With bats showing signs of pregnancy this was our last trapping evening for a while. Becky had such fun on Monday that she came out again with us, and we warned her that it was touch and go whether we caught a Nathusius. While Bob and Maddy set up two harp trap the rest of the party did a circuit of the lake. We were also joined by Julia and Pete on their first outing with us as well as by Danny, James , Aidan, Bill and Leslie.
Bill was giving his EM3 another outing – and is full of enthusiasm for it. Both he and Aidan (who also had his with him, and whose machine was the thing that triggered Bill’s purchase in the first place) think they picked up Leisler’s and Nathusius. (We are waiting for sonogram confirmation which will have to wait until both get a spare minute).
Bill has been going to Priory since before the days of the bat group and he was regaling us with stories of past events, some of which we cannot repeat but rest assured they were very funny.
At first the traps were slow to catch but, as the evening wore on, things got busier. In all we caught 12 sopranos, 9 of which were pregnant and immediately released and two Daubenton’s, who were in the early stages of pregnancy who we processed but let go quickly.
Dzuring a lull, Danny took his dog for a walk and came back tellling us h had had good views of two foxes
Then we caught another bat which puzzled us. It was heavy enough to be a Nathusius but didn’t have all the features. ( The wing length to fifth finger ratio was right on the border line, the fur wasn’t quite shaggy enough and the wing venation didn’t match either a common pipistrelle or a Nathusius).
In the end she kindly donated a poo sample, which we will send off for analysis ,and we let her go without taking a photo so she could return to her foraging.
We will be back later in July and may try a very late night’s trapping ( Nathusius seem to investigate traps late at night – as it was we did not leave until gone one.
We gave Becky a lift home and she managed to see a hedgehog on the way to her front door.
Photo Becky Shaw
So, we have no photo of the mystery bat, but we do have one of have a hedgehog