And so the trees are finished. With aching muscles and some jolly good looking new woodlands in the Welsh Marches, we are swinging straight into the ecology survey season. Tonight is our first foray of the year into bat spotting, as the barn conversion surveys start. Great crested newt surveying has already begun, and the ecology kit is being dug out and dusted off. And, to make our ecologists happy, we’ve invested in some super expensive, shiny and remarkably clever new bat recording kit, which (if you get excited by such things) is really rather exciting. Our next few months are always enjoyable; habitat surveys on development sites and species surveys for building conversions. A spot of nice weather and it doesn’t make for a bad occupation.
(This is a long eared bat we spotted a coupe of years ago whilst surveying for a barn conversion, and he’s been used on numerous posters and show banners since!)