
from the traps like missiles! Unlike the rather more civilised, sedate, bank
voles we’ve found. (Sorry, no pictures of them, my photography skills need to
improve, but managed to get a couple of wood mice to pose nicely.)
Checking the traps in the morning and then again in the
afternoon has produced a finding I had suspected, but not previously seen.
Mornings are wood mice; afternoons are bank voles (roughly speaking).
The wood mice appeared to be slightly more nocturnal than
the bank voles. Although we caught both species in the mornings and afternoons,
the quantity varied consistently across all the trap sites, where we caught
anything that is.
Quarry Wood proved surprising in this respect. The 45 traps
we put out caught nothing! Well, apart from the odd slug! Even most of the
footprint tunnels came back devoid of rodent evidence (and sadly no hedgehogs
either). Slugs do like eating the paper though!
Apart from one site. A real curiosity, right at the southern
end of Quarry Wood, bordering Fultness Wood, the footprint tunnels were
crawling with rodent spoor, but the traps were untouched – even the slugs abandoned
them!
Grey squirrels are pretty ubiquitous though. A typical walk through
any part of the woods will have you almost tripping over them.
Our final event was a nut hunt in Inkydown Wood and Park
Wood. Its not been a good year for the hazel trees in this area sadly and,
whist we had a great crowd of twenty or so volunteers, we found very few nuts
from this year. Plenty of older ones, but trying to identity, or frankly even
find, teeth marks on an old, weathered, nut is an interesting challenge. All that
said, we found plenty of, surprise surprise,
squirrel-cracked nuts but also a number opened by rodents. It was hard to tell
which though.
All-in-all, it’s been an interesting, educational, and
useful year of surveying.
Many thanks are due to Reading University, for loaning the
traps and tunnels, and the members of Wild Cookham, Wild Maidenhead and
Berkshire Mammal Group, for their invaluable time and assistance.
Damian Carter
Surveys Officer, Berkshire Mammal Group
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