Created February 2011
UPDATED October 2024
2024 has been a very busy year for the Bat Group. This means that the web site has languished unloved. As we enter the s0-called quiet season, we hope to remedy this state of affairs.
Photo Ellie Sheehan
One of the projects which has been most exciting is the one which has been running for 18 months in an unnamed wood. We knew that there are Barbastelles in this wood, having caught some during trapping in 2006, and a Ph.D. student had found a large maternity roost in 2022. Eighteen months ago, we installed some bat boxes in the wood in the hope of enticing the Barbastelles to use them. In July this year, we were delighted to find 20 Barbastelles roosting in one of the bat boxes. We had another box survey arranged for the beginning of September.
When we checked one box from ground level with a torch we saw many little eyes peering down at us. Barbastelles have a reputation for being very flighty, so we plugged the box very carefully and brought it down to the ground. The whole box was placed in a large plastic bag and the door was opened. There was an explosion of feisty bats leaping out of the box and attempting to fly out of the plastic bag.
Still from a video by Justin Milne.
The bats quickly settled in the holding bags which we put them in and then we started processing. In all, there were a staggering 39 bats. Most Barbastelles are found in groups of 12 to 15. Some of the bats were juveniles, although it was difficult to tell whether some of them were juvenile or adult because their finger joints were well developed,
Photo Bob Cornes