Have you ever built a dormouse box?

From April to October, staff and volunteers from Essex Wildlife Trust and Essex & Suffolk Water will meet once a month to survey for dormice in the woods surrounding Hanningfield Reservoir, near Billericay.

The group checks dormouse boxes for evidence of these beautiful but elusive creatures, keeping monthly records to see if the population is increasing or declining — both during these active months of the year and in comparison to previous years.

This year dilapidated boxes were replaced by new ones, which were constructed by Essex Wildlife Trust volunteers, largely from timber from the trust’s Hanningfield Reservoir nature reserve, before being erected in February.

Essex Wildlife Trust has a visitor centre and a nature reserve at Hanningfield Reservoir, where it works in partnership with Essex & Suffolk Water, the reservoir’s owners.