Dormice are tiny little creatures, often mistaken for baby squirrels, they spend up to three quarters of their lives asleep! And hibernate when food is scarce. Dormice are very rare in Britain, and we are very lucky in the Meirionnydd oakwoods to have a large nesting site with many dormice. Dormice prefer to live within deciduous, coppiced woodland and hedgerows- this fits in perfectly with the oakwoods and we have lots of worked planned to help protect the dormice. Look out in the future for pictures and videos of the work we’ve been doing, including building new nest boxes, and checking to see if we have any dormice living in any of our boxes! If you want to find out more about Dormice, have a look on our species pages!
Badgers are very sociable animals, and live in family groups of about 12 in underground burrows called “Setts”. Badgers are protected by law, we have to be very careful when working around a Badger’s sett. Badgers have cubs between December and June, so we have to be very careful not to disturb the badgers and their cubs, and avoid working around known sett areas during this time. For more information about badgers have a look on our species pages!
Otters can live in fresh and salt water, so you’re likely to see them at the seashore and by the riverbank. Many of our oakwoods sites follow rivers down from the mountains; this makes a perfect habitat for otters and we hope to encourage them to stay in the oakwoods area. Otters are in the same family as weasels, but are the only member who can swim underwater. To help them swim underwater they have webbed toes and a powerful tail that they use like a ship’s rudder. Otters are also capable of closing their ears and nostrils underwater, and keep warm and dry by having two thick layers of fur, a bit like us wearing a fleece and a raincoat! If you want to find out more about Otters have a look on our species pages!
The Meirionnydd oakwoods are home to hundreds of bats, many of the oakwoods are situated in remote areas where there are old farm buildings, caves and old mine shafts which act as the perfect habitat for bats. The brown long-eared bat is Britain’s second commonest bat with the tiny pippistrelle being the most common bat in Britain. Heard the saying “as blind as a bat?” well it’s not true! Bats are nocturnal animals and hunt by using sonar, bouncing signals off objects in their flight path and finding their pray, many bats swoop in on moths, caterpillars and spiders, snatching them out of the sky or off their branch. For a rundown of all the different species of bat we have in the Meirionnydd oakwoods, go to our species page.
The fox is the most widespread carnivore in the world, and the Meirionnydd oakwoods are home to many a family of foxes. They are very successful hunters, although not always popular with farmers and gamekeepers, the fox will eat lots of small rodents and rabbits and occasionally take some game and smaller farm livestock, which is one of the reasons for its unpopularity. One of the reasons that the fox has become such a successful hunter is its keen sense of hearing; a grown fox can hear a mouse squeak from 100 metres away! Foxes are known as very sly animals, with many old sayings using the fox to describe someone’s behaviour, e.g. “as sly as a fox” to mean that someone is being sneaky or secretive or “we out foxed them” to mean that you outwitted somebody.
Hedgehogs are brilliant woodland animals, although we are far more likely to see the visiting our back gardens because they love eating slugs!! These shy little animals make up an important part of oakwood animal species. Most of us know that hedgehogs are covered with prickles, and when they feel scared or under threat they curl themselves up into a ball, but, did you know that hedgehogs are actually born completely bald? A hedgehog’s spines develop over time, and a fully-grown adult can be covered in as many as 6000 spines! Which are gradually replaced over 18months. Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, sleeping through the day in nests made out of dry leaves and grass. In the autumn they build thicker nests and hibernate, they usually make their nests in hedgerows and other thick plant cover.
Coed y Brenin is home to two types of deer, the Roe, and Fallow deer. The deer haven’t reached all the oakwood
sites, as they are kept in specific areas of the forest; this helps us with our work to conserve the oakwoods as
deer eat the buds from young oak trees.
If you get to see a Fallow or Roe deer you’re very lucky as they’re very shy animals and have an amazing sense of smell, if they catch your scent on the wind they’ll be gone before you even notice that they’re near you. Male Fallow deer develop large antlers and keep them through their adult life, but Roe deer male grow a new set every year.
The Roe deer, along with the Red deer, is the only truly native deer to Britain, the Fallow deer was once a native,
but disappeared after thelast ice age. Britain has approximately half a million Roe deer, and it is thought that “Bambi”
was based on a fallow deer fawn.
The Pied Flycatcher is a summer visitor to the oakwoods of Meirionnydd, this bird with its striking black body and bright white belly is a shy bird, and if you see one count yourself quite lucky. Some of the project work has included the building of nest boxes for these amazing birds. Keep checking the site for photos of the work we’ve done and the nest boxes we’ve checked to see if we’ve had any Pied flycatchers move in to their specially built Meirionnydd oakwoods summerhouses!
Jays are part of the crow family; sometimes called “the colourful crow” this little bird has a very special relationship with oak woodlands. In the autumn and winter months the Jay can be seen hopping around the forest floor collecting acorns to eat, but like squirrels, these birds also bury masses of acorns to have later on in the year. These little birds can collect and bury about 3,000 acorns a month! Although they can remember where most were hidden, some of them germinate and start growing. By doing this the Jay is helping to distribute acorns far and wide, and is a good friend to the project.
25 years ago this bird was close to being extinct in Wales, in the 1930’s their numbers were reduced to one breeding female. 15 years ago you’d only see them in mid Wales and the borders, but now these magnificent birds can be seen as far north as Coed y Brenin and the southern oakwoods areas around Corris. Red Kites are scavenger birds, this means that they are unlikely to hunt for themselves, but prefer to eat other animals’ leftovers or other dead animals.
The Buzzard is the most common of the large birds that you’ll see in the oakwoods area. If you’re up in the high grounds of Meirionnydd you’re very likely to see one of these birds soaring way above you or perched on a fence post. Eating mainly rabbits and small mammals including rodents, small birds and insects and frogs, the Buzzard hovers in the sky scanning for prey, but unlike the red kite this bird does not scavenge.
Here’s a bird that everyone will instantly recognise. The Robin with his red breast is a very popular British bird and is a regular visitor to the oakwoods. Many people have Robins that regularly visit their gardens, and it’s not uncommon for a Robin to stick with you all day when you’re out in one area of a forest. This is not because Robins see us as friends, in fact it is the opposite! Robins are very territorial birds, if you wander into its territory while you’re out walking in the woods he’ll follow you, sometimes coming very close, keeping his eye on you and warning that you’re in his territory. This guarding of territory is the same if you have a Robin that visits your garden, the Robin doesn’t see it as your garden, he sees it as his territory, and you’re trespassing!!
Many of our oakwoods follow river courses, this attracts many different animals to take advantage of the water
supply, but in particular our oakwoods are visited by small birds called Dippers. As the name might suggest
these little birds enjoy a dip in the water, in fact these birds can be seen on river banks, bobbing up and
down on a rock before diving into the water in search of aquatic invertebrates on which it feeds
Of all the British species of woodpecker you are most likely to see this character in the oakwoods, or should that be hear this bird. If you’re walking about in one of our oakwoods and you hear a tap-tap-tapping on a tree, stop and have a look around. You’re likely to be straying into a woodpecker’s territory, and the tap-tap-tapping is there as an alarm bell, announcing your arrival to other birds and letting you know that you’re entering his territory!
By day the oakwoods are teeming with different birds and wildlife, but at night things change. There are many night-time or nocturnal animals that inhabit the woodlands, like bats, badgers and otters, but non-so majestic as the Owl family.
The oakwoods are home to the Barn owl and the Brown, or Tawny owl. These birds generally nest in hollow trees, and use the oakwoods as hunting ground for small rodents and insects. If you keep an eye out on the forest floor you may find some owl pellets, they might make you cringe, but these pellets are re-gurgutate by the owl after eating their pray and are made up of bones, fur, and anything else that the owl can’t digest. All together now… uuueuch!
There are many different folklore’s associated with this bird, one belief in Northwest Wales was that whatever you’re doing when you hear the first Cuckoo call of spring you’ll be doing the same for the rest of the year, so best make sure you’re up to something worthwhile! Another old belief states that if you have money in your pocket when you hear the first Cuckoo of the year, then you’ll be rich for the next year!
