Natural England have granted an extension (Annex D) to Elizabeth’s Bat Mitigation Class Licence to include day and transitional roosts of low numbers of lesser horseshoe bats in addition to other bat species for which the licence can be used (i,e, small numbers of common/soprano pipistrelle, brown long-eared, Natterer’s, Brandt’s, Daubenton’s). This will speed up the licensing process for projects involving lesser horseshoe roosts of relatively low conservation status located in the southwest of England.

A radiotracking study on Bechstein’s bats was undertaken at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust’s reserve to assess the impacts of woodland management on these rare bats. A full article by Elizabeth Pimley, Eric Palmer, Giles Sutton, Nick Downs & Johnny Birks can be found in the Mammal Society’s ‘Mammal News’ Summer 2018 Issue 181.  We provide a summary and reference list below. Summary Grafton Wood Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Grafton Flyford, Worcestershire is an ancient semi-natural broad-leaved […]

Bat survey season has started and runs until September. Bats are highly protected and threatened by development and as a result, any works or planning consent where bats may be impacted must be evaluated by a suitably qualified ecologist. Our Natural England licensed bat ecologists will typically conduct an initial building or tree assessment to assess the potential for bats to be using the site. Follow-up surveys may be necessary to determine the nature of the use of the site […]

Spring has arrived!  At this is the time of year individual great crested newts undertake epic feats of endurance (500m is a long way to crawl for a newt!) and migrate through surrounding terrestrial habitat to assemble in the ponds where they were born. Most adults will be in the ponds during the spring and into the early summer – wooing, mating and laying eggs. The rest of the year they live on land – sheltering in stone walls, woodlands, hedgerows scrub and rough grassland in the landscape surrounding their pond. The […]

Despite this less than pleasant weather, evidence of Spring is beginning to emerge.  Snowdrops, daffodils and celandine are already flowering and magpies and crows are carrying oversized sticks to add to their nests for the coming breeding season. Yes, bird breeding season has ‘officially’ (arbitrarily) begun as of the 1st of March. As a reminder, all wild birds are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) 1981 as amended, including their nests and eggs.  Specifically, this means […]

For the past year, Gemma Jerome, GI Consultant with Wild Service has been leading on the Building with Nature project with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. This new, voluntary standard for the design and maintenance of green spaces in housing and commercial development is set to be launched in the Gloucestershire and Avon area in September 2017, with plans for a national rollout to follow. Building with Nature has been designed to help developers, planners and communities understand what good is when […]