Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Bats And Badgers
by Russell Turner - 16:51 on 27 July 2018
A bat survey is not for the impatient, I can reveal. Friends have bought a dilapidated Victorian former school, but before they begin renovations they need to establish which bats are in residence and where – bats have squatters’ rights – hence last night’s survey, the first of several.
Six of us gathered at 9pm to be instructed in the use of the gizmo that hears the bats’ echo location calls and records it to another gizmo. Not long after that, seated in camp chairs, we ringed the building, pointed our gizmos, listened through our headphones and waited for the bats to leave their roosts to feed in nearby woodland. And waited.
I wasn’t helped, as I discovered after 45 minutes, by a dodgy battery in the echo gizmo. When replaced, I soon heard the clicking of bat radar and lots more over the next couple of hours until we packed up not long before midnight. Entertaining, even if I never actually saw a bat, but I don’t know if I fancy the dawn survey when spotters have to be in place while it’s still dark.
Back at The Rural Retreat, badgers are still regular visitors, and definitely in the plural, as a recent Bushnell snap shows. Another, taken last night, shows a lone forager posing for his portrait. What a star.
Today’s garden task, ahead of the forecast storm tomorrow, was to clear long-choked gutters to allow the rain to flow freely. I’m looking forward to some cool. Today’s tempo run was downgraded to a very easy 5k, begun at 8.30am in humid 21ºC heat. Later in the day, Grandson of Seat’s temperature gauge showed 28.5º. I’ve a 10-mile run on Tuesday and would prefer some more-accommodating conditions.
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