A Harvest Mouse spotted crossing the road by staff at one of the country’s most southerly wind farms has been named ‘Rabbie’, as people get ready to celebrate Burns Night this weekend.
The juvenile Harvest Mouse was spotted by our on-site ecology team at Carland Cross windfarm, nesting close to the control building where staff manage and monitor the habitat creation on the renewable development site.
A follow-up survey conducted by Cornwall Mammal Group found 4 nests, indicating that the tiny mammal is thriving in the grassland verges amongst the site’s 10 turbines which produce a steady supply of cleaner greener energy.
Glenn Norris, one of our ecologists, said: “Harvest mice live in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, hedgerows, reedbeds, and farmland. However, we often see windfarm tracks –add ecological complexity to habitats that benefits plants and insects which provide food for this Harvest Mouse.
“Given the Harvest Mouse is Europe’s smallest mammal, and the one we’ve got here at Carland Cross is a juvenile, it certainly seems to fit with the Robert Burns poem ‘To a mouse’ where he talks about a wee tim’rous beastie. In the Bard’s honour we’ve nicknamed him Rabbie, which we think suits him well.
“It’s really great to see the harvest mouse population thriving here among the other wildlife we’ve got on site and we’ll be continuing to support the work of Cornwall Mammal Group, who are using their findings from the surveys on our site to develop their map of harvest mouse distribution across the county.”
The Harvest Mouse is Europe’s smallest mammal – weighing the same as a 2p piece and is the only UK mammal to have an entirely prehensile tail which it uses as an extra limb to hold on to grass stems.
It is also listed as a ‘Species of Principal Importance’ under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006.
Carland Cross Windfarm is located southeast of Newquay with 10 turbines. We recently repowered the site, first constructed in 1992, replacing its original turbines with fewer, more powerful ones to support the country’s march to net zero.