Over 700 bottle traps have been used to survey a huge site in the midlands this month.

Paul writes:

It takes seven ecologists over two hours to set all the traps (I'll do a full man/woman hours calculation at the end of each month!). All that effort has only resulted in one great crested newt in a trap so far, but we have found loads of smooth newts.

Currently we have undertaken two of the four surveys required for the size of site. I am immensely proud of the team, it’s hard work sticking all these traps in and if that wasn’t enough there is a torch survey to be undertaken and then removing all the traps at crikey o’clock the following morning (and transporting them back to the office in a stinky van- sorry Enterprise!).

On the plus side we have found a really nice place to eat (thanks to Kelly) and were all rewarded with a nice single malt after the last survey (thanks to Fred).