Bat detector day...
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| Pipistrelle bat hiding in the folds of a garden parasol. |
I’ve been looking forward to today for two weeks!! Like a small boy on Christmas morning! Today’s the day when we open up the bar detectors and discover what data is hidden inside!
And I wasn’t disappointed!! Notts Bat Group bat detector SD cards were so loaded with data from the garden that there was only enough room for eight out of the fourteen days active.
So much so that John had to take the cards away for analysis.
Initially we saw lots of common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle sonogram activity. As we moved through, evidence of myotis bats. And brown long-eared bats appeared too.
We had no previous evidence of myotis or brown long-eared bats here in the garden.
I have to tell you that I became a small boy again on hearing we have brown long-eared bats!! From my earliest memories I have been beyond fascinated by wildlife. Brown long-eared bats are almost mythical to me having never encountered them. And now they’re here!!!!! O
Brown long-eared bats echo locate very quietly and so are unlikely to register on hand-held detectors. They are quiet because they hunt larger moths which have evolved to listen out for bat echo-location. In response to their response, the brown long-eared bats turn off their echo-location and hunt simply by hearing the wing beats of the moths they hunt - or the breathing of their moth prey.
Imagine a hearing so acute that you can hear a moth breathing….
We await full results for the garden and for New Farm too.
And then to build some nice big Kent bat boxes from Douglas Fir planks..
STOP PRESS …. STOP PRESS …. STOP PRESS
Latest news..
Garden bats from Notts Bat Group monitoring ..
Common and Soprano pips,
Daubentons,
Natterer's,
Leisters?
Noctule,
Brown Long Eared
Whiskered/Brandts?
………. so far.
Booooom!
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