You may have seen Debbie Carter, a licensed dormouse handler, on the Wiltshire Woods edition of Countryfile on 2 November, but if you missed it, catch up on the last 10 minutes of the programme found here.

​Debbie was in Oyster Coppice checking the dormice boxes with Caroline Longley (Wiltshire Wildlife Trust) and Charlotte Smith from the Countryfile team. They found dormice and caught some footage on camera, much to everyone's delight. TisTalk interviewed Debbie this week, so you will soon be able to hear all about her experience. 

The topic this month is Pine Martens in the New Forest and will be presented by Marcus Ward, manager of the Guided Tours side of Wild New Forest,  a not-for-profit Community Interest Company which was established in 2016. They "support the conservation of threatened and poorly understood species in the New Forest by conducting surveys and research, sharing the data generated with key stake holders in the New Forest." They also run a Wildlife Explorers group for young nature enthusiasts. 

​If you scroll down on the Guided Tours website you can see Marcus on BBC Countryfile. 

The talk will take place in Victoria Hall on Thursday November 13th at 7.30pm. The bar opens at 7pm.

No need to book. As usual, free for members and £2 for visitors.

The first of our series of autumn talks was given by Dr. Tom Lewis, Conservation and Research Manager at Longleat, who came to speak to us about his conservation work on 11 September. This followed on from our excursion to see the beaver territory at the estate earlier this year.
 
Most of us living locally will know of Longleat as a Safari Park, where they also do a popular light display over the Christmas period. What most of us don’t know is that there is more at Longleat than that! And thanks to Tom we gained a better understanding of what is going on there, and the role that large estates like this can play in local nature conservation.
 
Tom started to become interested in conservation by joining bird ringing groups and witnessing the disappearance of willow tits. He then spent some years abroad working in conservation projects in exotic locations, and saving species from extinction. Back in the UK, after two years at Longleat, he has witnessed the re-occurrence of two key native species which have been virtually absent for centuries: beavers and pine martens!
 
None of these two species were released by the Longleat estate. They either made their way there from other locations where they have been reintroduced, or were unofficially released by unknown persons. But the important thing for us is that they are welcome there and thriving, and perhaps we will have them soon established in our immediate area too (if we don’t already!).
 
Tom showed us some stunning aerial footage and told us how every 200 metres of waterway at Longleat now has evidence of beavers. Beavers have transformed small streams of barely 1 m width, fast flowing in winter but which used to dry up in summer, into wetlands with bodies of water of about 20 m wide and which retain water throughout the year. The slow moving waters now support minnows, toads and newts for example, and the species that feed on them.
 
One of Tom’s jobs was to find out how healthy the beaver population is, so he set up trail cameras to try to find out how many beavers were actually living there. Although his first attempts were not very successful at recording beavers, many other interesting species were recorded. The birds included: kingfishers, herons, grey wagtails, egrets, canada geese, marsh tits, jays, crossbills, sparrowhawks, spotted flycatchers… The mammals, foxes and otters. We saw beautiful footage of all these creatures displaying natural behaviours and were finally rewarded with the beavers and their kits, 4 babies in 2024! 4 babies is the upper range of beaver litters, and Tom attributes the high number to the quality of the habitat. It seems this year only 3 beaver kits were born, and one was sadly found dead.
 
Next, Tom told us about his pine marten work. Pine martens were discovered in the estate through some unusual poo, and this was later confirmed by trail camera footage. Tom has since been trying to establish how many are present and he showed us some interesting footage of 2 playful pine martens having a romp this year. Recently, a pine marten with a tracker from Exmoor (the Two Moors Pine Marten Project) has been found in the New Forest by Wild New Forest, showing how large distance movement is possible.
 
Tom mentioned future plans in his work, including analysis of bib patterns (the white marks on the chest of pine martens, unique to each individual) and DNA of scats. He fleetingly mentioned dormice footprint tunnel surveys, bat surveys, wild boar and bird counts. We are happy to hear all this is happening at Longleat and would like to hear more in due course. There is other information on their conservation projects in their website: https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/animals/conservation/uk

Inés López-Dóriga

I really struggle during heatwaves. At home, I do all I can to keep the house cool and to make sure there is some shade into which we can retreat at the hottest time of the day. But, how is wildlife, which has evolved over long time periods to be adapted to our normal climate, impacted by the increasingly frequent hot and dry spells? Well, in numerous direct and indirect ways.

We will see in our gardens how fruit and veg may mature too quickly and drop fruit prematurely. In the field, this can mean that crops of berries, nuts, and fruits that birds and animals normally rely on in autumn, may be gone by the time they need them. Although we can water our wilting garden plants and seedlings, in the wild they may perish, and a new generation will be lost. If the plants provide food for the larvae of insects like butterflies and moths become desiccated and die, the larvae won’t be able to grow sufficiently to progress to their overwintering stage, diminishing the numbers that emerge next year.

Anyone trying to dig into their flowerbeds will know how rock-hard the soil can get. Well, imagine if you rely on muddy soil with which to build a nest, or on digging into that soil to get food – as badgers, hedgehogs and many birds do. Life becomes very difficult for them. And things are just as bad for the creatures in that hardened soil, making it an inhospitable place. The worms and invertebrates that moles feed on are harder to find, so they must dig deeper to find moist soil and food.

While every creature needs to drink water in some way, amphibians such as frogs and toads rely on being able to keep moist, but as cool damp areas become increasingly rare, they risk death from dehydration. During heatwaves, water temperatures in ponds and rivers rise, resulting in reduced dissolved-oxygen levels, which in turn can kill fish. At the same time, the warmth encourages algal blooms, which can smother other wildlife and become toxic. If ponds dry out completely before tadpoles have competed their transition to froglets or toadlets, they will die.

Added to all these problems is the increasing risk of wildfires, or, even worse, deliberately started fires. This is a particular problem on our southern heathlands, many of which are close to built up areas, which seems to increase their vulnerability.

Obviously, it is not all bad news. Some species undoubtedly benefit from the heat and drought. But cumulatively, repeated heatwaves will favour the more resilient species, which can adapt in the short term or can move to more favourable locations and are able to recolonise later. Sedentary species, or those whose population take many generations to rebuild, may become locally extinct, eventually leading to a reduced flora and fauna of robust, adaptable species. Unfortunately, many of these are what we currently think of as pests. In future, our flora and fauna may be less diverse, less interesting, and significantly different to what we are comfortable with.

Andrew Graham

Tisbury and District Natural History Society is taking part in a pilot project to monitor hedgehogs, run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and a number of partner organisations.

Do you want to be involved? There are two main ways in which you can and the best part is that you can be a volunteer for both tasks or just one of them! Please contact us.

Part 1: taking pictures
As part of this project, we will deploy 30 trail cameras in a number of locations across the outskirts of Tisbury (please note the camera locations have been already chosen). We need your help to set up and deploy the cameras and then take them down after 1 month! You don’t need to have any experience with trail cameras, as training and supervision will be provided for volunteers. You can give as much or little time as you would like to. Please get in touch with us if you would like to take part in the Tisbury survey.
 
Key dates:
31st of July: deadline to contact us to volunteer with the camera deployment.
 
We are setting up cameras on the 9th and 10th of August.
We are taking down cameras on the 8th and 9th of September.
 
You can be a volunteer for both tasks and dates or just one of them!
 
This is part of a larger survey plan, with other surveys being undertaken within the Wiltshire hub in other parts of the county at different times and other regional hubs. If you would like to be involved with the survey outside Tisbury, please contact the coordinator at PTES (link to form).
 
Part 2: checking pictures
Help is needed to check pictures taken by trail cameras and identify where any animals are present. Some degree of computer literacy skills are needed for this part of the project! Please note there are pictures already from previous years of the survey and from other locations outside Tisbury. All the information for this is online! (link to BHPS)

Further information from the partners of this project can be found in a separate document here

We recently had a fantastic excursion to Longleat, where we saw an impressive beaver territory, under the expert guidance of Dr Tom Lewis, Conservation Manager at the Estate.
 
We observed a series of dams and ponds, feeding stations and food caches, a lodge, a coppiced area… all the result of beaver activity since 2020, when these mammals - once extinct in Britain - were recorded in the area for the first time in hundreds of years.
 
Tom explained how beavers interact with the environment and each other and the transformation of the landscape since their arrival. We had heard beavers are ecosystem engineers and we saw how well they live up to the name!
 
A once temporary stream which used to dry up in the summer now has a permanent flow of water, thousands of tadpoles were swarming in the ponds, groups of spotted fly catcher families congregate in autumn to feed on the insects and the high canopy woodland now supports openings of freshly coppiced trees which provide lots of grazing opportunities for herbivores.
 
We felt very privileged to be there and see it all and we are very grateful to Longleat and Tom for letting us visit and guiding us there. We hope to be able to visit again in future to witness further beaver progress in the landscape!
 
This trip was not advertised on social media as numbers were limited and spaces were quickly filled from our mailing list. If you missed out, get in touch so we can add you to our mailing list and be the first to find out about our activities!

Inés López-Dóriga
​

We have reached our limit of 15 people for the Longleat field trip on Sat 3rd May. There are only spaces for those of you who have already received an acceptance from Andrew.

​If you can no longer make this trip, please let us know. We can open a waiting list if there are others who'd like to put their names down.

Dr Jocelyn Elson-Riggins gave us a fascinating insight into the research being done on the impact of whale populations on marine ecosystems. The Rugvin Foundation in the Netherlands was established to monitor whale populations and Jocelyn first worked for them as mentor for a scientist carrying out their PhD research on lungworm parasites in whales. In studying whale poo, they gained valuable understanding of the importance of its role in the ecosystem of our oceans.

In the mid twentieth century, when we lost half the population of whales in the Southern Ocean due to intensive whaling, the counter effect of an increase in krill, key food source for baleen whales, was expected, but these small shrimp-like crustaceans actually decreased in quantity during this period. Why was that?

To give an example of the number of krill consumed by a whale, we learned that a Blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on our planet, eats 40 million krill and releases 5000 kg of poo a day, the weight of an elephant. Whales come to the surface to poo, due to the water pressure, and surprisingly for its weight, it floats (and is very stinky)! We inspected slides of yellow masses of floating poo and were introduced to an important member of the research team, Fargo the Rottweiler, who despite suffering from motion sickness could scent whale poo in the water up to a nautical mile away, which vastly sped up their collection rate.

Whale poo has nitrogen, phosphorus and iron and whale urine has nitrogen and phosphorus, all necessary in the fertilisation of phytoplankton on the surface of the ocean. As whales feed at the poles, lots of poo is deposited there and as they migrate towards the Tropics their urine nourishes the oceans. Phytoplankton, the food source for krill, consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen and glucose, thus playing a vital role in our planet’s carbon cycle and oxygen production. Once you deplete the whale poo stores of the marine ecosystem, the phytoplankton, krill and the photosynthesis cycle are affected, leading to a decrease in krill.

Jocelyn also talked about the whales’ role in carbon storage, how a Bowhead whale for instance can live up to 200 years in the Arctic, holding the equivalent carbon of 1500 trees. When it dies a natural death and falls to the sea floor it gives a lot of food to deep water organisms, with its remains locked into the sediment.

Jocelyn finished with some examples of why we need to continue campaigning for the protection of whales.

• Krill fishing is on the increase for the supplements, pet food and  fish food industries.
• The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 2024 failed to create new Protected Areas since Russia and China refused to agree any changes.
• Whaling continues in Iceland, Norway, Japan and the Faroes.
• 300,000 whales are estimated to be caught in nets as a result of bycatch globally each year
• Plastics in the oceans mean that pollutants build up in the blubber and toxins pass to their calves who then die.
• The likelihood  of ship strike has grown with the increase in shipping around the world.

This was a very interesting talk which sparked many questions and much discussion afterwards. A donation will be given to the Rugvin Foundation by the Society in lieu of a speaker's fee at Jocelyn's request. 

Dr Jocelyn Elson-Riggins is a locally-based Whale Poo Ambassador for the Rugvin Foundation and a self-employed research consultant specializing in the fields of marine biology, veterinary parasitology, and wildlife disease.

Jocelyn joins us on Thurs 13th March for her talk "Pooping for the planet: why whales are marine ecosystem engineers" in the Victoria Hall, High Street, Tisbury at 7:30pm. The doors to the Victoria Hall will be open from 7pm and the bar will be available then too. Members are free and guests £2 at the door.

Jocelyn obtained a BSc from Bangor University, an MS from California State University Long Beach and a PhD from the University of California, Riverside. She then spent four years lecturing at Montana State University Billings before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), UK. Prior to becoming self-employed, Jocelyn was the Supervising Scientist of the RVC’s Clinical Investigation Centre laboratories. Most recently, she has been lecturing part-time at Bournemouth University.

In this session, Jocelyn will give an illustrated and entertaining talk on the roles whales play in marine ecosystems and in the mitigation of climate change. This will include findings from the latest scientific research. These discoveries have shattered previous assumptions about the importance of whales. Finally, she will talk about the threats whales face in today’s world and will open the floor to group discussion.

The Rugvin Foundation’s “Whale Poo Game” will be on display at the talk and if any Young Nature Watch members want to come have a look at it before the talk, they are most welcome. This game was developed as part of a workshop for school-age children. These uplifting and educational workshops are designed to raise awareness of how sustainable living and protection of whales can contribute to healthy ecosystems and the fight against climate change.

We would like to encourage those of you with children or grandchildren to visit the Dorchester Family Science Festival on Sun March 16th where Jocelyn will be running the game in conjunction with Prof. Genoveva Estaban and Dr Demetra Andreou of BU. The children will play the whale poo game first. They will then move on to Genoveva's table where they will see phytoplankton for themselves under the microscope. Then, they will learn about environmental DNA with Demetra. They will "process" water samples to generate a DNA barcode, which they will use to match to a specific marine organism (one of the ones they learned about in the whale poo game).

The document which gives more detail about each Field Trip has now  been uploaded and can be found on the Field Trips page. Our first one "Beaver walk in Longleat" is in the afternoon of Sat 3 May and has limited numbers. Please contact us if you'd like to book a space.

​Please note the updated times for our AGM next week in the previous Blog item.