September 2025

piersclark
Oct 1
4 min read

Last month, I shared our first-ever video of an American Mink. I was very excited to see it. However, the Mink is an invasive species in the UK that indiscriminately kills the native wildlife (water voles in particular) and so needs to be controlled. I had posted a comment along the lines that ‘One mink surely can’t be that bad’. Unfortunately, we captured this second video of another mink (a juvenile), which suggests a family of them has moved in. I have therefore appointed a ‘Mink Trapper’ and will share updates next month on his progress in controlling this population.

Interestingly, the mink’s burrow is also shared with this big Brown Rat.

I moved the camera to another angle, and here is the same rat finding a clever way to cross the stream without getting wet.

I didn’t know badgers hunted rats (or perhaps this badger is hunting the mink!), but this one is showing particular interest in the burrow. Watch at the end as he turns and sees the camera light and gets spooked.

On Friday Sept 26^th we held our final bat trapping night of 2025. 20+ people attended, ranging in ages from 6 to 80. I absolutely love this photo; that childlike level of fascination cannot be feigned.

Here is a Bechstein bat. Last month, we trapped a young female. This month, it was a male. For details on just how rare the Bechstein is, please see last month's blog (they are arguably the UK’s rarest bat, although obviously we have a roost nearby, so are not particularly rare at Aspect!)

A Bechstein Bat: Ears as big as its head! It couldn’t wait to escape…

…until it came to be released. The warmth of the trappers hand meant it needed a little encouragement to depart. This slow-motion video shows the utter beauty of a bat launching into the air. It is breathtaking to watch.

This is the same moment of release but taken from a different angle. At about 22 seconds, watch the face of the little girl as she sees the bat appear. It is adorable.

Here is the other bat we trapped, a Natterers bat. Not nearly as rare as the Bechstein but just as fascinating.

One of the stories shared by Martyn Cooke, our licensed bat handler, was an incredible report of a Particoloured Bat, which was trapped in Belgium, tagged, and then released. Over the subseq

uent 8 hours, it was ‘pinged’ as it flew west, crossing the Channel twice, spending 3 hours along the south coast of England before finishing in northern France. A staggering 430km in just 7 hours (and keep in mind bats don’t fly in straight lines). Incredible. Full story here, in Dutch: Tweekleurige vleermuis vliegt in één nacht twee keer het Kanaal over | Natuurpunt

Alongside the bat-trapping we also set up our moth trap.

We are about to buy a 10 acre ancient woodland which is adjacent to Aspect Nature Reserve. Neighbours tell me it has a history – apparently the notorious Kray Twins used to ‘hang out’ in these woods in the 1960s. While walking through it, I discovered a number of very deep bogs. They are deep, wet, and very smelly. Can’t help but wonder what the Kray Twins used them for!

We had a troop of Scouts visit the site, and as part of the H&S briefin,g I explained about the bogs. When we went into the woodland to gather firewood, I stood in front of the bog so that none of the scouts walked into it.

One of the parent-helpers (who had clearly not listened to the H&S briefing) stepped behind me and disappeared up to her upper thigh in the bog. This photo shows the outcome. What this photo doesn’t capture is the uniquely powerful smell that the bog released, which stayed with this lady for the rest of the evening. The scouts, of course, found this utterly hilarious.

This female badger has regularly visited our old badger sett over the past few weeks. I am hoping she will move in and produce a litter over the New Year period.

However, here she is fighting with another badger. In the subsequent videos, she was limping and disappeared into the sett for the rest of the night. Fingers crossed she will recover quickly.

Our recently constructed pond has not yet attracted any birds, but it is attracting these rather magnificent deer.

A few weeks ago, this baby deer was left abandoned by its mother. It has not grown big enough to leap the fences, so it has been trapped inside the nature reserve. It is gradually getting stronger and bigger with each day. I am getting increasingly confident that it will survive to adulthood.

A green woodpecker is enjoying a drink in the stream.

A Tawny Owl