Mallerstang Parish Meeting

Red Squirrels Protection Group 

According to the Forestry Commission, there are estimated to be only 140,000 red squirrels left in Britain, with over 2.5 million greys.  Mallerstang is one of the few areas with a viable population of our native species.  

We need to be on our guard and to do what we can to preserve and protect our small population, because they are still under threat from grey invaders.

If you would like any further information or want to report sightings of red squirrels, contact: 

Margaret White

(Old Chapel,  Outhgill)

 

Tel: 017683 72228

redsquirrels.mallerstang@virgin.net

 

If you buy Margaret’s squirrel cards you will be helping to boost our funds.

 

 If you see a grey intruder, please try to contact Simon Etheridge (Shoregill) on 017683 72161

Simon has volunteered to dispatch greys (Please also let Margaret know of any sightings).

 

NOTE: Stuart Marsden and his family have now moved and he is no longer on call

Other Red Squirrel Links

Forestry Commission Red Squirrel website: www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/Redsquirrel

UK Red Squirrels (Joint Nature Conservation website): www.ukredsquirrels.org

The Bird’s Bistro, Lakeland’s Wild Bird and Red Squirrel Feeding Specialists:  www.thebirdsbistro.co.uk.

Save Our Squirrels (Red Alert north England Project) www.saveoursquirrels.org.uk

A local group from Northumberland:  www.pontelandredsquirrels.co.uk

Red Squirrel Article on Wikipedia:   Wikipedia article 

If you come across similar local groups, and/or other sites giving general red squirrel information that would be useful to display here, let me know and I will add some links. 

 

Message from our Squirrel Officer

Please help us protect Mallerstang red squirrels  

Red squirrels are very vulnerable to Squirrel Pox (and this has been seen in Garsdale). The virus spreads really quickly and can wipe out an entire population of red squirrels.  The symptoms are lethargy and sores around the head, similar to rabbit myxomatosis (although not related)

 

If you think you have seen a sickly red squirrel

 

Call Margaret – 017683 72228 or Email redsquirrels.mallerstang@virgin.net

 

 Disinfect your feeders

 

Catch or trap the squirrel

 

If you find any dead squirrel, red or grey, wrap it in a plastic bag and deliver it to Margaret at The Old Chapel in Outhgill so it can be sent off for analysis.

 

If you see a grey, phone Simon Etheridge, who will send it to the Great Dray in the sky:  017683 72161

 

 

Thank you

Margaret White

 

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Our latest project – Sponsor a Drey

The Mallerstang squirrels are very fortunate in one respect: they live in one of the few areas of the country where they aren’t threatened by influxes of greys and the lethal diseases they carry. On the other hand, they aren’t blessed with a wide choice of suitable trees to build their dreys and raise their young. Frankly, when the winds howl and the rain falls in torrents, Mallerstang can be a pretty inhospitable place for a young red that hasn’t managed to corner one of the scarce penthouses.

Many of the people living in the dale have been generous in trying to improve the reds’ habitat. They not only bulk out natural food sources with hazelnuts in feeders but have also given strong support to the current scheme to plant more squirrel-friendly trees. Conifers and small seeded broad leaves (hazels, rowans and hawthorn, for instance, rather than oaks) will eventually help the reds thrive without attracting the greys. 

In the meantime, though, we have a problem. The good news is that our population appears to be booming after a very successful breeding season in 2009, despite the terrible summer. The bad news is that there will be nowhere for the youngsters to set up home until new planting reaches maturity. And that could take quite a few years. 

Our latest project, therefore, is to provide some shelter and breeding sites for our precious – and pampered - residents. Research at Whinfell Forest proves that reds readily accept and make use of artificial nest sites provided they are properly sited. In November Annie Gregory suggested a project to sponsor a drey. The response has been excellent. It has allowed us to buy specially designed boxes to be sited around the valley in places where the reds are often spotted. We are keen to document the results and pass them on to other local squirrel groups so we would be grateful for any information that adds to our knowledge. Please let us know if you spot any signs of reds moving in. 

 

 Our Sponsor a Drey Project is proving very successful - thanks to Annie Gregory for the idea and her continuing hard work in promoting this project.

We will be keeping a close eye on these boxes in the next few weeks, as March is the time of year when the early litters will be born, usually three to a litter. The new generation will be emerging from the dreys in late April and May. 

Please do let us know if you spot any young squirrels.


The Red Squirrel Protection Group would like to thank the Mallerstang Drey Sponsors:-
Keith Beven
Hugh and Penny Brown
The Cowling Family
Judith and Duncan Greene
Annie Gregory and Simon Etheridge
Glyn and Jenny James
Gordon Hutton and Didier Leblanc
Mike and Mary Langley
Fran and John Prentice

Tony Sawyer
Richard and Liz Tattersall


Also Paul and Christine Watson for permission to site dreys in their trees. 
***

We would also like to express our gratitude to Richard Dyke and everyone at The Bird’s Bistro, Lakeland’s Wild Bird and Red Squirrel Feeding Specialists, who not only got the dreys made for us but has also been an unending source of support and excellent advice. If you need anything for red squirrels or birds - from nesting boxes to birdbaths to food - do take a look at their web site www.thebirdsbistro.co.uk. or visit them at Penruddock – on the A66 just 5 minutes west of the M6 J40. They have a huge fund of knowledge about protecting and encouraging wildlife. 

Finally, a round of applause to Simon Etheridge who resurrected the tree-climbing skills of his distant youth to put up five of the dreys in appalling weather.  

To ensure that he actually reaches old age, we are now awaiting the arrival of our professional tree surgeon to erect the rest of the dreys, along with the replacement rope bridge kindly provided by Save Our Squirrels.

 

Red Squirrels do not hibernate and need to feed regularly so please make sure that the lids of your feeders are not iced up!

 

 

Some more photos of our Mallerstang squirrels:-

 Looking for a Good Site & Collecting Nesting Material    ~    Photos by ZACE Photographic

The Young Acrobats    ~   Photos by Sue Bradley

 
How Do I Get Those Nuts?   ~    Photos by Margaret White
 

 

Here is a plea

• Please drive carefully; squirrels are still crossing the road under the site of the rope bridge.
• Clean your feeders regularly.
• Plant some red squirrel friendly trees – I have a list of suitable ones.
• Support us by buying some squirrel cards £1.50 each, ask Margaret
• Take photographs of any baby squirrels (kits) you may see
• MOST IMPORTANT. REPORT ANY SIGHTINGS OF GREY SQUIRRELS

 

 

One of our earlier Projects: 

Article on the front page of 

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald 

29 May 2004

 XX

Text of article: 

Safe road crossing for red squirrels in unique haven

THE valley of Mallerstang this week became the proud owner of a red squirrel rope bridge in the ongoing fight to protect the threatened species. The specially spliced bridge was installed above the B6259 in the village of Outhgill on Wednesday, and Mrs. Annie Hamilton­Gibney, chairman and founder of Mallerstang red squirrel protection committee, said: "We hope the addition of the rope bridge will mean an end to the needless loss of red squirrel lives at this point of the road in Outhgill."

The committee was set up in June last year by Mrs. Hamilton-Gibney, bringing together many concerned residents of the valley following a spate of red squirrel road deaths on the B6259 in the small village of Outhgill.

      CORRIDOR 

"We were becoming increasingly aware of the fact that our valley provides a hugely significant corridor from the southern grey squirrel-dominated region and the remaining red area to the north," said Mrs. Hamilton-Gibney. "We came to realise that protecting the lives of our red squirrels could help maintain the population in the region, reducing the relentless onslaught of the greys. Shortly after we were established, Red Alert Cumbria Wildlife Trust NW designated the valley as an official refuge site, which makes it unique, as it is the only refuge area which doesn't contain a large per­centage of coniferous forest. Red Alert has supported and advised us with all our plans.

"We decided to install a rope bridge at the road death hotspot, as well as road warning signs at various strategic points of the valley, and the development of squirrel protection areas.

"A plot of land in the village, once the site of the Travers Institute, is held in trust for the benefit of the valley. This will be designated as a squirrel protection area. The walls are to be made good, a bench and feeding boxes will be installed, and some squirrel friendly trees will be planted.

WARNING SIGNS

"Neil Buck, at Cumbria County Council, has given us permission to install four red triangular road warning signs later in the year, the wording ‘red squirrels’ beneath. We wanted them to depict squirrels, like the ones at Warcop and Appleby, but were not allowed.  "According to the Transport Department, a picture of a squirrel will confuse and distract drivers, so we will only be allowed to install exclamation marks!"

The project has been funded by donations from people of the valley, the sale of red squirrel cards, cour­tesy of Red Alert Wildlife Trust NW, and donations from Cumbria County Council, arranged by local councillor Tim Stoddard. It also received a neighbour­hood development grant of £200, while North Eastern and Cumbrian Co-op Dividend Fund donated £255, and another £100 came from the Conservation Foundation Parish Pump Priming Award.

The bridge was installed without charge, but with much skill and expertise, by Paul Holroyd and Nick Venning, of Eden Conservation.

Bruce Baldwin, of Lux Traffic Management, volunteered his time and road signs to control the traffic while the bridge was being suspended across the road.

The rope, which had to be more than 20 metres high to avoid all risk to traffic, was specially spliced in Gateshead by Nationwide Splicing and Rope Services, and is composed of two 27-metre ropes with a smaller rope zigzagging along the length to provide a ladder effect. Previously, bridges have been installed in forested areas, so the squirrels were able to access the structure at tree level. The east end of the bridge is be in a spruce tree in a small wood, but the west side is situated in an ash tree which squirrels first have to climb.

IMPROVISATION

"We have added guide ropes from ground level to the bridge, and coated them with peanut butter in the hope this will attract them up the tree," said Mrs. Hamilton-Gibney. "We were going to use pecan oil that acts as squirrel nip, but this comes from America and unfortunately could not arrive in time, so we had to improvise. "Once at the top, they will find feeding boxes at each end of the bridge. These have been cunningly devised by two of our com­mittee members, Simon Etheridge and David White, and are Heath Robinson ­type gadgets on a pulley system, so they can be raised and lowered for refilling." Janet Davies, who owns the land on which both the trees stand, has volunteered to restock the boxes. "We hope that once our squirrels have established the bridge as a safe route, they will teach their young, and so it will help genera­tions of squirrels to come," added Mrs. Hamilton-Gibney.

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