Every year we release some of our harvest mice out on to our nature reserve to help boost the numbers that we have established there. As with most naturally occurring populations, numbers fall over the winter period, and so an influx of new mice each year help to keep a wild population on our reserve in this fairly isolated area.
From the original releases around the boardwalk area, they have spread over the years further in to our reserve and nearly as far as our wild meadows. The last couple of years have shown several nests, including breeding nests, all around the main part of our nature reserve and a favoured area of through the reeds of our wetland area.
This is where we decided to do a further release for our first release this year, in the second part of the main reserve near the wetlands. This will hopefully help support the mice that would of survived the winter, and help with connectivity to the population around the boardwalk. Fingers crossed.
I do on occasion see one around our wetland boardwalk that the public have access too, but they are very difficult to spot. They are very small, and very shy, but keep an eye open and you never know... you may get lucky.
