Thanks to A Little Bit of Stone team member Harriet Denson this review
On 28th March 2014 at Oulton Village Hall Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Stone Group ran a talk on “Carnivorous Small Animals”
Member Colin Webb introduced Derek Crawley from National Mammal Society (more info below), who took us through an illustrated talk about Shrews and Moles.
We learnt about the three types of Shrew, their eating habits and their life cycle. Derek who has a licence to catch Shrews and learn about them, to him its his hobby not his work. He even told us a story about how far he goes for his job, as he decided to lick one, as other carnivorous animals don’t eat them due to their sweat glands and now he knows why!! We were delighted to see an array of pictures of these beautiful carnivorous creatures.
We had a small break to have a cuppa and biscuit. I had a look at the poster board and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Gift table. All money goes to Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.
We concluded the talk with the gardeners enemy the Mole! Again learning about them and their ife cycles. But not how to get rid of them!! To finish we then watched videos Derek had captured of Shrews, Stouts, Foxes, Hares and Minks.
A big thank you to Colin and Judith Webb and all the other members at Stone Wildlife Group.
There next meet up is A Quiz Evening (Not just Animals) at Oulton Village Hall at 7.30 Friday 11th April, its £6 admission including finger Buffet and refreshments, Please call ahead to book your place 01785 814454
More Events are on Staffordshire Wildlife Trust website in the Whats on section.
Derek Crawley’s Book, “The Mammals of Staffordshire: Provisional Atlas for the Mammals of Staffordshire”, is available on Amazon and at Stone Group meetings.
Also he’s on Twitter https://twitter.com/poofinder
