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Cherryfield Ecology

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Cherryfield Ecology aims to provide you with comprehensive ecology surveys for your planning application. Offering bat surveys, reptile, NEPS Licences.

Our Story
CHERRYFIELD ECOLOGY·
We specialize in ecology surveys, for private and commercial planning applications. Established in 2015, following the opportunity to go it alone coming up, Cherryfield Ecology has gone from strength to strength. We have done work for private individuals, larger companies and major infrastructure clients. In 2018 Cherryfield Ecology took on it’s first employee and has expended since. If you are looking for a cost effective bat surveys, newt surveys or barn owl surveys, get in touch today. Services include bat surveys, newt surveys, barn owl surveys, badger surveys and dormouse. We specialize in ecology surveys, for private and commercial planning applications,.

16/10/2026

🍂 Mid‑October Wildlife in the UK: What’s Happening Right Now?
Mid‑October is peak autumn – and the countryside is buzzing with seasonal change. As the nights draw in, wildlife is on the move, feeding hard, and getting ready for the colder months ahead.

🐦 Migrants Arriving
Redwings are now touching down from Scandinavia, drawn to hedgerows heavy with rowan, hawthorn and holly berries. They detect berries using ultraviolet light – a remarkable adaptation for long‑distance travellers.

Winter wildfowl such as wigeon, pink‑footed geese, and whooper swans are beginning to arrive on UK wetlands to overwinter.

🐟 The Salmon Run
Across UK rivers, Atlantic salmon are powering upstream, leaping waterfalls and rapids on their journey back to their spawning grounds. These fish stop feeding once they enter freshwater – every ounce of energy goes into migration.

🦌 Deer Rutting Season
October is prime rutting season for red and fallow deer. Listen for roaring stags and clashing antlers in woodlands and heathlands as males compete for mates.

🐦 Woodland Birds on the Move
Jays are busy caching acorns, flying back and forth between oak trees to bury their autumn treasure trove. Their pink‑brown plumage and electric‑blue wing flashes are unmissable this month.

Tiny goldcrests, weighing just 6 grams, flit through conifers and garden trees, their golden crown stripe glowing in the low autumn sun.

🦔 Hedgehogs Preparing for Winter
Hedgehogs are feeding intensively now, building fat reserves before hibernation. Look for them at dusk as they forage for worms and beetles.

🍄 Fungi Season Peaks
Woodlands are full of mushrooms and toadstools – from fly agarics to birch polypores. A perfect time for mindful autumn walks (and careful identification!).

07/10/2026

🦡 Badger Sett Creation in the UK — Building Safe Havens for a Protected Species 🌿

Creating artificial badger setts is a specialist task — part of mitigation when development affects existing territories. It’s about replicating the structure, security, and microclimate of a natural sett so badgers can relocate safely and thrive.

🧱 Why Create a Sett?
Legal protection: Badgers and their setts are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.

Development mitigation: When construction or habitat loss threatens a sett, licensed ecologists design and build new ones under strict conditions.

Conservation support: Artificial setts can help reinforce populations in fragmented landscapes.

🌳 Design Essentials
Location: Quiet, well-drained ground with nearby foraging habitat and cover.

Structure: Typically a network of chambers and tunnels built from pipes and chambers lined with soil and turf.

Orientation: Entrances face away from prevailing winds, often shaded by vegetation.

Materials: Clay pipes, concrete chambers, or timber-framed boxes — all buried and camouflaged.

Monitoring: Post-construction checks ensure badgers adopt and maintain the new sett.

🍂 Autumn & Winter Work
These seasons are ideal for sett creation — vegetation is lower, ground conditions reveal natural drainage, and disturbance to breeding is avoided.

02/10/2026

🍁 October Wildlife in the UK — Nature’s Subtle Transition 🦉🦡🍂
October is a fascinating month in the UK ecology calendar — a time when summer’s energy fades, but the countryside remains rich with life and movement.
🌾 What’s Still Active
• Bats: Still feeding on late insects during mild evenings, though activity drops sharply as temperatures fall.
• Birds: Migration is in full swing — redwings, fieldfares, and winter thrushes arrive; swallows and house martins depart.
• Deer: The red and fallow rut peaks, echoing through woodlands with dramatic calls and clashes.
• Badgers & foxes: Busy foraging to build fat reserves; cubs from spring are now confident explorers.
• Fungi: Peak season — from fly agarics to puffballs, woodlands and grasslands are alive with fruiting bodies.
• Insects: Ivy flowers host late bees, hoverflies, and wasps; dragonflies linger around ponds on warmer days.
❄️ What’s Slowing Down
• Reptiles & amphibians: Begin seeking hibernation sites; survey detectability drops.
• Butterflies: Only hardy species like red admirals and commas remain active, feeding on autumn nectar.
• Dormice: Enter hibernation as food dwindles and nights cool.
• Bats: Transitioning to hibernation roosts by late month.
🌙 Fieldwork & Observation Tips
• Ideal time for fungal forays, badger activity checks, and autumn bird counts.
• Great visibility for habitat mapping as vegetation dies back.
• Early frosts and misty mornings create stunning conditions for photography and ecological storytelling.

23/09/2026

🍂 End of Summer Survey Season — What’s Next for UK Ecology? ❄️🦡🦇

As we wrap up the busy summer survey window — bats, reptiles, GCN, breeding birds, dormice, invertebrates — autumn signals a shift in pace rather than a stop. Plenty of valuable ecological work continues right through the winter months, and it’s a great time to plan ahead.

🍁 Summer Survey Season Winds Down
By mid‑September, most warm‑weather species have passed their peak activity. Emergence surveys taper off, reptile detectability drops, and breeding bird checks conclude. But ecological projects don’t go quiet — they simply change focus.

❄️ What Can Be Surveyed Over Winter?
Winter opens up a whole new set of opportunities:

🦡 Badger surveys
Sett mapping, activity checks, latrine identification, and territory assessment are all ideal in winter when vegetation has died back.

🦊 Mammal field signs
Fox, otter, water vole, hedgehog and other mammals leave clearer tracks, spraints, and feeding signs in wet ground and snow.

🌿 Phase 1 / UKHab mapping
With leaf fall and reduced understorey, winter is excellent for structural habitat mapping and boundary identification.

🪵 Tree inspections & bat potential assessments
Ivy is thinner, cavities are more visible, and canopy cover is reduced — perfect for identifying PRFs and assessing bat roost potential.

🐦 Wintering bird surveys
Farmland birds, waders, and waterfowl monitoring continue through the colder months.

🪨 Hibernation site checks
For reptiles and amphibians, winter is a good time to identify potential hibernacula and assess habitat suitability.

💧 Drainage, ponds & hydrology
Winter rainfall highlights flow paths, flooding issues, and pond catchment behaviour.

18/09/2026

🍂 Autumn Badger Playtime 🦡✨
As the leaves start to fall, UK badgers become wonderfully lively. Cooler evenings and softer soils make autumn one of the best times to spot their playful side:
• 🦡 Evening energy: Young badgers often chase, tumble, and wrestle near their sett entrances — practising the skills they’ll need as adults.
• 🍁 Foraging fun: With earthworms plentiful and fruit dropping from hedgerows, you’ll sometimes see them snuffling, digging, and darting about with real enthusiasm.
• 🌙 Golden-hour moments: At dusk, their black and white faces look incredible against copper bracken and fallen leaves.
• 👣 Signs of play: Fresh snuffle holes, disturbed leaf litter, and little trails around setts often show where they’ve been exploring.
Autumn is a season of curiosity for badgers — a time when the woods feel alive with their quiet mischief.

09/09/2026

🍁 Early Autumn in the UK: Wildlife’s Quiet Shift Begins

As the first cool mornings settle in and hedgerows start to bronze, the UK slips into early autumn — a season of subtle but powerful change in the natural world. Wildlife responds quickly to the shift, and if you’re out in the field, you’ll feel it everywhere.

Birds begin their early migrations: swallows gather on wires, chiffchaffs grow quieter, and the first skeins of geese drift overhead.

Mammals ramp up feeding: squirrels stash acorns, badgers forage longer, and hedgehogs start building up fat reserves for the colder months ahead.

Insects slow down but remain active: late bumblebees work ivy flowers, dragonflies patrol ponds, and butterflies take advantage of the last warm spells.

Plants & fungi respond to moisture and cooler nights: berries ripen, leaves start to turn, and the first flushes of mushrooms appear on woodland floors.

Early autumn is a beautiful in‑between moment — summer’s energy still lingers, but the landscape is already preparing for the months ahead.

Perfect time for fieldwork, photography, and those quiet, observant walks where every rustle hints at the season changing.

04/09/2026

🍄 As Summer Slips Away… the UK Fungi Season Begins

With cooler nights, heavier dews and that first hint of autumn in the air, the UK countryside is quietly shifting into fungi season. This is the moment when woodlands, meadows and even garden lawns start to wake up with colour again — not from flowers, but from fruiting bodies pushing up through soil and leaf litter.

Early‑season fungi are some of the most exciting to spot:

Amethyst Deceivers glowing purple under beech.

Shaggy Inkcaps emerging along paths and verges.

Birch Polypores toughening up on fallen trunks.

Fly Agarics beginning their slow, iconic rise beneath birch and pine.

After a warm, often dry summer, the first proper rainfall acts like a starter pistol. Mycelial networks that have been quietly working all year suddenly switch into fruiting mode, creating the mushrooms we love to photograph and identify.

It’s a brilliant time to get outside: the air smells different, the ground feels alive, and every walk holds the promise of a new species.

Here’s to the start of fungi season — a slow, magical transition from summer’s greens to autumn’s reds, golds… and mushrooms.

26/08/2026

🦇 Late Summer: The Final Weeks of UK Bat Survey Season

As August draws on, we’re heading into the last stretch of the UK bat survey season. Nights are still warm, insects are plentiful, and bats are making the most of these final weeks before their activity naturally begins to taper.

For ecologists, this is the period where every remaining survey counts. Maternity colonies have dispersed, juveniles are confidently on the wing, and late‑season behaviour can reveal crucial details about how bats are using buildings, treelines, rivers and roost features before autumn sets in.

If you’re out surveying over the next few evenings:

Enjoy those rich, busy pipistrelle soundscapes.

Watch for noctules cruising high and fast over fields.

Keep an eye on long‑eared bats drifting out of woodland edges.

And remember — the final cut‑off for three‑survey activity assessments is 10th August, so we’re now in the closing window for most planning‑related bat work.

Late summer surveys always feel special: a mix of warm dusk air, shifting bat behaviour, and the sense of a season gently winding down.

Here’s to safe nights, clear calls, and making the most of these last surveys before autumn arrives.

21/08/2026

🌿🦇 Ecology & Planning in Mid to late Summer: What Can (and Can’t) Be Surveyed Right Now?

Mid to late ‑summer is one of the busiest times in the ecology calendar — warm nights, long days and peak wildlife activity. But it’s also a period where survey windows tighten, and planning decisions need to be grounded in what’s actually possible.
Here’s where we stand in the UK:

🦎 Reptiles — Peak Activity, but Weather‑Dependent
Common lizards, slow worms, grass snakes and adders are all active now, but mid‑summer heat can reduce detectability.
Survey implications:
Early morning and late afternoon remain the best windows.
Prolonged hot spells can make surveys unreliable — reptiles retreat into cover.
Translocations and habitat manipulation can proceed, but only with robust survey evidence.
Takeaway: Surveys are possible, but quality hinges on microclimate. Poor timing = poor data.
🦡 Badgers — Cubs Are Mobile, Setts Are Busy
By mid‑summer, cubs are above ground and setts are at maximum use.
Planning constraints:
Sett closures are not permitted without a licence, and licences are rarely granted at this time.
Disturbance buffers around active setts must be respected.
Vegetation clearance near setts must be risk‑assessed to avoid indirect impacts.
Takeaway: Expect restrictions. Most intrusive works must wait until the licensed season (July–November), and even then only under strict conditions.

📝 Why This Matters for Planning
Mid‑summer is a reminder that ecology isn’t just a box‑ticking exercise — it’s seasonal, legal, and deeply tied to animal behaviour. Good planning means:
Anticipating survey windows months in advance
Building flexibility into project timelines
Using ecologists early, not at the point of crisis
Respecting the species that share our landscapes

12/08/2026

🌿 Biodiversity Net Gain: What’s Changing in August?
From early August, new BNG exemptions come into force — but they’re not a free pass for development. The headline: more small sites may be exempt, but priority habitats keep BNG firmly on the table.

🟢 What will be exempt?
Certain small‑scale developments will fall outside mandatory BNG, including:

Minor residential extensions

Some small non-residential works

Specific low-impact operational developments

Select temporary permissions

These exemptions aim to streamline planning for genuinely low‑risk projects.

🔴 But here’s the critical bit:
If a site contains any priority habitat — even a tiny fragment — BNG is still required.
This applies regardless of site size, including plots under 0.2 ha.

Priority habitats include:

Species‑rich grassland

Hedgerows

Ponds

Traditional orchards

Deciduous woodland

Wetland pockets

Heathland
…and many more.

If it’s on the Priority Habitat Inventory, the exemption does not apply.

📏 Why this matters for small sites
Developers often assume sub‑0.2 ha sites are “too small for BNG”.
From August, that assumption becomes even riskier.
A single hedgerow, pond corner, or meadow strip can trigger full BNG requirements.

🛠️ What planners, ecologists, and developers should do now
Check the Priority Habitat Inventory early

Survey small sites thoroughly — don’t rely on desk-based screening

Flag potential constraints at pre-app

Plan for BNG even if you think you’re exempt

📣 Takeaway for your audience
New exemptions simplify BNG — but only where nature isn’t present.
If priority habitat is on site, BNG still applies.
Size doesn’t remove responsibility.

Address

Houghton Conquest
Luton
LU20

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447950279790

Website

https://www.cherryfieldecology.co.uk/

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