The blog has ben quiet for a few days because Bob was teaching a course for the Jersey bat group and they kindly let me gatecash and we had a couple of extra days to check out Durrell and the sandy beaches
The group was very friendly and have achieved a lot since they reformed in 2006. They casually mentioned hey have been seeking out houses with bat roosts in.This has taken a lot of survey effort and they have identified over 200 hundred of them. We were dead impressed, we just couldn’t hope to do that in a county our size (which is quite small by UK standards)
a very des res with a bat roost in an outbuilding Photo Jude Hirstwood
On Saturday night we went to check out a bat roost at a superb site. There weren’t many bats about, but the setting was fab and I got to make a recording of my first ever grey long eared bat
On Monday at Durrell we spent ages looking at the fruit bats. Their enclosure is long enough for them to fly long and straight
we bought this fruit bat home with us
but also found time to marvel at the aye aye and the big apes
We hope that a couple of he Jersey Bat Group are going to pay us a visit later in the season