Nature watch: November

Frost on the grass, a robin singing, a drizzle of leaves...winter is coming and wildlife makes ready as best it can. Hibernation is one survival strategy to see the season through, and now is the time when the dormouse curls up for the long sleep. Roughly the size of a cricket ball, its hibernation nest is woven from dry grass, moss and leaves. Dormice like habitats with cover that also provide lots of edible nuts and berries. Are there dormice where you live? Clues can be found by inspecting empty hazelnut shells. Woodmice and bank voles make a hole that shows corrugated tooth marks all around it. But the dormouse chisels out a neater hole that is smooth around the inside edge with tooth marks only on the shell surface.

Photo courtesy of Dave Williams/Surrey Wildlife Trust www.wildlifetrusts.org
There are 47 local Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney. We are working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone. With 670,000 members, we are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to conserving the full range of the UK's habitats and species.