New Project

Phil Brown (University of Bristol) is carrying out two surveys in Bedfordshire

This is part of his university project looking at Whiskered/Alcathoe/Brandt's (WAB)

Further details to follow once the surveys have been completed.

Bat Box Project updated

When fixing dates for the monthly box surveys we deliberately put the June check early in the month and the July one later.

We found nothing but birds on the June one and had heard that people were finding new born Brown long eared bats in boxes in other counties recently.

It was decided to go ahead with the check but not to disturb any boxes that held brown long eared bats.

Almost the first box that was checked appeared empty,  but on being opened had a very young juvenile in it.

There was no sign of its mother. The box was closed immediately and for the rest of the check, boxes containing Brown Long Eared bats were not opened.(Their long ears are, fortunately, pretty visible.)

Brown long eared bat Bob Cornes (photo taken last year)

This meant that the check was quite speedy as no boxes contained anything other than brown long eared bats. The questions has to be – where were the pipistrelles.

Further Woodland Surveys

With the good weather the bat group has been able to go out a lot.

On Tuesday Aidan, Bob and Dave headed to Kings Wood Heath and Reach and tried netting in a woodland block.
Griffins were set up at high and low level.

There were no echolocation calls but we picked up some interesting social calls. Alarmingly Jude failed to provide any cake.

This alarming event caused great concern so on Friday when we went to resurvey a wood we had visited with Lia Gilmour last year, everybody brought cake, so that some came home at the end of the evening.

When we were there last year the temperature was 4 degrees centigrade. It was very different last night. A juvenile noctule, several Daubenton’s and a soprano pipistrelle were caught, but there were still no Natterer’s.

A Response to the Westminster Hall Bats and Churchs Debate

   

Photo Jon Dawson

There has continued to be lots of comments about Sir Tim Baldry’s  recent speech at Westminster Hall.  .

Dr Kirsty Park of Stirling University has just posted a comment on her blog . (Kirsty’s PhD was bat related and she knows of what she speaks).

I should point out to those of a nervous disposition that these are not real bats  and that the bats living in our churches are not this size.

They are made by greensmith (someone who works with copper). I stole this photo from http://2dales.org.uk/churches/st-andrews/bats.html

Barbastelle tracking

No posts for a while and you may have thought we had gone into torpor!!

Far from it, we have had a radio tag on a non pregnant female (obviously) barbastelle and have so  far found 5 roost trees, and got some good film footage. Once the tag  stops working I will try to update what has been happening. If interested , in the meantime have a look at our facebook page where Jude has been posting regular updates.

Quick update – found a 6th roost. Tag must be nearing end of its life soon – then we can catch up on (a) sleep and (b) this blog. She escaped vigilant eyes again last night Think we may rename her “Stealth”

The tag lasted fourteen days and has now expired. This means some of us are busy catching up on sleep but we will have more to say about this.

 Right until the end our little lady continued to guide us to new roosts. We found 7 in total.

Barbastelle in hibernation, normally this is as close as we get!!

Driven up the pole by bats

The bat group has recently bought another Griffin from Batbox using the proceeds from data searches. The fine weather on Monday night was too good not to exploit and Bob headed off to the home of our main bat box project to try it out.

We noticed that last season that bat detectors placed at 8.5 m ( atop a window cleaners pole and a de-bristled brush) gave us very different results from what we heard at ground level, but as we only had one Griffin we could not record at two levels at the same time with a time expansion detector)( We used . batbox Duets instead which , not being time expansion detectors, can’t give such high definition recordings)

The first Griffin was mounted on the lower part of the window cleaner’s pole. Photo Bob Cornes

Using a Petterson time expansion detector which was handheld, Bob only reported a few common pips, , the Griffin placed on the pole low down picked up a Noctule pass, while the Griffin at canopy height picked up both common and soprano pips, a serotine, a barbastelle, and what was possibly a Leisler’s (though it might just have been a Noctule playing silly devils.

The double Griffin se4t up. You can just about see the 2nd Griffin at canopy height right at the top of the photo. The object ion the tree trunk is a bat box (unoccupied) Photo Bob Cornes

The plan is to repeat this methodology at a number of sites this season, and to return here later in the yer when the canopy is denser.

      .

Baby Noctule update

The juvenile noctule continues to come on in leaps and bounds.

He is now eating mealworms and soon we shall have to get him some flight cage practice.

Infra-Red Camera Set- up

Following a workshop at the National Bat Conference on Infra-Red (IR) filming of bats, I decided to set-up my own system. A quick trip to ebay and a little research later I came up with the below.

Most of the set-ups I have seen to date have relied on external battery packs and lots of connecting leads. Although the footage was excellent and the systems seemed fairly simple to set – up, I was looking for something that would be self-contained.

I found IR lights called ‘bullets’ on an ebay shop, produced by SpectIR components, these seemed ideal as they take batteries. The added bonus was that they were cheap, being £30 for both lights. Each light takes four ‘AA’ batteries to the rear. These are expected to last at least 2- 3hrs of continuous use. The two lights can light an area of approx. 15- 20m. This is generally good enough for most roosts that I have tested the system on.

Equipment –

1.    Sony Handycam DCR-SR35 HDD ‘Nightshot’ (already owned and more importantly has the night shot facility).

2.    Camera Tripod (I opted for a small tripod that could be used internally in barns and small loft spaces).

3.    2 x Infra-Red (IR) lights, Bullets (produced by SpectIR Components).

Figure 1: IR set-up

Figure 2: IR set-up

Figure 3: IR set-up

Now I have had a chance to test the system and the results can be seen here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89343861/BLEB%20Stockgrove%20no%20sound.wmv

This piece of footage was taken from a known roost in Bedfordshire.

Noctule update

Noctule and newborn Photo Simon Pidgeon

A new born bat is not by any stretch of the imagination a thing of great beauty it has to be said but watch this space. As he grows he will become much more pleasing on the eye!!

Photo Simon Pidgeon

A week after being born and he weighs 5 grams

week old noctule. Photo Simon Pidgeon

Last time round we couldn’t release mum back into the wild, but this time we should be able to. Meanwhile mother and baby are doing well. We will keep you updated.

Another Noctule, Another Pup

Hi All,

Well back in 2010 this blog was set-up to document the development of a noctule pup that was born in captivity.

On Friday of last week I had a panicked call from Simon (the main bat carer for Beds).

He had been over-wintering a female noctule that was found in a tree, in all likelihood she was going to be pregnant, however the hope was that she would be fit enough for release before this occurred.

Well it turns out that this is not the case and she gave birth to a male pup on Friday, below is the email that has been sent to the group:

Dear all,

A little bit of news for you (being the bat care team and all that). Most of you are aware of the captive Noctule we have which is overwintering until the weather cheers up. This young lady was found in a tree that had come down in December.. When found, she was only half the weight she should be and Jan Ragg/Colin Edwards were straight on the case of feeding her up. She would have almost certainly died if the tree had NOT come down! She was passed to me shortly afterwards (as she was from Millbrook).

Fairly quickly, she put on weight and seemed quite content (though grumpy for a Noctule).

I’ll get to the point….Last Friday (8^th March) I got her out in the afternoon to give her a feed before work. To my complete shock, when I looked in I was met with a bat much smaller than our female. Yes, she had given birth. I knew the likelihood was that she would be pregnant, but a baby in early March…..slightly concerning (not to mention ‘dejavu’ for the Beds bat group for out last captive Noctule). When I first saw the pup (a male), he was on his own on one side of the inside towel and mum was the other end on the opposite side. Thankfully, after a good feed and a massive drink, mum soon got baby to attach and so far…both appear to be doing fine.

As soon as I get a chance, when mum kicks baby (now named ‘bobby’ by my daughter) off for a while I’ll weigh them both. I have had a clear view of the Pup’s abdomen and I can see milk patches so at the moment, I’m happy he is feeding. They will both need close monitoring but as a group, we need to work out how/where they are going to be released. It’s a long way off at the moment but unlike our last mum and pup, mum can be released too.

Will keep you updated with some proper pics/weights etc. I thought the birth of my son last month was going to be the last baby we had in the house!

 

So this means that this year there is likely to be the storey of Bedfordshires second noctule born in captivity.

 

So far the pup is doing well and mum is doing a fine job of feeding and looking after him.

 

As and when there is more news I will get an update on here.

 

Martin