ErUpNorth

We went bat hunting last night! We arrived at the Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre at 8 o'clock and Allan Watson, who is the University's Health and Safety Service Director, gave us a slide show and talk about bats. It was an excellent talk and I learned that I probably do have bats roosting somewhere on my house, although I don't know what species. They do not hang in the lofts as portrayed but like to find little nooks and crannies to hide in. Boxed eaves are excellent and they will all cram in together. Their droppings are like mouse droppings but when you rub them between your fingers they just disintegrate because of their diet of insects. I have found droppings on my bedroom window and windowsill which is what confirms my suspicion that they are roosting somewhere above. The house is also south facing which is what they like so that they can conserve energy by using the warmth from the sun. Just after 9 o'clock, having had a quick lesson on how to us

Not sure how much you will hear from me or what I will have to say so I will start with my blog from the OU website: Studying with the OU is quite addictive, I feel sort of lost whilst I wait for the results from MST121 Using mathematics and the start of my new course U116 Environment: journeys through a changing world. I am trying to prepare for the new course by reading articles about climate change, not sure how relevant it will all be though. I did also plan to keep working on my maths, that hasn't happened yet. Next year I think I will enrol on a course that starts in May, have looked at SK183 Understanding human nutrition, which you can study at your own pace, eight to ten weeks, or up to five months. I had planned to study U316 The Environmental Web eventually, which looks like it could be a good follow on to U116, but it says they only plan to run it until February 2012. Which means, if it is available when I finish U116 I may have to do a level 3 course before a level 2