On Saturday the dismal weather forecast led to the cancellation of the third night of Bechstein Surveys and Lia headed back to Bristol for a well earned rest. Come Monday the weather seemed to be improving and when Bob asked for volunteers late on Monday afternoon, two masochists joined him. They went to one of the sites selected for the harp trap and Bob put up mist nets there and on the ride.
The night got steadily colder and fell as low as 6 degrees centigrade.
No bats came into the mist net where the harp trap would have been, but there was a high level of quiet Myotis activity – probably Natterer’s but maybe, just maybe Bechstein’s.
Photo Bob Cornes
Barbastelles, Brandt’s,Natterer’s and both pip species were heard and a Natterer’s and a brown long eared bat came into the net. The picture on the left was of the brown long eared bat who braved the cold weather.
Next stage will be to leave a detector recording at height to see if we can get a better idea of which Myotis it was.