Nature Watch with Ron Freethy

MANY times in this column there have been sightings of small mammals such as the short-tailed field vole, the long-tailed field mouse - also known as the wood mouse - and the bank vole.

None of these mammals hibernate but they are mostly nocturnal. This means that they are seldom seen and leads to the mistaken conclusion that they are rare.

All these three are very common indeed but they are not easy to study.

The best way to study small mammals is to use a Longworth trap.

This does not harm the animal at all and consists of a trap door which closes when the creature enters.

Inside the trap is plenty of food and lots of warm bedding. When you see the trap has been activated all you have to do is open it, identify the animal and let it escape.

I once had a short-tailed field vole in my garden which knew there was food and warmth in the trap.

As soon as I set it the vole dived in, ate the food and went to sleep and was protected from predators.

The trap was invented by a biologist called Longworth.

It is made of aluminium and can be bought from specialist companies.

If anyone would like more details I will be glad to advise them.

In the autumn and winter small mammals make use of last year's birds nests.

Voles and mice do not hibernate but they store food such as hawthorn berries, hazel nuts, rosehips and crab apples.

They take their stores to old nests and when the weather is bad they snuggle up in the nest and have supplies of food all around them.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.