The Doldrums

Late June in Gwent is shit, I am now at the stage at which a solitary Whimbrel is noteworthy and a dead mammal is sighting of the day. The Whimbrel was on the foreshore at Uskmouth and the mammal, a Water Shrew, was alongside one of the reedbeds (see pic below, inset showing bristles on edge of feet, an adaptation to aid swimming). Water Shrew is possibly declining in the UK and definitely under-recorded so if you see a large, blackish above/whitish below shrew with bristles at the edge of the feet and along the tail send the record in (a list of mammal recorders is available at www.abdn.ac.uk/mammal/recorders.shtml).