Return of the dark knights!

Open door to bat cave

Another wet day forecast but a sunny start with the arrival of Morris [Bat trust] who together with Mike were all set for the spring bat count at Sherborne. I assumed my duties as safety man as we set out to the quarry roost. Expectation were that there shouldn't be more than 20 or so lesser horseshoes in the winter roost but the reality turned out very differently. Mike and Morris entered the Quarry bat residence first to do the official count. Didn't believe Mike as he reappeared with his clip board announcing 130 bats still in residence with one cluster of 96!  Morris meanwhile stayed in the cave to allow me to see for myself and sure enough 130 bats were happily hanging from the cave ceilings. It confirms how sensible bats are since  there was no good reason to leave a comfortable 10 degrees in the winter roost for the lower temperatures we have been experiencing so far outside. Only absentee was the single greater horseshoe bat that was present at the winter count {may have returned to the mansion roost at Woodchester}. Having completed this roost count we moved on to the other winter roost sites and the final bat count rose to 169, nearly a record which is good news for bats at Sherborne. Only problem remaining is that Mike and Morris would like to do some  'rennovations' in the quarry roost site, so they are hoping the outside temperatures rise soon to encourage the  Quarry  bats to move to their summer roost sites thereby allowing the work to start.

As the weather continued to be obliging I spent the afternoon with Mike in the East belt completing the deer fencing around a new compartment Mike, with volunteer Simon, had already made a good start on. More woodland management, this time [following appropriate thinning in the winter]  to ensure healthy growth of young saplings, so yet again foiling the local deer population. This time no drival  {or gripples} as Mike had already got the posts set in the ground with expert use of his tractor! But wasn't deprived of use of monkey strainers, myti strainer, pig ring gun, high tensile deer fencing , hammer and staples. Most demanding aspect of this construction was joining up the different sections of deer fencing {3 in all} which was especially fiddly even for Mike! Anyway job completed before any serious rain and not a bad days work all round.