The first cycle of trapping at Gunnersbury Triangle has been completed, and the action has moved on to Perivale Wood. This beautiful reserve is owned by the Selborne Society, the oldest nature conservation society in the world, founded in 1885 and thus a few years older than the RSPB.

Despite its name, Perivale Wood includes pasture (for horses), damp scrub, secondary wood on disturbed land, some hedges (we saw one newly “laid”, the trunks almost cut through and fastened at an angle with beautifully-woven withies), three ponds and two streams.

This, of course, enables London Wildlife Trust‘s Vole Patrol, by agreement with the Selborne Society, to search for small mammals in woodland, by water, and in meadow.

Walking in, we heard a Song Thrush, and much calling and drumming of Greater Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker. From the bare Oak trees of the photo above, I briefly heard an early burst of song from a Chiffchaff, my first of the year.

We met some new Vole Patrollers, including Lindsey, seen here acting as “scribe” for the all-important data, and Nicola, seen here weighing a Wood Mouse.

The team quickly sorted itself out, everyone sharing the necessary roles – fetching traps, opening them, weighing, measuring, sexing and coding the mice, recording the data, returning the mice to their exact locations, baiting the traps, and returning them to their locations. It’s not really complicated, but there is enough to do, and with over 30 traps in the different habitats around the reserve, each task has to be done many times.