Last night was the night we counted out bats from the soprano roost as part of BCT’s National Roost Monitoring Programme.
The night was cool and we were soon counting out bats. The numbers were down – they often are a this time of year. Because in was the NBMP count we had to keep counting until ten minutes after the last emergence. The bats were still coming out of “my exit” when the other exits had gone quiet. So I watched the time with more interest than usual.
Warning what follows is pure anthropomorphism.
Meanwhile the bat with a stopwatch inside the roost decided to have some fun. 9 minutes and 50 seconds another bat came out. A collective sigh from the watchers. The bat with the stopwatch smirked and watched as we waited . Nine minutes 58 seconds later, as people packed up their chairs he sent another bat out, but took pity on us and didn’t try for a hat trick