The mice capture work continues by between two and three Edinburgh Zoo staff. Fraser Dodds arrived on Wednesday 21st September. There have been between 30 and 80 Longworth live traps set in various locations and a total of 34 mice caught to date. One of the mice gave birth in the cages and has been left on the island until the young are large enough to travel. Gavin took 28 mice off to Edinburgh Zoo on Friday 23rd September.
The boat for access to Sanday was delivered on Thursday 22nd September.
Rat trapping continues. To date 20 rats have been caught. The trap sets have been halted on Tarbert Road until the mice work is finished in that area. Some of the trap sets have been moved to other locations, including in the barn where the wood mice are kept as a rat was seen in the building. The rats have all been dissected and four females were either pregnant or had recently given birth and were feeding young. Most had eaten vegetation, invertebrates and shellfish, although one had feathers and small bones and five others had short fur (likely to be pygmy shrews or wood mice).
Establishing the bait station grid continues. Over 2300 stations have been put out to date - Tarbert Road and slopes, part of the Plateau, much of the in-bye area, Compass Hill, Tarbert parks, north-western slopes, south-western slopes and much of Sanday. All the remaining bait station wire was delivered to the island on Tuesday 20th September.
On Tuesday 20th September the media (including The Herald, The Times, The Scotsman, The Daily Record and BBC Radio Scotland) visited the island. A live radio broadcast was done at lunchtime. Several photographs were taken (wood mice, dead rats, bait stations, abseiling etc.). All aspects of the project were discussed, including volunteers (John McTague), wood mice (Edwin and Gavin, Edinburgh Zoo), bird and population trends on Canna (Bob Swann and Abbie Patterson). John Hollingsworth (NTS, Media Officer) co-ordinated the visit. Other interviews via the telephone were also completed during this week (The Dominion Post, New Zealand on Wednesday 21st September and Australia National Radio Live on Sunday 25th September).
Weather continued to affect the project with another two days were lost to bad weather (waterfalls going the wrong way!). However, inside work was completed as well as delivering bulk bags of bait stations, canes and wires around the island.
Jill Harden (NTS, Archaeology) and an NTS Thistle Camp arrived on Saturday 24th September. This group are staying at Tighard for the week and are working on excavating some archaeological areas above Tighard. While the team of archaeologists are here, the volunteers have been moved into the Bothy and the mice team into Kate’s Cottage.
Biz Bell, WMIL. Sunday 25th September 2005
return to progress home page
