It would be easy to overlook the most commonly seen mammal, the grey squirrel, or tree-rat. This can be seen at any time of the year, since it only stays in its nest or dray on the coldest of days. Other mammals are not very often seen, except for the ubiquitous rabbit and the field mouse, but this does not mean that there are none. Field voles are also seen occasionally and mink, which we would rather not have. Foxes leave their marks, as do otters, which have a halt on the estate. Badgers live on the estate and there will be weasels and stoats. We hope that dormice will colonise our alder plantations.
The mammalian success story of Middleton is the flying mammal. There are five species of bat found here. Old houses are good places for bat roosts and the main way we know about them is from their droppings in the attics.
The five species are the Soprano pipistrelle, the Common pipistrelle, the Noctule, Daubenton's and a fifth one identified as either Whiskered or Brandt's. These two are very hard to distinguish from each other. These five species were located by Dr. Stefan Bodnar on May 11th 2006.