It happened when I was taking out a small, dead chestnut sapling. There it was suddenly, curled up, half-asleep. I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew that they often preferred to nest close to paths and glades, but six feet from the path? We will have to think again about the nesting season for dormice as well as birds. In my defence I had thought that the middle of May would be ample time for hibernating creatures to be up and about - usually in April. But I suppose the weather this month has been more discouraging than usual. Even humans were more likely to stay in bed, much less a dormouse!

As the team looked at it in my palm, the orange scrap with it's furry tail wrapped round it's face, it looked for all the world like the one at Alice's mad tea party, but considerably thinner and looking very vulnerable. So we put it into a tunnel of brambles and grass, and covered it up with lots of leaves close to where it was found: all we could do really, apart from hoping that all would be well in the end. But it was an eye-opener for us all.

And I was sure it was in the wrong place, which was also an eye-opener. Just because one had been spotted in the hazel pathway on the other side of the valley some years ago, was sheer assumption. Dormice cannot exist on hazel nuts until the autumn and we knew they also ate flowers, buds and a little dry fruit. I just didn't think it through.

Another newcomer to the reserve this month was possibly a pearl-bordered fritillary (a pair in fact) but they didn't stay long enough for me to get a good look at them. So it might have been another small butterfly, the Duke of York fritillary perhaps, but that was probably too much to hope for.

How nice to see and think about the wildlife rather than work! Actually, we have managed to finish making the board-walk apart from a sharp corner which we will think about for next year. Now, inevitably, we must soon get to work in the heather. At the moment the bracken is still small, and we have trimmed up the path through the heather so that walkers are not deluged with spray after it has rained. But for a week or two we will be working on paths.

Being very careful, of course, about dormice. I have learned my lesson!

John Hall © 2003