If you build it, they will come!

‘If you build it, he will come’ is one of my favourite quotes from the eighties film Field of Dreams.

Wildlife especially birds and bats are the opportunists and entrepreneurs of the natural world and if you make a space for nature it makes every effort to use it. We already have some great wildlife at Ellers including Kingfisher (which I still have not seen!), Dippers, Little Grebes, Goosanders, Little egrets and we also know there are Barn owls and Otters in the area.

Barn owl box made of recycled plastic and some simple bat roosting boxes

There are two projects we are doing to encourage wildlife to become resident at Ellers. The first is to simply put up bird and bat boxes along the river trees and we have gone for a mix of normal bird and bat boxes and also some duck boxes and one barn owl box. Hopefully this will provide plenty of new opportunity for birds and bats.
 



Duck box, but could also be used by other birds such as Little owls



The second project is making a wildlife pond, which we thankfully gained planning permission for a few weeks ago. We know Sand martins are in the area so we are planning to add an artificial Sand martin and Kingfisher nesting bank and in addition have a pond dipping platform for our local school to use.

If you build it, they will come – well we shall see! Hopefully the birds and bats are already checking out the boxes and now we just need to build the pond!

My artist impression of the proposed pond!