Lucy & Other Animals

I'm always looking to improve my field identification skills, and expand my knowledge of British mammals. Last month (Saturday 18th November) my boyfriend Joe and I went along to the Mammal Society's first annual harvest mouse day at Doxey Marshes in Stafford. Doxey Marshes is a nature reserve characterised by rough grassland and wetland habitats, managed by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. At first glance, this reserve seemed an unlikely place for secretive mammals such as harvest mice ( Micromys minutus ), otters ( Lutra lutra ) and water shrews ( Neomys fodiens ) to inhabit since it's located right on the urban fringe, yet all three species manage to persist there. Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve in Stafford. The training course was fully booked and we were guided by Derek Crawley, the founder and chair of the Staffordshire Mammal Group since 1999. Derek was immensely knowledgable about British mammals, having been a Staffordshire Mammal Recorder since 1998, as well

Where to begin...  It's been four years since I last wrote a blog post and I feel that it's about time that I started with a clean slate. Those that used to follow my blog back in 2012/2013 may recall my pre-university Kalahari* Desert adventures. I spent six months working at the Kalahari* Meerkat Project assisting with the day-to-day recording of meerkat behaviour and life history data. Since then I have completed a Bachelor's degree in Zoology at Swansea University and a Master's degree in Conservation Science at Imperial College London. It was the search for a suitable MSc thesis project which drew me to the Fens* of Cambridgeshire; where I'm now employed as Assistant to the Environmental Officer of the Middle Level Commissioners.         *Some technical terms, geographical locations and other explanatory information           are listed in a glossary at the foot of the page. For my thesis project, I researched the effectiveness of coir roll revetment* inst