First Natterer's in bat boxes

   

Aidan processes a bat Photo Bob Cornes

Yesterday we did another check of the King’s Wood boxes and found rather more bats.

Juvenile Natterer’s Bat Photo Bob Cornes

The highlight of the day as finding our first Natterer’s  – a group of 6 juveniles, four males and two females in a box which has previously occupied first by pips and then by Brown long eared bats.

Photo Chantelle Kerr

Ticklish or smug to have escaped first time?  Photo Bob Cornes

Photo Chantelle Kerr

Another box had 36 Brown long eared in it – 36 in all 14 adult females, 12 of which were lactating) and 10 juvenile males and 7 juvenile females. Another four managed to sneak off when the box was opened. We found four more brown eared bats in nearby boxes  2 juvenile females and 2 adults which might have been these Houdinis. A lot of these juveniles were very young , in contrast with the Natterer’s who were late juveniles.

We also found a male Noctule in what is euphemistically called “full breeding condition”He was not an exhibitionist ( unlike some bat group members) and was not prepared to flash his genitals for the camera.

Photo Chantelle Kerr

We also found one male soprano pipistrele, similarly well endowed. Last year we found many pipistrelles and it is interesting that we have found so few this year.
With the delay in the renewal of Bob’s Licence, we were unable to get the rings we wanted  ( you have to have a current licence to ring bats) and so will have to delay ringing till nest time .

Bedfordshire Serotine Roost

The bat group were really sorry to learn that the owner of the serotine roost died last year.

 

Audrey loved hosting the bats and made us very welcome whenever we went round.

 

The serotine roost was used in a PhD research project which involved ringing the bats. We have been returning every year since to try to catch the bats and check the ring numbers.

Photo Hedj Dollman

Audrey was very clear that she wanted us to continue to monitor the roost and Tony went round to see the new occupants who did not realise they shared their house with bats. They were happy to let us check the roost. The bats were as sneaky as usual and of the 6 bats that emerged we only managed to catch two of them using our patent bat catcher- which Iain described last year as “A zimmer frame wearing a nappy”,

Photo Jude Hirstwood

One of the bats was  a female ringed three years ago and not caught since, she hadn’t had a baby this year and the other was  a male juvenile ( our first ever captured male). Numbers were lower this year but we know that serotine colonies use several roosts.

The householders have said we can go back next year and continue monitoring the roost – the only known serotine in Bedfordshire.

We are very happy to do this and honour Audrey’s request.

Noctule Mum Released

Way back in the winter we brought a very  underweight noctule into care.  She gave birth earlier this year and Simon has been caring for both of them. Mum got very podgy and was not keen to fly. So she was put through an intensive training course and her mealworm intake was reduced still further. Junior has still to get the hang of flying and is not that keen on exercise either, but he will see the light in time!

The Noctule prior to departure. Photo Jude Hirstwood

Yesterday we went back to the spot where the Noctule was found. We were a bit concerned when it began to rain early in the evening, but that cleared when we made our way out from the car. Simon and his family had got quite attached to the bat during her time in residence. Simon’s daughter insisted he dad give the bat a final cuddle before she was released. This was duly done.

Simon says goodbye to the Noctule

To begin with the bat was perfectly happy to stay nestled in his hand, but when he held her out to the elements her curiousity peaked. She crawled onto the edge of his glove and then stretched her wings. We held our breath and then she opened her wings fully and launched herself off into the night- too fast for me to get a photo We listened to her on a bat detector as we watched her fly away. She did several large circles, presumably orienting herself to her home environment and flew off strongly.

The moment of release Photo Jude Hirstwood

It was a wonderful moment to see her fly free. Bat care is time consuming and often the outcome is not successful but this makes up for everything.
Now Simon is going to concentrate on getting junior flight ready. Thanks to Simon for all his hard work.

Another Barbastelle

We have been monitoring Stockgrove Country Park regularly for the past twenty five years. In recent years we have heard occasional barbastelles, but on Monday night we tried harp trapping there and found ourselves in the middle of  a high level of barbastelle activity, and much to our delight one, a  non breeding female, graced the harp trap with her presence.

Barbastelle, Photo by Bob Cornes

Some people think these are ugly bats as there eyes are difficult to spot but we have a soft spot for them.
One of their nicest features is silver tipped fur

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.

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