Most of the houses in our road were built over 50 years ago, and have bats in their roofs, including ours. We thought the droppings were mice, but our daughter, who has bats in her barn and has learned a lot about them, says that if the droppings can be crumbled in your fingers, they're bats, whereas mouse droppings are moister and don't crumble. We still see bats flying around on summer evenings, but far, far fewer than a few years ago - lack of moths due to impoverishment of insects is the most likely cause. I'm reading Wilding, by Isabella Tree, which has some horrifying statistics; since 1970, moths have declined by 88%, ground beetles by 72% and butterflies by 76%. There is currently yer another bid to build on part of the uncultivated Council field behind our house, the fourth such effort in the past 20 years - despite locals having successfully knocked the idea on the head several times. I'm all set to organise yet another campaign!
