Drawing from Amy 's field notes

We first went to Wardown Park as part of the Luton Bat Project, and are doing three surveys a year there, which are open to the public.

The weather has been dreadful for the first walk last week and we wondered if we would be able to carry it out, but a few hardy souls braved the cold.

Geraldine and Dick reported

“There were a few spots of rain as we waited in the car park to see if any other bat group members would arrive

“After we’d walked round the museum building and checked the bat boxes, no bats in residence, but insects were making good use of them, our first bat sightings occurred. Common Pipistrelles had a good feeding session, near the museum and also over the lake.

Karen said it was the closest and best views of bats she’s ever had, so it was well worth their journey from St Albans.”

We organised some walks at the park last year. Luton cultural services have asked us to do some more bat walks there later in the summer. We hope to do this but have insisted that this time they limit the numbers at each walk to twenty. We can run additional walks if necessary. We’ll post the dates as soon as we have them

Mother Nature resting at the Eden Project

“Mother Nature looked kindly on us last night and kept the rain away for the duration of the survey. It was a quiet night for Pips with only a couple out near the lake but the Noctules were feeding well over the lake. The Brown Long Eared decided to have yet another night in at Box 11 with 20-30 or more in residence. Box 8 also had 5+ residents, no definite ID but most likely Brown Long Eared, B11 was home to Common Pipestrelles with 2+ at home. 10 Daubentons crossed the beam over the lake.”

If the weather ever improves perhaps they will come out and let us see them flying

Photo of Bechstein's bat Bob Cornes

In the run up to our own Hunt the Bechstein’s game, Tony and Bob joined the North  Bucks group  on a survey yesterday, using both a harp trap and a mist net

Tony saw his first ever Bechstein’s  (after a twenty year wait) and went home a happy man

Photo of Brandt's bat by Bob Cornes

They also caught a Brandt’s bat, which kindly showed off its diagnostic feature- teeth. It’s all down to those tricky protocones

Now, if we could only catch either of both of those.

A Natterer’s bat was also caught last night. It was ringed 7 years ago and this was the twelveth time it had been caught.

Photo Steve Thompson

One of our members  works  at the John O Gaunt golf course between Biggleswade and Sandy. He has just sent us this photograph of a brown long eared bat  found in a garage by the greenkeepers’ sheds.

The bat was dead, possibly another victim of the poor weather we have been having. Brown long eared bats seem particularly susceptible to difficult weather conditions.

The brown long eared bat we had brought in earlier this monthis not at all well and is not feeding well though there are no obvious signs of injury.

   A fabulous talk by Rodrigo A. Medellin on Bat conservation in Mexico. I now know how you extract saliva from a vampire bat, a question which had not occurred to me previously.

Also that he is working on a bat friendly labelling scheme for tequilla (similar to dolphin friendly tuna). Until then we shall be drinking mescal (which does not involve widespread destruction of the agave plant).

Rodrigo is an inspiring and witty speaker and his work has resulted in him being awarded the prestigious  Whitely Award in 2001. You can see a short video on his work  on You Tube .

The lesser long nosed bat is essential for pollination of agaves, which are used in the production of tequilla

I will be writing an account of his talk  in the July issue of the Bats In Beds newsletter and I will post a pdf on the website.

Photo of Bechstein's bat by Derek Smith, Surrrey Bat Group

The Bat Conservation Trust has been running a project to look for Bechstein’s bat. Our neighbour the North Bucks Bat Group found a number of Bechstein’s when they were part of the project. They have since carried on their research into Bechstein’s. We don’t get them in Bedfordshire. N0w Lia Gilmour is doing an MSc to see whether the date collected by this project can be used too predict Bechstein distribution. We will be working with her to see if we can find them in some woods in Bedf0rdshire. We get a loan of a harp trap and an Autobat  so we can follow the protocol devised by The Bat Conservation Trust. We are lucky that some members of the North Bucks group are going to help us out.

We are hoping to do surveys  in June. So keep your fingers crossed that the weather will improve, It is  unlikely that we will find Bechstein’s but we may find other interesting species and it is well worth the try.

Photo Bob Cornes

At long last the rain stopped for a bit. Went to the Lakeside survey last night and watched 601 soprano pipistrelles coming out to feed. Not only that but we  also had good views of Noctules andsaw a hobby and a buzzard having a fight. Best of all no mosquitoes. We had a new member, Phil, come out last night and he was gobsmacked with 401 bats emerged from the exit point he was watching. The one I was watching only had 28.

Photo Jude Hirstwood

We went talk to youngsters at Mogerhanger Lower  School this morning. As we entered the school grounds we couldn’t help but notice the wildlife in the tree. When we signed in at receptions we were told we “going to be talking to the leopards”. Gulp.

We need not have worried, this was a friendly crew of Year 1 and Year 2 pupils. The classroom whiteboard didn’t want to co-operate but they had lots of good questions during the delay while we set up in the hall. I hadn’t been asked if all bats had the same eye colour  or if all bats were just brown grey or black before.

They listened very attentively to the talk and loved a chance to see the Noctule up close. As did several teachers who snuck into the hall to have a look.

Photo Jude Hirstwood

We made a mental not that we ought to check out Mogerhanger church for bats  at some point, as it was an impressive looking building, and held our] the bat close to us on leaving in case the polar bear was peckish

Illustration by RSPB http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/bluetit/index.aspx

Did the next box check today. We  found nothing in March and were not expecting much today as it is still quite early in the season for bats to be using boxes. And we were right. The team checked all fifty boxes and no bats were in – though a number of boxes did have bird’s nests in them, and some had bat droppings. This is not unusual and we hope the bats will move in once the birds have raised their broods.  Some bat box projects put up bird boxes as well to leave the bat oxes free for bats.  In Wytham Wood in Oxford, the reverse happens and bats move into the  bird boxes, When we used to check boxes at Whipsnade they were always occupied by blue tits never by bats.

We also put up three additional boxes so we will have even more to check next time.

On the plus side the rain held off all day and it wasn’t too cold.

Photo Viv Heys

Shortly after doing the Sight Concern talk I headed off on holiday and am still catching up. I am delighted with this picture that Viv took of the members of the group using the tactile resources that we borrowed from the Bat Conservation Trust. The gentleman on the left using a thermoform and one on the left is getting a feel for bat shape using specially printed diagrams where the black ink stand proud of the page. Both these members came to the walk last summer at Stockgrove Park and were really interested. These resources were really useful