Ellendale Environmental

13/09/2026

Bats continue to amaze and surprise us!

We had a very unexpected encounter this week when entering a fairly dilapidated building when our ecologists were greeted by lots of lesser horseshoe bats. From the outside the building appeared to be of low suitability but once again the bats did read the book and are happily roosting.

With the number of bats it’s clear this is a maternity roost. Further survey will help us identify if the roost is maintained throughout the year with both mating and hibernations roosts present here.

We have already started working with our client to look at mitigation options for the bats so that a roost can be maintained.

28/08/2026

We can’t help but be a little batty! 🦇

It’s not just the bats that fly during the bat survey season, time does too.

With a change in the weather it’s given us a bit of time to reflect on some of the fantastic locations and buildings we’ve been to this survey season.

We’ve inspected large and small building both rural and urban and identified a range of bat species roosting and recorded many others foraging during the surveys.

Its fair to say the bats haven’t diaaapointed this season with highlights including finding lesser horseshoe bats and maternity roosts. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings!

19/08/2026

Just beavering away!

This beaver was caught on a trail camera recently by our ecology team during some monitoring of a feature along a watercourse in the Scottish highlands.

Whilst not the expected target species based on the field signs at the site, it’s always a pleasure to see beaver on the rivers as their numbers and territories continue to expand.

We frequently use trail cameras as they provide us with a way of monitoring animal behaviour over a period of time in a non-intrusive way.

Thanks to Christian Monaco for the video. Next time we’ll get the date and time set up! 😆

18/08/2026

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30/07/2026

Time really does fly!

Now that we’re at the end of July, marking roughly the exact halfway point of the meteorological summer, it’s a fitting time to reflect on what a busy summer it’s been so far for the Ellendale Team!

Some of highlights so far this year include:

- bat surveys in both England and Scotland with at least two maternity roosts identified, one of pipistrelle bats and another of lesser horseshoe bats.
- identifying fresh water pearl mussel (FWPM) in a stretch of river adjacent to a survey area.
- finding otter and European beaver and recording European beaver passing through a site on the trail camera.
- Continuing to support our clients on development projects for road, utility and flood defence projects.
- providing support through baseline and protected species surveys to assist our clients to obtain planning permission.
- providing input to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and developing enhancement plans for developments.

As we look forward to the latter half of the summer, there’s still much to be done and some exciting projects coming up for existing and new clients that we look forward to sharing!

29/06/2026

Common shrew foraging in the heat!

A little unexpected find today where we stumbled across a common shrew (Sorex araneus) foraging in the grassland. Common shrew are one of the most common small mammals in the northern hemisphere, including Great Britain but excluding Ireland.

Common shrews are often found out in warm weather, as their peak breeding and feeding activity occurs during the summer months. Because they have a hyper-active metabolism, they must forage almost constantly, eating nearly their own body weight daily!

Shrews are active day and night, taking short periods of rest between relatively long bursts of activity and will hunt in both warm and cold temperatures.

26/06/2026

Introduction to Grasses

Big thanks to Susan Eshelman who came into the Ellendale office today to share her love of grasses and teach the team a about the structure of grasses and identification of common species.

A facinating time learning about the structure of grasses and how to use these key features to identify grasses when we find them within the habitats we survey on behalf of our clientsz

After a time in the office we took a walk around the local golf course before the rain stated but luckily the team is adaptable and we continued the lesson in a nearby pub with plenty of samples! 😆

09/06/2026

Bat chat!

Great spot, or should that be listening, by our ecologist Emma Adair today whilst surveying a building for a proposed conversion, identifying a bat roost from the noises made by roosting bats!

In a roost bats make audible chirps, squeaks, and buzzes to communicate with one another rather than echolocation calls. These noises can be louder at dusk as bat prepare to emerge from a roost before foraging.

In addition it’s also possible to hear light shuffling, crawling, or wing-flapping as bats move around in a roost or squeeze through tight access/egress points.

After hearing the bats Emma was able to identify a bat access/egress location to the roost where droppings and scratch marks were found.