Nature Blog Network

bats

I knew there were bats in the area because we have had pipistrelles in the house before and local dog walkers see them regularly in the evening, so I set out about 10 days ago armed with a bat detector and found…nothing.

Exploring another evening there were bats to be heard on the detector at 45 Hz in the field, over Marl Pits and along Conway Road up to Balladen brook. 45HZ is the frequency for the common pipistrelle but also for some other bat species.

So last Wednesday armed with bat detector and warm drink we sat in the garden for an hour from sunset (21.40) and saw and heard loads. They were mainly flying over Sunset View, the Cot and Springhill Cottage to and from the Paddock/New Croft Meadow. I didn’t see any emerging from the west of any of these properties so suspect the roost was elsewhere.

A quick wander between Rose Cottage/Polefield and the new houses on the site of Springhill Farm showed it to be bat alley, with mainly pipistrelles flying along that corridor. Lots in the area behind Springhill Cottage - are they roosting there? If so, then they have nesting house sparrows in the southwest and roosting bats in the northeast.

Whilst most bats seen were common pipistrelles there were other species around, some of which did not register at 45Hz. Not sure what they were as they were only seen fleetingly.

edit 23 June - there are definitely some pips roosting under Springhill Cottage roof.

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