S3E31 This week Steve is on the Tortworth Estate in south Gloucestershire with Jim Mullholland. They're joined by a voluntary team of arborists who are assisting Jim with his 5 year project to create natural tree features for Bechstein's and barbastelle bats. By using chainsaws to create different crevices and cavities within living trees, the team hope that they will be taken up by colonies of the two bat species which are present in the woodland Steve is visiting today in this episode. The episode starts on a sunny spring day in an ancient woodland with chiffchaff singing in the canopy overhead. As the episode moves down to where the team are working for the day there's more background noise than you're used to on BatChat because the woodland is right next to the M5 motorway.  

• Jim Mullholland is on twitter and Instagram
• Jim has a YouTube channel with a number of videos of bats inside tree roosts.
• The Tortworth Estate opens to the public on certain days of the year. Find out more here.
• Listen to our other episodes on veteranisation with Jim and Vicky Bengtsson
• A guide to veteranisation techniques is at this link.

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Producer: Steve Roe @SteveRoeBatMan
Cover Art: Rachel Hudson http://rachelhudsonillustration.com/

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