Flittermouse Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Printmaker, Hester Cox has created a series of geo art caches that take the seeker on a journey through Hackfall Wood with each cache illustrating a story of one of the many creatures that live there and leaving the visitor with a book of impressions from their day.
Flittermouse: Bat
Tale:
Flittermouse is a dialect word for the bat and refers to the fact that it looks very much like a mouse with wings and its flight is always fluttery.
Bats have fascinated people for centuries. They are mammals and suckle their young and yet they don’t live on the ground and they hibernate. There are hundreds of folk stories and myths about bats and their creation. An Indian legend tells how bats were originally birdlike creatures that were unhappy to be birds. One day some of these creatures went to a temple and prayed that they might become human and their prayers were answered but only in part. They were given hair, teeth and human faces but otherwise remained birdlike. The poor creatures were so embarrassed by their new appearance that they decided to only come out at night so that nobody would see them.
Hackfall:
Bats are the only mammals that can fly. There are sixteen species of bat in the UK. Lots of bats can be seen in Hackfall woods including Noctules, Whiskered, Pipistrelles and Soprano Pipistrelles. You can also see Daubenton’s bats swooping low over the river Ure catching insects to eat. Pipistrelle bats are tiny at only 4cm long and weighing the same as a two pence piece! British bats only eat night-flying insects and they hibernate in winter when these are no longer available to eat.
Regular bat walks are held throughout the spring and summer and are led by members of the local bat group so check out Hackfall’s website for information about the next one.
This geocache is part of a series of caches hidden in Hackfall as part of North Yorkshire Open Studios - http://www.nyos.org.uk
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvtu cngu gbjneqf Zvpxyrl sebz Zbjoenl Pnfgyr. Na bnx vf tebjvat npebff gur cngu naq fgrcf unir orra ohvyg bire vg.