Category: Gardening and Agriculture

This time of year can be tough for birds and other wildlife. Dulcie Fairweather offers a few simple tips to help them make it through to spring.

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CAT’s habitats are carefully managed to create a place where nature can thrive. Dulcie Fairweather meets two charming species that have found a home at CAT.

There is the age old saying that “variety is the spice of life” and, in respect to our natural world, it couldn’t be truer.

Here at CAT, our response to the ongoing biodiversity crisis is to provide the diversity that flora and fauna so desperately needs. It’s in our nature to ensure our wildlife will thrive for generations to come.

We are ideally situated right in the heart of the Welsh countryside, in the foothills of southern Snowdonia, just on the edge of the National Park. From hazel coppiced woodland to wildflower meadow, we sensitively manage our 40 acres to be a healthy mosaic of habitat that benefits many species.

Helping hawfinch

One of the most intriguing species present on site is the hawfinch – the UK’s largest finch. Hawfinch are typically shy and difficult to see, but they are getting harder to spot as their traditional breeding areas have declined in recent years. It’s a red-listed species in the UK, with a population that may number fewer than a thousand breeding pairs in scattered populations across England, the north and south of Wales and southern Scotland.

Here at CAT there’s a good chance to see the distinctively top-heavy silhouette of these birds from mature broadleaved trees, especially in areas with open glades. But you’ll have to look closely, as they do favour the safety of the forest canopy. The hawfinch will feed in the canopy year-round, and also on fallen seeds, particularly in winter. As they will feed on the ground, it’s important to minimise any disturbance.

They prefer deciduous woodland and are particularly attracted to horn beams, elms, yew trees and wild cherry. The hawfinch’s impressive bill helps them to break into hard seeds (their jaw muscles exert a force equivalent to a load of approximately 30–48 kg!)  Their diet is also comprised of berries, pine seeds, and the occasional caterpillar.

Landscape isolation and loss of connecting wooded habitat are problems that trouble the species. Tree crowding also reduces the availability of food plants due to loss of understory through shading.

We recognise how privileged we are to have a population of these striking birds, so we endeavour to maintain and enhance their habitat to better their chances.

Part of our management plan is to provide a varied structure of understorey of shrub for hawfinch, as well as creating wet features to meet their dependency for lots of water (good job we get plenty of rain!)

Our retention of ivy and other creepers provide crucial nest cover for the birds, along with other species such as the aptly named treecreeper who we also see on a regular basis. Hawfinches require a clear flight line to the upper part of mature trees for nesting, and will use open spaces and scrubby edge vegetation for foraging. We also plant future generations of mature trees to help future generations of hawfinch.

Woodlands for woodcock

Another secretive bird that hides in the dense undergrowth of our woodlands is the beautiful woodcock. Also classified as a red list species, this fairly large wading bird often frequents the site. Large they may be, but woodcock are both nocturnal and expertly camouflaged with mottled plumage – making them even more difficult to spot!

Woodcock distribution covers much of Britain and Ireland, however there has been a severe decline in the population size and breeding range of woodcock since 1970. Numerous issues pose a threat to the species, including recreational disturbance by dogs and walkers, reduction of earthworms due to soil acidification, fragmentation of woodland and decline in suitable habitat. Game shooting is another source of contention for woodcock. The presence of woodcock on the red list causes heated debate; how can this still be a game species?

It is during its breeding display flight, known as roding, that woodcock is most frequently seen. In 2013, a survey conducted by the British Trust for Ornithology and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust indicated a decline in roding males from 78,000 in 2003 to 55,000. Each autumn, the number of woodcock in the UK rises massively, with an influx of up to 1.4 million birds. The difference in conservation status between breeding and wintering populations is reflected in the fact that woodcock is on both the red list and the quarry list – for now.

After conducting our own woodcock survey on site, we try to manage our land to create vital spaces for their feeding and cover. This fleeting bird probes the damp ground for earthworms and beetles to eat. Therefore, our woodland offers wet floor glades and easy access to damp field so they can get their beaks stuck in for a feast.

In autumn, and over winter, we will be managing the landscape to help these birds get through the trials of winter as best we can. If you’d like to help wildlife where you are, take a look at some of my other articles on the CAT blog for hints and tips.

About the author

Dulcie joined the CAT woodland team as Natural Resource and Volunteer Officer in August 2020. She has spent the first few months of her role setting up camera traps and footprint tunnels in preparation for Autumnwatch.

She has a BA (Hons) in Marine and Natural History Photography, a course that devoted heavy emphasis on environmental subjects and concerns.

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Dulcie Fairweather is on the trail of one of our most vulnerable woodland creatures.

With their golden-sand fur, big black eyes and long, feathery tail, there is no doubt that the hazel dormouse has the “aww” factor.

You would have to be incredibly lucky to spot a dormouse in the wild, as these minute creatures are rare, strictly nocturnal and spend most of their time either asleep or high up in the trees. Remarkably, they can spend as much as seven months of the year asleep.

In fact, it is their sleepy nature that has gifted them their name, as it comes from the French word “dormir” which means to sleep.

Here at CAT, we are delighted to have these endearing animals on site – we even have wildlife cams capturing their behaviour.

Arboreal acrobats

These elusive rodents favour deciduous woodland, overgrown hedgerows, and scrub. Dormice are arboreal and are adapted to climbing among tree branches in search of food. Their acrobatic movement relies on their whiskers. Hearing, vision and smell also play a role in guiding them around their environment.

Their diet varies depending on the time of the year. During the spring they will feed on the flowers of oak, hawthorn, sycamore, and willow. As the season progresses, flowering shrubs such as honeysuckle and bramble become available to them. If the weather is cold and wet, and food scarce, the dormouse saves energy by going into torpor; it curls up into a ball and goes to sleep.

In autumn, they feast on nuts, seeds, and berries that provide enough sustenance to survive the winter. Amazingly, dormice can almost double their body weight just prior to hibernation, fluctuating from between 15-20g and 30-40g.

From October to November, they hibernate on the ground in areas that are not subject to extreme variations in either temperature or humidity. Damp, cool conditions are vital so that their body temperature and heart rate can lower, enabling their fat reserves to last longer. Water vapour is lost during the animal’s breathing, making damp conditions an absolute necessity. As they do not wake up and drink regularly, it is vital that the dormice hibernate in a moist place. Most commonly, they prefer to nest in a tightly woven ball of leaves in the base of old coppiced trees, hazel stools or under log piles.

Plight of the dormouse

Once widespread in Britain, the species has seriously declined in both population and range over the past 100 years – making the hazel dormouse one of Britain’s most endangered animals.

Dormice are confined predominantly to southern England and Wales and, where dormice remain, their distribution is patchy. The State of Britain’s Dormice 2019 reports that, since 2000, the population has fallen by a half (51%). Having already vanished in 17 counties across England, the population of dormice is decreasing on average by 3.8% each year.

The loss and fragmentation of ancient woodlands, climatic difficulties and reduction in traditional forestry methods have been recognised as their main threats.

Lost in fragmentation

Dormice prefer structurally diverse habitats: they are more numerous in woodlands with varied tree heights and prefer to move through areas of woodland edge and dense vegetation. They are a species that will not leave the safe canopy of trees to cross large, open spaces and are reluctant to come to the ground.

But changing woodland practices and the subsequent loss of connectivity have forced populations to become isolated, lose genetic diversity and, therefore, become more vulnerable to extinction.

The composition and structure of woodland habitats are crucial elements in ensuring the survival of the hazel dormouse. Ultimately, dormice benefit from a diverse woodland understory where they can nest, feed, and raise their young. Coppicing, particularly of hazel, provides a perfect habitat for dormice, with well-linked branches which act as pathways, lots of different shrub species and not too much shade from large trees overhead.

Other traditional management practices include glade creation and small-scale tree felling, but sadly these methods are becoming less common, leaving less suitable woodland for the mice.

Furthermore, the UK’s increasing loss of hedgerows has meant that woods that have lost their dormice will not be repopulated.

A changing climate for dormice

Fluctuations in weather patterns, caused by climate change, are disrupting the species’ hibernation cycle. As our winters become milder, the dormice become more vulnerable to waking up earlier or more frequently than normal. They use weather cues as a guide to the best time to become active. For a hibernating animal, timing is critical. It can be catastrophic to awaken prematurely when their food is scarce.

Our rapidly changing climate and its future impact on the species paints a troubling picture for the already rare hazel dormouse.

A little good news

Thanks to reintroductions by The People’s Trust for Endangered Species, there are some pockets of new hope for the hazel dormouse. Dormice have been returned to 12 counties in England where they had previously been extinct. And, at 96 of 336 sites analysed in their report, populations are stable or increasing (29%).

What you can do

A priority for conservation action, dormice can do with every bit of help they can get.

Take a look along your local hedgerows and wooded copses to see if you can find signs of dormice in your area. Fallen, chewed hazelnuts are the best indicator for dormice activity and presence. They characteristically leave a smooth, round hole in the side of the nut, with tooth marks running around the inside of the hole before discarding it. Other small mammals, such as wood mice and bank voles, leave teeth marks in parallel lines. Whereas squirrels just crack the nuts open with their powerful jaws.

While the chances of finding hazel dormice in your garden are slim, there are still ways in which you can boost your backyard biodiversity and maybe – just maybe – you may happen across a dormouse in the future (a dream we probably all share!).

Few of us can contemplate having a wood in our back gardens, but just a few metres is enough to establish a mini-habitat. A woodland edge garden which is made up of different layers can support an abundance of species. For example, hazel trees and their nuts are an invaluable resource for birds and mammals (especially dormice) in the autumn. Adding shrubs, bulbs and herbaceous plants can add more layers – the more layers, the better!

In late winter or early spring you could even have a go at coppicing. This pruning technique prevents the canopy becoming too thick and you only need to do it every few years. Essentially, it involves cutting back all the stems to just above the ground. Linking any remaining green habitats is important and species such as hazel, hawthorn, honeysuckle, hornbeam, and dogwood would greatly benefit dormice. Above all, by providing the widest variety of the above species you will help to ensure continuity of food sources throughout the seasons.

As always, don’t be too tidy! Leaving ivy on trees, letting brambles grow, and creating log piles are just some examples where we can help provide good garden habitat for wildlife.

If you own or manage your own woodland, there are resources available to promote management practices that will either maintain or enhance the habitat for our native hazel dormouse.

Due to their severe conservation status, the species is heavily protected, and it is an offence to deliberately disturb a hazel dormouse. Where there is a reasonable likelihood of dormice, checking a dormouse box or nest tube potentially disturbs, and is illegal without a licence.

A haven for dormice

At CAT, we are extremely proud of how we sustainably manage our habitat, opting to use traditional methods rather than heavy machinery. On our Quarry Trail, we dedicated a whole section to dormice by encouraging the growth of a dense understory with lots of honeysuckle and hazel. Hazelnuts provide a great source of fat for dormice; so hazel trees are an ideal environment. Climbing plants like ivy and honeysuckle offer good links between the shrub and canopy layer as well as providing additional habitat. We have also built and installed nest boxes for the species to use.

Through our sensitive woodland management, we believe that our efforts have paid off – especially with the captivating footage of the dormice we have been treated to recently. They have been filmed feeding in preparation for the long winter months ahead. Our hazel coppice is a sanctuary for our population of dormice, and we will continue to manage our woodland to their benefit of this lovable species.

About the author

Dulcie joined the CAT woodland team as Natural Resource and Volunteer Officer in August 2020. She has spent the first few months of her role setting up camera traps and footprint tunnels in preparation for Autumnwatch.

She has a BA (Hons) in Marine and Natural History Photography, a course that devoted heavy emphasis on environmental subjects and concerns.

One of our best loved mammals, the hedgehog was this year added to the Red List of endangered species. Dulcie Fairweather takes an in-depth look at the threats to this once common mammal, and how we can help bring this indicator species back from the brink.

We know they are there. We have seen the signs. They have even been spotted speeding past CAT’s café by students and volunteers. But – so far – these enigmatic critters are being rather camera shy!

The hidden hedgehogs of CAT have been the most challenging creatures to capture on film during BBC Autumnwatch. We have some great footprints that they left while feeding, and we have found tell-tale scats, so we know they are present.

This is positive news given that hedgehogs are – as of this year – on the IUCN Red List (a database of the world’s threatened species).

Sharp decline

The UK’s mammals are faring badly, with greater than 26% of species at risk of disappearing altogether, including hedgehogs. According to the Mammal Society’s latest population review, estimates have reduced from 1.5 million individuals in 1995 to a mere 500,000 in 2018.

Hedgehogs – which were voted Britain’s favourite mammal in a national poll – were once common, with an estimated 30 million of the spiny animals roaming in cities and countryside in the 1950s. The definitive reason for falling hedgehog numbers are unknown, although there are numerous candidates which are all involved to a varying extent.

Sufficiently protected by its spines, the hedgehog has very few natural predators. Their highly specialised coat contains around 7,000 spines designed to defend against aggression. They will roll up tightly into a ball and raise their spines, presenting a predator with a sphere of spikes.

Thanks to this impressive adaptation, the badger is the only creature strong enough to overcome the spiny defences – although this natural predator-prey relationship has not been specifically linked to the hedgehog’s demise.

While badgers may play a role locally, hedgehogs are absent in many areas where there are no badgers and, in areas where nesting and feeding sites are plentiful, the two species co-exist. Competition for the same food has been cited as a possible source of contention, as both animals favour soil invertebrates, such as earthworms and beetle larvae.

However, long-term, widespread declines in hedgehog numbers are more likely to be due to a combination of factors, notably habitat loss or degradation, and road casualties.

Habitat loss

Sadly, to the great detriment of the hedgehog, there has been a dramatic loss of the UK’s hedgerows since the Second World War. Agricultural management has the most impact on hedgerows. Field enlargement, excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides in intensive farming, a decline in traditional management techniques like hedgelaying and general neglect has led to a substantial decline.

Hedgehogs rely on hedgerows, a component of their name, as they provide an important role as wildlife corridors. They are fundamental in allowing critical dispersal between isolated habitats. Traditional roughly grazed pasture is an ideal habitat for hedgehogs with edges and hedges to provide shelter and plenty of worms and insects for food.

Measures desperately need to be taken to increase the quantity and quality of hedges, so that they can continue to support a wealth of wildlife, particularly the hedgehog. This could be achieved by restoring and planting more hedgerows, field margins and grasslands to increase the abundance and diversity of invertebrates. Farmers should be rewarded for wildlife-friendly farming practices and be given access to support to help them transition away from intensive farming.

The State of Nature report published in October 2019 also found that the area inhabited by officially designated “priority species” has shrunk by 27%. These priority species – deemed most important and threatened – include hedgehogs, hares and bats, many birds such as the willow tit and the turtle dove, and insects such as the high brown fritillary butterfly.

Climate change impacts

Global warming is also posing a existential threat to hedgehogs. As hibernating mammals, the uncertainty caused by the warmer, wetter winters predicted under existing climate models for the UK may have detrimental impacts on hedgehogs.

Wildlife hibernate because there is not enough food available to justify the energy expenditure of foraging. But our changing climate and subsequent warmer winters may cause hogs to wake up more often during a season where food is at its lowest. Without enough sustenance to replace the energy they use trying to forage during winter, hedgehogs may starve.

Roads and housing developments

A nocturnal species, the hedgehog will travel long distances in their nightly forages for food and will actively seek out hedgerows for essential refuge. In fact, these incredible mammals roam an average distance of 2km in a single night. Male hogs can cover up to 3km in one night in their determined search of females during the breeding season (between April and September).

Road collisions are the most urgent threat to hedgehogs, with the Mammal Society estimating a staggering 167,000 – 335,000 animals killed annually. Their research suggests that fatality probability increases where there is a combination of favourable habitat and human dominated areas. Using data collected from the public, high risk areas are continuously being identified, with possible solutions such as reduced speed zones and building bridges or tunnels.

With more roads and housing developments being built, we are seeing a huge loss of connectivity between green spaces, leaving hedgehogs isolated and more vulnerable to local extinction. A viable population of urban hedgehogs is thought to need around 0.9km² of well-connected habitat.

A successful campaign, led by The British Hedgehog Protection Society, lobbied for a condition to planning guidelines that require hedgehog highways be included in new developments. Small holes of 13cm² will be included in the base of fences of new builds, nationwide. This is a fundamental victory for the hedgehog, but more needs to be done. The system needs reforming to ensure that nature is factored into all future planning decisions.

A helping hand

A charismatic and iconic mammal, it is hard to imagine our natural landscape without the hedgehog. But, unless more action is taken, this could become a frightening new reality. With a dwindling population and an overwhelming combination of pressures that jeopardise their future, it does sound quite bleak for the hedgehog. You might be holding your head in your hands, wondering what on earth you can do to help.

Do not despair. There is still time to save hedgehogs. And we all have a part to play in the effort to protect these fascinating creatures.

Our backyards and gardens have been recognised as potential havens for hedgehogs, providing an invaluable source of food, both natural and supplementary, as well as many potential nest sites for breeding, resting and hibernation.

For these reasons, urban areas have become a critical stronghold for hedgehogs in recent years. Indeed, studies have shown rural hedgehog numbers to stand somewhere in the region of 20-70 individuals per square km compared to upwards of 80 in urban settings.

Unfortunately, British gardens are at risk of becoming poorer homes for wildlife. Increased paving, decking, reduced plant life, impermeable boundaries, the use of slug pellets, strimming and bonfire burning all contribute to the plight of hedgehogs.

But, if you follow some of these simple tips, hopefully you’ll have regular visits from our spiky friends – and more luck spotting them than we’ve had!

No matter how small a space you may have, there are plenty of hedgehog-friendly practices you can try.

1. Messy is good

Make sure your garden is attractive to hedgehogs by leaving compost heaps (an attractive nesting site), overgrown areas and log piles as they are. Keeping fallen leaves on the ground is especially useful for breeding and winter nest building. Leaf piles are also great for creepy crawlies, a.k.a. hedgehog food.

Mosaic grass management provides the mix of long grass, short turf, open soil and tussocks needed for foraging and day nesting. Developing nectar sources and herbaceous vegetation provides the diverse microhabitats needed for the invertebrates that hedgehogs rely upon. Edge habitat is especially important as hedgehogs often navigate landscapes by following linear features.

2. Go chemical free

Avoid chemicals where possible and use organic alternatives where necessary. Pesticides, rodenticides and herbicides have adverse effects on our wildlife. For example, herbicides can lead to a decrease in the number of earthworms in lawns resulting in less food for hedgehogs and other insecticides can reduce the number of other invertebrates available for the hedgehogs to eat.

Hedgehogs are an ‘indicator species’, meaning a decline in their numbers can tell us a lot about the state of our other nature.

Wool pellets, nematode treatments, salt, seaweed, broken egg shells or coffee grounds are popular alternatives. However, the best option for slug control – is the hedgehog! One of the main predators of slugs and snails, it is in a gardener’s interest to provide a safe place for hedgehogs in their garden.

3. Invite hogs to dinner

With their natural food sources diminishing, putting supplementary food and a shallow dish of water in a sheltered spot can sustain hedgehogs when times are tough. Specially formulated hedgehog foods now exist and can be bought from most local pet and garden stores, but you could also provide meat-based wet cat or dog food as well.

4. Recruit your neighbours

In a time where we may ourselves feel more isolated than ever, perhaps take the opportunity to reach out to your neighbours to encourage hedgehog friendly features. As well being a proven method for helping hedgehogs, creating highways is also a great way to develop a good relationship with your neighbours and improve your local community.

Well-connected green spaces, linked with surrounding gardens, will also reduce the need for hedgehogs to cross roads. Ultimately, ensuring hedgehogs can pass freely through your garden is the most important thing you can do to help them. There are around 15 million gardens in the UK covering half a million hectares – we absolutely have the means of providing extensive hoggy habitat.

Managing woodlands for wildlife

Here at CAT, we sustainably manage our woodland to benefit wildlife and improve biodiversity. One of our traditional methods for helping to support hedgehogs is leaving plenty of brash piles as habitat and a means to encourage a rich feast of invertebrates.

We use footprint tunnels to survey our mammal population, and have recently enjoyed some success with a visiting hedgehog. Footprint tunnels are cheap and easy to construct and can be placed along linear features such as hedgerows, fences and walls. Pieces of A4 paper are attached to the inside of the tunnel, alongside two strips of non-toxic ink and a handful of meaty flavoured cat, dog or hedgehog food. If you are lucky, you will find a flurry of distinctive prints splattered across your paper (they look like little hands!) There is a wonderful feeling of excitement and anticipation when checking the tunnels every morning – especially as you never know what curious creature you may attract.

If you manage to detect hedgehogs then a trail camera is a brilliant way of observing behaviour and sharing your successes with the local community – footage of a hungry hog may encourage more people to join the collective effort!

Time to act

Hedgehogs continue to face pressures in the rural landscape and from urban development, but public efforts to improve garden habitats and connectivity might be giving them a fighting chance. By making our homes more hog friendly, we have the power to help reshape the future of our beloved hedgehog. But, in the face of growing odds, this isn’t enough – we also need the government to affect real change at a legislative level to protect and restore habitats and highways for hedgehogs, and promises to tackle climate change need turning into action.

About the author

Dulcie joined the CAT woodland team as Natural Resource and Volunteer Officer in August 2020. She has spent the first few months of her role setting up camera traps and footprint tunnels in preparation for Autumnwatch.

She has a BA (Hons) in Marine and Natural History Photography, a course that devoted heavy emphasis on environmental subjects and concerns.

The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is home to no less than five types of bat. Dulcie Fairweather gives us a glimpse of an endangered species that has found a safe haven in our Mid Wales eco centre.

Native and endangered, we consider it an absolute privilege to boast a roost of lesser horseshoe bats on site. Historically the lesser horseshoe bat had a much wider distribution across the UK, but now the total population of about 15,000 individuals is confined to Wales and western England, with a further 12,000 in western Ireland.

About the size of a plum with their wings folded, they are one of the smallest bats in the UK. Their average weight is an astonishing 4-9.5g!

Lesser horseshoes have a fleshy, horseshoe-shaped nose leaf which is related to its intricate echolocation system. They use this high frequency echolocation call to detect prey, typically emerging 20-50 minutes after sunset. If you are lucky enough to have your own bat detector, you should be able to hear a series of continuous warbles at about 110kHz. It’s important to be very quiet as lesser horseshoe bats are very sensitive to disturbance.

Bat behaviour

Like every British bat species, lesser horseshoes live complex seasonal life cycles that are dictated by the changing temperatures and availability of food throughout the year. They hibernate from September/October until April and frequently into May. While they naturally roost in caves, the rising human density into their habitats has driven them to make homes in man-made structures, including roofs, tunnels, attics and cellars. It is vital to their conservation that potential roost entrances should be left unobstructed.

As autumn approaches, bats are diligently eating as much food as possible as this enables them to put on extra body fat to sustain them through the coming winter. Aided by their manoeuvrable wings, speed and agility, they are formidable hunters. Lesser horseshoes hunt relatively close to the ground, rarely flying more than five metres above it. Their diet is comprised of flies (mainly midges), small moths, caddis flies, lacewings, beetles, small wasps and spiders. Most of the time, they snatch prey in mid-air, but can take up insects from branches, rocks and bushes.

Insect decline

Worryingly, one of the biggest threats to lesser horseshoe bats is reduced prey availability. These bats have an incredibly low body mass with small fat reserves, making them particularly vulnerable to starvation.

Recent evidence suggests that abundance of insects may have fallen by 50% or more since 1970. An overlooked apocalypse, these innumerable little creatures are far more critical for the functioning of ecosystems than the large animals that tend to attract most of our attention. Insects are intimately involved in all terrestrial and freshwater food webs. Already, UK populations of the spotted flycatcher fell by 93% between 1967 and 2016 with other once-common insectivorous birds suffering similarly.

An alarming 41% of insect species are threatened with extinction – meaning food chains are under threat as never before, and the three-quarters of human food crops which need insect pollination are also precarious.

The consequences are painfully clear; without insects, a multitude of birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and fish would vanish. Causes of insect declines are much debated, but most scientists believe that it is the result of a combination of man-made stresses, including habitat loss, chronic exposure to complex mixtures of pesticides and the beginnings of the impacts of climate change.

Foraging habitat

Loss of foraging habitat may also be responsible for the decline in lesser horseshoe bat populations. Lesser horseshoe bats prefer shrubland, valleys, open grassland and woodland edges. Studies have concluded that conservation measures for lesser horseshoe bats should be undertaken within 2.5 km of nursery roosts, with special consideration to the area within 600m of the roost.

Where habitat is fragmented, linear features such as hedgerows and treelines are important corridors between roosts and foraging areas. Sensitive management of their foraging habitats is vital – and it is hoped that the numbers might be increased by protecting and improving hibernation sites.

According to the Bat Conservation Trust, lesser horseshoes are particularly sensitive to disturbance, especially in their nursery and winter roosts, and these sites need specific protection.

Farmers, growers and land managers have been advised to consider and test alternative approaches to practices that pollute or strip natural capital. Whereas policymakers must incentivise restorative farming that provides public benefits and helps nature thrive at the same time as securing productivity for future generations of farmers.

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Helping bats where you are

As their natural habitats become scarcer, our gardens are playing a more important role in securing a future for bats.

Here are some of the ways we can lend a helping hand to our winged friends.

1. Garden greenery

Vegetation linkage is an important consideration to benefit bats. If you can plant additional trees or hedgerow close to the roost, this will help connect to bat commuting or foraging habitat. Hollow and damaged trees should always be left standing if possible. These are important for bats and other wildlife but are often ‘tidied up’ without thought for their potential value.

2. Increase the food supply

Certain garden features, such as compost heaps and ponds, are particularly good at generating the types of insect that bats like. Planting a wildlife garden can help to provide the insects that bats need, especially if there is a pond and night-scented flowers and shrubs. White or pale coloured flowers are more likely to be seen by nocturnal insects. However, as always, we implore for an end to unnecessary use of pesticides. These are chemicals created to kill – and that they do. Try to be more tolerant of insects in your garden. A few caterpillars will not cause much damage, but they could become a juicy meal for a bat.

3. Give them a home

By providing a bat box, you can give them somewhere safe to roost, raise their pups and sleep during the day. There is a multitude of designs when it comes to these boxes, from wooden boxes you can make yourself to external ready-assembled boxes and even integrated bat boxes that can be built into walls. If you do make one yourself, it’s important to use unplaned wood that has not been treated with wood preservatives.

Different bat species need different spaces, so it’s important to do some research on the type of box you’d like to put up. Lesser horseshoe bats are more typically associated with open roof voids that they can fly in. But there are many exceptions, as evidenced by records of horseshoe bats making homes in boxes.

Boxes should be put as high as possible (ideally at least 4 metres) to try and avoid predation from domestic cats on the ground. To further protect them from predation, it is recommended that boxes should be placed away from artificial light sources. As nocturnal mammals, bats are light-sensitive and adapted to low light conditions. Consideration must be made to reduce light spill close to roosting areas. On buildings, boxes should be placed as close to the eaves as possible. They prefer access through an opening that allows uninterrupted flight to the roof apex but are capable of using more inconspicuous gaps.

You can bolster your chances of success if boxes are sheltered from strong winds and exposed to the sun for part of the day. Bats need time to find and explore new homes, and it may be several months or even years before boxes have residents – be patient! Once bats have established an artificial roost where they want to live, they can return over and over again.

Please note, as bats are vulnerable to disturbance and fully protected under UK law, boxes must only be opened by a licensed bat worker. It is imperative to check if bats are in residence when building works are being planned or tree surgery is required.

Supporting bats at CAT

Here at CAT, we have an infrared camera spying on a roost in the basement area of a building on site. The location is ideal for the bats – undisturbed with a clear access point that allows continuous flight. The footage we collect gives us a fascinating insight into the world of the lesser horseshoe.

We strongly believe our habitat management is key to supporting our local population. The woodland team uses traditional methods to manage broadleaved woodland, ponds, outgrown hedgerows and tree lines, and we run courses helping others to learn these wildlife-friendly techniques.

In this way, we hope we can offer the lesser horseshoe and many more species the opportunity to thrive for generations to come.

About the author

Dulcie joined the CAT woodland team as Natural Resource and Volunteer Officer in August 2020. She has spent the first few months of her role setting up camera traps and footprint tunnels in preparation for Autumnwatch.

She has a BA (Hons) in Marine and Natural History Photography, a course that devoted heavy emphasis on environmental subjects and concerns.