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Tuesday 30th September

As from Monday 28th July River Cottage is welcoming a group of biologists from the University of Gloucestershire, led by Dr Adam Hart, (Course Leader Biosciences), to carry out a biodiversity study.  They will be looking at the plants and animals on the farm, identifying the different species and getting an idea of their abundance.  They will be writing their own blogs for our website and let you know what they have found which will also have links so that you can find out more about some of the discoveries they make.

When they've finished, they will create some information boards to go up on around the farm and some suggestions on how to keep, and increase, biodiversity.  For those of you who have yet to visit us at HQ they will also suggest ways that everyone can increase biodiversity in their gardens.  One way would be to have your own pond - but don't think you need to dig anything too big, a ceramic basin sunk into the ground (put the plug in first!) can attract all manner of plants, creepy crawlies, frogs, toads, newts and birds to your garden.

We have actually come the conclusion here that the bird we saw was most likely to be a Hoopoe. Although we are not 100% certain, it seems to tick the most boxes (apart from a wood pecker flying upside down), and is the most likely conclusion.

First thing on Tuesday we checked all the mammal traps, sadly with no results whatsoever, then we headed out searching for badgers. We came across a large, well established, currently used badger set, and several latrines, and outlier holes. We also found fox holes and some holes belonging to a member of the weasel family. Following on from our search for large mammals we headed down to the stream, and found evidence of bank voles, squirrels and wood mice, in the form of chewed hazelnut casings. We also discovered freshly deer stripped bark, tree scratching from foxes, and feeding holes from a greater spotted woodpecker. While walking around the site we came across a grey partridge, a couple of stonechats and discovered a few mole hills. As it approached sunset we checked the mammal traps again and then attempted to locate some bats with the bat detectors, however as it was raining we were unsucessful in locating any additional bats.

On Wednesday morning we checked the mammal traps one final time, still with no results, before packing up our equipment and heading back to Gloucestershire.

And then the sun came out!

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