The Lyons Share

My laptop battery has died so I have limited access to the Internet. Yesterday I had a very interesting day on a course looking at 'Bats and trees'. It was very much geared at protected-species consultants but it was still very useful to my work. I was amazed when the instructor got out some old bat droppings, they smelled a bit like Oxo Cubes, not all that unpleasant. If you squeeze a dropping between your finger  and it crumbles very easily and twinkles (I assume because of all the invertebrates bats eat) it is more likely to be a bat than an another small mammal apparently. Anyway, here are some Natterer's Bat turds.

And here is a whole mess of Serotine Bat droppings. Just add milk!

Whilst we were out in a clearing in the woods a Crossbill flew over but most bizarrely I spotted a small bat flying around in broad daylight. I saw a similar thing about this time last year at Ebernoe. No photo I am afraid but the instructor was pretty sure it was one of the pipistrelle species.