WHen carrying out the annual clean-out of one of my bird nestboxes the other day I discovered I'd got a squatter, though a very welcome one.

Lifting the lid, I was faced with a layer of dead leaves, below which were interwoven strips of honeysuckle bark. These strips were a clue, so I was not surprised when, having carefully made a small hole with my fore-

finger, I felt, and then saw, the orangey-red coat of a slumbering dormouse.

Although dormice sometimes breed in boxes in July and August, and occupy them for a daytime snooze earlier on, they seem to prefer natural accommodation for their winter hibernation. It's probably not the box but its situation that is unsuitable. Even when only a couple of metres above ground, boxes suffer a more widely fluctuating temperature than nests built almost at ground level, and a constant temperature is important.

Dormice are nowhere near as common as when I was a boy, and this may be due to loss of suitable habitat. Looking somewhat like miniature squirrels, and with equal agility, they shun the ground, preferring to move along a series of aerial runways.

This means they are to be found mainly in areas of coppice and scrub, with some

standard trees of hazel, beech and sweet chestnut, but coppice is becoming ever more scarce because there is so little sale nowadays for its products of posts, poles, hurdles, firewood and charcoal. I doubt whether dormice really need artificial breeding/sleeping nests, although it is claimed that providing boxes for their use increases the population of a particular area. I wonder if it simply makes the dormice easier to see and count.

However, if you fancy putting up some boxes, use ordinary bird ones but fasten them in trees, about two metres from the ground, with the entrance hole close to a branch or the trunk so as to discourage any tits from taking them over.

The best site if you want dormice to breed in the boxes rather than using them for

temporary lodgings is at the edge of a wood where it is warmer than in the midst of the trees.

First, of course, find a site where there are dormice. One way is to examine fallen

hazel nuts. Both the wood mouse and the

dormouse bore a hole in the nut to extract the kernel, but that made by the dormouse is said to be the neater job. To me they all look alike.

HARRY CAWKELL

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