A couple of weeks ago, our friend Bernie stopped by. Bernie likes to travel around the levels in his gypsy caravan pulled by his horse Shaman. They camped in our orchard and at dusk we nipped over for a drink and a chat.
While we were enjoying our drinks, a small fire and a chat (and Shaman was tucking into the grass with relish), we noticed a number of bats flying around us. All pipistrelles so far as I could tell. Now, Mrs D had given me a bat box for my birthday. My birthday was in May but I hadn’t put the bat box up as I couldn’t decide where to put it. There was nowhere obvious around the house. According to the instructions, it should be about 5m off the ground.
So, now I knew there were bats in the orchard, I chose a tree, scurried up the ladder and the bat box is now happily in place.
Then, as we headed off for a short walk around the field with the dogs, we noticed a deer in our little fledgling woodland. The deer was in a bit of a panic as we were between it and its normal exit. So we walked around to the other side as the deer did the same at the opposite end. Then, in a bound, it was off to the field next to us.
I am looking forward to our trees getting a bit taller so that the deer will have a good place to hide.
I took my camera with me this morning in the hope I might catch another glimpse and maybe even get a wee photo, but it was not to be. But we’ll keep a look out for it.