Countryside Management Blogging Returns - more on Mice and Our Courses!

Well after a two week break, blogging resumes once again on this site from your chief blogger James!

Coming up this month we have the BBC's Look East coming in to film Emily's reintroduction of harvest mice to the countryside - watch out for a feature on the local news either monday of tuesday of next week (5th and 6th August). Autumnwatch from BBC2 are also in talks with us!

Other than that, we are still recruiting for our further and higher education courses so if you fancy dropping in for a chat and tour drop me a line. Give me a shout on 01604-491131 or james.littlemore@moulton.ac.uk.......

Hawk Moths Galore on the Moulton College estate!

PhD student and staff member Emma Coulthard has been busy collecting data for her research project which seeks to understand how the matrix of the countryside affects biodiversity on farmland.

Her target species are moths and in two weeks of continuous light trapping, Emma has found over 2800 moths made up of 85 different species at the Moulton College Estate and Kelmarsh Estate. She is interested to see how these species are affected by linear boundary features (hedgerows for example) at fine and coarse landscape scales, and how the ecological network can be better managed to promote their conservation.

Some of the species found have been extremely eye catching and include the hawk moth family (scientific name Sphingidae). Below are a range of hawk moths that have been caught, including the privet, eyed and elephant hawkmoth......

BBC News Feature on Harvest Mouse Research

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-23256001

International Success - Moulton Student working with the Yukon Wildlife Preserve in the Canadian wilderness!

Briony Edwards is a Foundation Degree in Countryside & Wildlife Management student who decided she wanted a different kind of experience this summer - that of working for the Yukon Wildlife Preserve in the Yukon Territory, Canada (see: http://www.yukonwildlife.ca/). The Yukon Wildlife Preserve is a unique wildlife viewing property featuring ten species of northern Canadian mammals in their natural environment. Encompassing over 700 acres with various natural habitats, the Yukon Wildlife Preserve offers unparalleled wildlife viewing and photo opportunities. She has experienced a real adventure so far and takes an active role in feeding and caring for the range of wild animals at the Preserve.

She comments 'Things are eventful here, but amusing....so far, in this one week the green truck interns drives has broken down twice. The first time was onsite and we had to push it off the path because of visitor coaches. The second time was yesterday - it stopped working when we were on our way back from collecting browse, on the highway, at 80km/h. Our radio was also not working for some reason, so we had to walk back to the site. Three days ago there was a huge but brief thunder and lightning storm and yesterday there a small sandstorm onsite! We have experienced 4 power-outs. 3 were just at the Preserve and lasted no longer than 15 minutes each. The third affected the whole of Whitehorse and surrounding areas (we are 20 minutes outside of town), and it lasted an hour.

She adds...... 'Now for some random facts I've come to notice:

• It never gets dark here;
• Cars don't need front license plates;
• It is a legal requirement to have headlights on at all times of day;
• There water here makes your skin incredibly dry - everyone, even the bullish men around here, use hand creams. I'm drinking a lot of water but it is causing my lips to crack!

Today I caught and weighed the resident Snowy Owl, with the assistance and guidance of the head animal carer and below is a picture of the splendid beast'.....



 

Moulton Researchers on Anglia TV and BBC Radio!

Tune into BBC Radio Northampton at 8.50 tomorrow morning to hear Emily being interviewed live on the radio about her harvest mouse conservation project (link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bjh11).

You can also see footage of ITV Anglia TV's recent visit to the Wilson Countryside Centre to learn about the project. The sequence will appear on the evening broadcast of Anglia News tomorrow (Weds 10th July). The story may be streamed live on their web-site before official TV coverage: http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/.

Official University Press Release on Harvest Mouse Research

Take a look here: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/university-of-northampton-and-moulton-college-work-together-on-groundbreaking-harvest-mouse-research-project

Harvest Mouse Project in the News!

Word is spreading on Emily's project on harvest mice - check out the link to Northampton's own Chronicle & Echo: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/harvest-mice-habits-tracked-by-microchips-1-5256458.

There is going to be a planned release of chipped mice very soon - check back to the blog to learn more!