Thursday 16 April 2015

Clues on a tree stump


Can you see this hazel nut, which I found balanced on top of a small tree stump?  There is a hole in it with tiny tooth marks round the edge.  It can't be a squirrel because they split the nutshell open.  And it's not totally round so it won't be a dormouse.  Anyway, dormice are unlikely to have colonised our woods as they find it difficult to migrate.

So it could be a vole or a woodmouse.  Here's a useful chart from the People's Trust for Endangered Species.



Unfortunately my photo is not clear enough to see the toothmarks so I shall have to go back and see if the nut is still there in the coppice plantation.



But I am pretty sure we have voles and woodmice at Filnore - and squirrels, of course.

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