Hibernation Results

Hi,

Well over the weekend we visited 15 hibernation sites across Bedfordshire, Saturday saw Danny, Jonathan, Bob, Chris and Martin visit four sites, with a total of 76 bats, with 17 Barbestelles in one, which nearly equalled last years 20.

Sunday saw Bob, Jonathan and Aidan visit the remaining sites and have 42 bats in total, with a new record for the artificial site built over 20 years ago, 5 BLE bats.

For the first time, the number of bats found on the December survey has exceeded 100. We found 118 bats over the weekend:

59 Natterer's
23 Daubenton's
17 Brown Long-Eareds
17 Barbastelles
1 Common Pip
1 unidentified

Thanks goes to those which helped out over the weekend.

Martin

Kent Bat Box update

Hi,

Danny at Priory Park has been experimenting with the Kent Bat box (as reported earlier), he has now been playing with the design of the box and added a further rear chamber. The idea is to see if one: the bats are only using the chamber nearest the tree and Two: to help stop woodpeckers making holes in the first and second chamber. The addition of a third chamber may help stop the woody's getting into at least one chamber therefore making the box use-able.

The pictures right, shows the original box on the left and the new super box on the right

He has also added a tin plate over the first chamber to protect it from the woody's.

When bats are using the boxes again, I'll update everyone.

It is also the first of the hibernation checks this weekend, I'll be leading on Saturday and Bob will be leading on Sunday, I'll report the findings here next week, but if last winters results are anything to go by, I'm expecting good numbers in our largest hibernation site, last year when the weather turned we had 20+ Barbastelles, our best count.

Martin