Devon Harvest Mouse project

10/05/2026

Eagle-eyed Anna Martlew, a member of Cornwall Mammal Group, spotted a harvest mouse nest on the West of the Isle of Mull while on holiday there a few weeks ago. This is the first ever record of harvest mice on Mull - and in fact on any Scottish island.
While it is unclear whether this is evidence of a long-standing population that has never been detected before, or a new arrival due to animals stowing away in deliveries of hay, further surveying will be important to ascertain the status of the species on Mull.
Data on small mammals is important to inform conservation and land management. if you spot signs of any mammal species be sure to record your sighting via our free Mammal Mapper app, as Anna did!
Check out the full story on the Mammal Society blog.
https://mammal.org.uk/blog/first-ever-harvest-mouse-recorded-on-mull

27/04/2026

Last chance to have your say…

As we wrap up another season, we have a report to write for our amazing funders, Devon Environment Foundation. It would be really lovely to include what people think about what we have done this year, so if you have three minutes, it would be very much appreciated if you could answer the questions on the survey below.

All of the answers involve checkboxes, so it is quick and easy to fill in, but there are also spaces for comments if you have something you would like to add. Some of the feedback (all of it lovely!) we had last year was quoted in our final report, but all of it was taken on board and made a difference to how we ran things this year.

Link to feedback survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HLZNM5C

Photo: BBC’s Jonny Rutherford filming for Spotlight at Orchard Farm, October 2025.

13/04/2026

As we wrap up another season, we have a report to write for our amazing funders, Devon Environment Foundation. It would be really lovely to include what people think about what we have done this year, so if you have three minutes, it would be very much appreciated if you could answer the questions on the survey below.

All of the answers involve checkboxes, so it is quick and easy to fill in, but there are also spaces for comments if you have something you would like to add. Some of the feedback (all of it lovely!) we had last year was quoted in our final report, but all of it was taken on board and made a difference to how we ran things this year.

Link to feedback survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HLZNM5C

Photo: BBC’s Jonny Rutherford filming for Spotlight at Orchard Farm, October 2025.

11/04/2026

Thank you everyone who sent in owl pellets or attended today’s owl pellet dissection workshop. We had a super session, and although no harvest mouse jawbones turned up, lots of people took extra pellets home with them to keep going! You could tell how much fun we were having by the fact that no one wanted to go home… ;)

31/03/2026

Today, 31st March marks the last day of the Devon harvest mouse project 2025/6 season. We still have our postponed owl pellet day on the 11th, but other than that there is just the report to write and loose ends to tie up.

If you have been one of the hundreds of volunteers coming out to surveys and attending sessions, thank you for all your help and support over the season. We literally couldn’t have done it without you.

Today may have been the last day, but we were still out looking at nests. This time we were helping to train the rather gorgeous Sparrow from K9 Commando to find harvest mouse nests. It is very early days for her, with today being her very first session, so our human volunteers don’t need to worry about the competition…. yet!!!!!!!!!!

23/03/2026

14:00 23/03/26 Devon's hedgerows are home to 2,000 species, don’t put them in danger, take your litter home. Great British Spring Clean 13th to 29th March 2026. AW

10/03/2026

The final survey of the Devon Harvest Mouse Survey season 2025-26 was indeed quite the finale. Today we went back to Brook Manor, a real harvest mouse hotspot and 28 of us looked for 90 minutes to see what we could find.

The harvest mice really made us work for our 8 nests today, with none found at all for the first hour, despite superb habitat. However just before we stopped, the nests came thick and fast, with all 8 found in 15 minutes and within an area about 15m across at the top of the field!

Eight nests may well be quite a drop from the 25-30 found most years, but that just goes to show why monitoring these mice is so important. The habitat there is wonderful-so if they are going to do well anywhere, this will be where they thrive. Last year was of course incredibly dry…

Thank you to Donna and Kevin for being such wonderful hosts-and for providing the celebratory tea and cake. Thank you everyone who came to help: it was lovely to see so many Moor Meadows members there too!

09/03/2026

Have you wondered why you haven’t seen many photos of our cute harvest mice Mol and Linea? Well, it turns out that both girls were busy building nests for a reason, not just for fun! It is now nearly two weeks since they virtually became invisible, so the babies should be out and about any day now.

Not quite what I expected from a ‘female only’ tank…

03/03/2026

We may not have found any harvest mouse nests today, but we did find thousands of field vole signs! Today was our first (and hopefully the only) nil result on a group survey this season. We still had a lovely time though with blue skies and gorgeous views!

Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum