The rangers at Stockgrove were busy over winter and have opened up the canopy over a small pond just beyond the tip of the main lake. This week in addition to our usual circuit which yielded our usual suspects (soprano and common pips, noctules and daubentons over the lake , pips in one of the boxes) one of the group wandered down to the pond and heard daubentons and our first barbastelle of the year. In the past, we had heard no bats, so they obviously approve of the improvements.
Drawing of a barbastelle by James Hanlon, Beds Bat Group