The final day dawned and bleary eyed Bob and Lia made final preparations. The survey involved another key, so there was some nervousness. Bob had to collect the key from the Woodworks festival which gave Bob a chance to see Martin McCarthy.
So we loaded up the car for the last time and headed off. What could go wrong?
Photo Jude Hirstwood
All seemed well until we tackled the lock and found the key did not work. We could not believe that fate would be a fickle mistress again. We were wrong. We had been given the wrong key !
Photo Jude Hirstwood
Lia is an eternal optomist and was sure we could do something to get in as once again the trapping sites were a long way from the trapping sites. After her MA, she could make a good career as a safe breaker, as she managed to gain entrance
Ready to take the kit into the wood for the last time. Photo Jude Hirstwood
The team unloaded the gear from the car and we set up two harp traps and a single mist net. With time to spare we settled down to wait and took the opportunity to photograph the kit.
The wood was uncannily empty of bats and as a result the local bitey beasts had a party, gathering around the processing table and feeding voraciously. As we waited we passed the time eating cake and being silly. Once again we heard no Myotis and speculated there were Myotis rustlers in Bedfordshire We only caught a single soprano pipistrelle and a Brown long eared bat B0b offered people the chance to sniff a soprano as it has a distinctive smell. After this the gang got very giggly and there was further speculation that sniffing sopranos was akin to glue sniffing.
The languid waiting time was also enlivened by a game called “collapsing camping chairs” and two of us ended up on the floor in undignified heaps.
So the latest ohase of the survey drew to a close without finding a Bechstein’s. What was interesting was that we failed to catch Myotis at woods where we have caught them n the past. This has been a difficult season for bats and it may be that Myotis had been off elsewhere swarming.
If you have been surveying bats this season , we would be very interested to hear if you have haa similar shortage
Photo Jude Hirstwood