In reputation, perhaps; less so in practice!

I've spent most of today in a hazel wood in eastern Kent on an event organised by the Mammals Trust to look for our cutest and most elusive rodent. We have hazel dormice in the woodland around my home village, but they are nocturnal, fond of the extreme tops of the trees and generally very good at not being seen. Before this morning, my lifetime's dormouse count amounted to the grand total of...one Today, it is 18!



Apart from their huge eyes...



...and ginger colour, they're immediately recogniseable by their long furry tails.



Come the winter, they will be deeply, deeply asleep, with that tail curled over their heads for warmth. But as summer hardens into autumn, they're very much awake, and disinclined to stay in the hand of the researcher who is attempting to weigh them (Hazel dormice are a protected species in England and it's illegal to handle them without a licence.)



Dormice are secretive, but they do drop some small traces of their presence. They open hazel nuts in a distinctive fashion, gnawing them to leave a relative smooth outer rim around the hole.



Voles, on the other hand, create a much rougher opening.



They clip hazel leaves and strip hazel wood to make a snug round nest, not unlike a messy tennis ball.



And nests are sometimes home to babies!



They've already the learnt the most important dormouse behaviour!