Creatures of the night

Did you know that a high percentage of Britain's wildlife is nocturnal or crepuscular,the first meaning they are active at night and the latter meaning at dawn or dusk. This means that some of the amazing wildlife we share our home with is hardly ever seen by us humans. Taking this into consideration allow me to tell you about all the wonderful creatures that are active after dark.

Bats

The UK alone is lucky enough to have 18 species of bat, with 17 of them breeding here. Believe it or not that's nearly a quarter of our mammal species. Some of the species include the Barbastelle (barbastellus) , Daubentons (Myotis daubentonii), and long eared bat (Plecotus auritus) although there are plenty more. Perhaps the most elusive of our nocturnal friends bats spend daylight ours tucked away in roosts. They will roost on their own or in small groups of up to 4 individuals. Bats will also form maternal roosts made up of pregnant females with young, returning periodically to feed them during the night. Bats love to eat flying insects such as mosquitos (Culicidae) or moths (Lepidoptera), often patrolling along hedgerows or the edges of woodland where flying insects are most active. Bats are extremely fast and agile flyers which makes seeing them difficult. The best time to see them is along woodland edges around dusk which is 21:14pm at the moment, when they emerge from their roosts to go hunting.

Common toad

The common toad (Bufo bufo) which is the amphibian in the above photo (taken by our very own Toby Tomlinson) is as it's name suggests our most numerous toad species. Being nocturnal toad's shelter under rocks or vegetation in the day, emerging after dusk to feed on insects. The common toad has a large prehensile tongue which it uses to catch its prey, larger toads will even take slow worms (Anguis fragilis) or small mice (Mus musculus) which they swallow whole. They will often visit the same foraging ground several times over consecutive nights, making them reasonably easy to find. However they do remain motionless if they feel in danger so keep your eyes peeled.

Hedgehogs

If your lucky enough to see one of these creatures then saviour the moment they are declining due to habitat loss through out the UK. It was once estimated that hedgehog (Erinaceinae) numbers were as high as 30 million individuals in the 1950s but that has now plummeted to under 1 million according to recent surveys. This is mainly due to habitat loss and the use of pesticides on their invertebrate food. Hard barriers such as fences or roads also limit the movement of hedgehogs in our towns and cites, causing fragmented populations unable to link up and breed.

Hedgehogs will often forage in open grassland like our gardens. They enjoy access to a mosaic of habitats such as hedges, woodland, meadows, grassland and even golf courses. In the day hedgehogs will often be tucked up out of sight asleep to avoid predators. Around October to march hedgehogs will be hibernating so now is the best time to see them as they fatten up for winter. Therefore to summarise the above creatures are just a handful of animals found wondering the countryside of Britain at night. If you want to see some amazing wildlife close up whether it be a barn owl returning from a hunt in the early hours, or a tawny owl calling to its mate, or even a hedgehog foraging in your garden then pick up your head torch pick up a field guide and explore.

Want to attract hedgehogs to your garden?

1. Allow a corner of your garden to be overgrown with a mix of shrubs, wild flowers, and trees.

2. Leave out a shallow dish of water especially important in this weather.

3. Plant native hedgerows such as hawthorn, build a compost heap which will attract the invertebrates the hogs like to eat.