A cold winter’s day full of surprises

After a long walk on my ‘south patch’ which didn’t prove very productive except good fresh air, I thought I’d pop into the ruins of Bishop’s Waltham Palace grounds to have a peep there.
Surprises in wildlife watching cease to amaze me. I thought from afar it was a Kestrel hovering around the derelict building, getting closer I realised it was a Bat ! Mid day in early February, what’s going on ?

Posting the photos on Twitter I was delighted to see it had been seen by a lot of people and not knowing a lot about Bats was very thankful to the person who told me it’s a Serotine Bat . Reading up on it, it all fits and he also reassured me that it was probably what I said, either frightened out it’s home by a Predator or simply waking up a bit hungry and enjoying hunting for flies in the Sun.

Being that birdwatching, according to Government guidelines, is a recreational / luxury, I’m still sticking to local.
This I don’t mind too much as it’s gaining knowledge of my own backyard and observing what’s right and what’s wrong (in my opinion).

However, a nice bright day on one of the walks gave me a nice opportunity to photograph a Common Buzzard.

New Build Housing Developments

There are around 500 houses being built in three separate spots around Bishop’s Waltham.

With so much publicity and worry about the decline of Hedgehogs and promoting ways to save them from extinction, these new developments just don’t seem to take any notice of this, building houses fenced in by 6′ high panels leaving nowhere for Hedgehogs to roam and hunt in their natural way.

Surely, beside the low cost of doing something, why don’t they at least make a few 5″ square holes every few meters ?
I’m sure this would not only help Hedgehogs but at the same time make new owners feel they are doing something beneficial to nature and after all, it’s nature’s future !
See the Down the Lane Hedgehogs in the Garden pages

Next stop is Bird Boxes !