Lesvos is the third biggest Greek island, so on our second trip here we concentrated on the southern and eastern parts of the island. There was such a contrast between the two halves of the island! Forests were much more common, mostly of pine and oak, and the landscape was much more vegetated. This also meant that finding some of the cave locations was challenging as there was often a lot of spikey vegetation between us and it…

We had a curiosity on this trip in the form of a Myotis species that seemed to have characteristic features from two different species, so we are looking forward to receiving the DNA analysis results from the wing punches taken. And after five trips of catching fragments of Mehely’s horseshoe’s echolocating, we finally caught some that were roosting in a cave with several other species of bat.

Our species list for Lesvos, from both trapping and sound recordings, included:

Common pipistrelle	Pipistrellus pipistrellus
Kuhl’s pipistrelle	Pipistrellus kuhlii
Savi’s pipistrelle	Hypsugo savii
Greater mouse-eared	Myotis myotis
Long-fingered bat	Myotis capaccinii
Whiskered	Myotis mystacinus sp.
Greater horseshoe	Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
Mehely’s horseshoe	Rhinolophus mehelyi
Lesser horseshoe	Rhinolophus hipposideros
Blasius’ horseshoe	Rhinolophus blasii
Geoffroy’s bat	Myotis emarginatus
Leisler’s	Nycatlus leisleri

 

Lesvos is the third biggest Greek island, so on this trip we concentrated on the north and west parts of the island. It was challenging to find potential roost locations and likely trapping sites due to the volcanic geology in this barren-looking region; there were no caves as such, old mines were either blocked up or impossible to find (as were some of the caves), streams and rivers sank underground, and there was little in the way of forests.

Despite this however, we had some interesting evenings trapping by the west coast and we caught a bat that we had recorded on the last few trips but never seen…. the long-fingered bat. And in a tunnel up in the mountains we caught another new species, the Mediterranean horseshoe. We ended up with a good species list for the island as well as a puzzle to be solved in the form of very small adult pipistrelles.

Our species list for Lesvos, from both trapping and sound recordings, included:

Common pipistrelle	Pipistrellus pipistrellus
Kuhl’s pipistrelle	Pipistrellus kuhlii
Lesser mouse-eared	Myotis blythii
Greater mouse-eared	Myotis myotis
Long-fingered bat	Myotis capaccinii
Greater horseshoe	Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
Lesser horseshoe	Rhinolophus hipposideros
Mediterranean horseshoe	Rhinolophus euryale
Blasius’ horseshoe	Rhinolophus blasii

 

 

Last weekend, for the third year in a row, I joined a group of like-minded conservation volunteers for a weekend of practical woodland management on the beautiful Isle of Wight.

Briddlesford woodlands are part of a nature reserve owned by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). I help with hazel dormouse monitoring here during the spring and autumn, leading a group of 3-4 people as part of a much larger group to check the 560 or so dormouse boxes for the presence of these elusive and adorable mammals (my old dormouse trainer tried to ban me from saying ‘adorable’ but it hasn’t worked).

Every January, a group of 30-40 keen volunteers meet up for a weekend of mud, brambles, rain, tea around camp fires, and fajita’s. As well as it being a good social gathering, the weekend is a great chance to learn some new skills and spend some quality time in nature.

There are a number of different groups each with their own task for the weekend. Whether it be coppicing hazel, removing sycamore saplings, clearing woodland rides or felling trees, volunteers can work on various tasks that contribute towards the management of these woodlands.

This year I was part of a group that was clearing a stretch of 200m on either side of the railway line running through the woods. Ivy and bramble were cut to ground level and rakes were used to expose soil under a good layer of leaf litter. The aim of this task was to clear the area for reptile fencing to be installed, as part of PTES’s project looking into designing a successful dormouse bridge.

Dormouse populations are on either side of the railway line and this project aims to see if dormice prefer using an artificial bridge or will travel over ground across the rail tracks. A test run last autumn using camera traps revealed dormice and other mammals, including red squirrel, using the bridge within a matter of days, so it is hoped that a commercial, affordable dormouse bridge design will arise from the project that can be used for mitigation measures within ecological consultancy.

As well as the satisfaction of a job well done, such practical conservation work is a good chance to observe and see interesting bits and pieces, like the wandering trail of a grub eating its way through a bramble leaf or the nationally scarce narrow-leaved lungwort in flower.

And, as ever, there is always time for a catch up.