January 5th, 2017 | jack Danny Thomas was out this week helping to clean out dormouse nest boxes at Priestley Wood near Needham Market in Suffolk. As a licenced dormouse surveyor, Danny volunteers for Suffolk Wildlife Trust surveying for the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme. Monitoring visits are usually in June, September and October but during the winter, the boxes need cleaning out and repairing in preparation for the new season. Unusually, this winter, we found a dormouse hibernating in one of the boxes instead of on the ground buried in the leaves which is their normal preference. After a very difficult year for dormice at Priestley Wood in 2016, it was good to find that they are still holding on and given the right conditions in 2017 their numbers should be increase again. At Riverdale Ecology, we can carry out surveys and provide expert planning for dormice in-house using experienced licenced ecologists. Contact the office if you have any dormouse related queries. If you’re interested in further information on the NDMP go to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species website http://surveydata.ptes.org/dormousemonitoring/ or if you’re interested in volunteering for Suffolk Wildlife Trust http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/volunteer.