We’ve just been across the lane to put our neighbours’ chickens and ducks away for the night and we’re treated to the sight of a few noctule bats flying high above us.
They’re one of the UK’s largest bats with a wingspan of between 32cm and 40cm, much larger than the pipistrelles we more commonly see.
They were flying around at tree-top level, looping around us and diving on their prey – a quite spectacular dusk view.
I’m very fortunate to live in a quiet village and even more lucky to have views of the countryside from my home office window (at least when the leaves aren’t on the trees). Working from home yesterday gave me quite a few wildlife sightings without even leaving the house.
Sitting at my desk I saw a small flock of winter-visiting redwings in the paddock opposite as well as the muntjac I now fairly regularly see. There was also a calling green woodpecker in the trees beyond.
In the late afternoon there was a winter visitor to our bird table, a brambling. I very rarely see one of these striking finches but we’ve had one or two visit, staying for a couple of weeks or so, both this winter and last.
As night began to fall, I saw my first bats off the year, racing around the house and trees behind us, where we so often do. Due to there size, they were undoubtedly pipistrelles but I didn’t have my detector out to be able to tell whether they were common or soprano.
A last welcome sight of the day, just before it was time to go to bed, was our first hedgehog of the year. They’ve actually been coming quite regularly to eat in our feeding box over the course of the winter, only missing in the properly cold periods. We’ve caught them on our trailcam a few times but this was the first sight with my own eyes.
The day would have been even better if I’d heard a little owl when I went to stand by my open office window as I went to be but I can’t have everything, I suppose. Last year I didn’t hear them as often as the previous two springs we’ve lived here, so I’m hoping for a bit of a return this year.
I’m working at home again today, so hopefully a bit more wildlife watching from the house.
I wildlife and I like gadgets, so what could be better than combining the two? So I bought a new bat detector recently to cheer myself up and it works a treat!
I bought an Echo Meter Touch 2, which slots into the bottom of my iPhone, along with a couple of books about British and European bats. The big difference between the new gadget and my old bat detector is that it automatically recognises the type of bat producing the echolocation calls it records. This enables a novice (basically) like me to easily note the bats in an area without the need to gain specialist knowledge around calls and call frequencies, which will take a some time to develop.
However, it has spurred me on to learn more about bats and to spend more time outside at dusk and into the night to see and hear them. It is now quite a few years since I went out with a couple of friends, who are much more knowledgable than me, to do some Daubenton’s surveys along a nearby river. I loved doing the surveys and seriously considered getting my own survey spot and maybe I should do actually do it this time – but first, I think I need to do more reading around the subject and testing out my new kit.
Over the first two nights of using the detector, I was amazed to recorded four species of bat in our garden, both Common and Soprano Pipistrelle and Brown Long-eared and Noctule. I’ve never recorded Soprano Pipistrelle or Noctule before, which was particularly pleasing, but simply to record four species at all was great. I’m planning to take a few nocturnal walks around the village soon to see what else I can pick up and I also want to find a nice stretch of water to see if I can find some Daubenton’s too.
Unfortunately, on searching the Bat Conservation Trust’s website, there doesn’t appear to be a Northamptonshire bat group but I’m hoping there may be some opportunities to undertake bat surveys in the surrounding area once I’ve gained some more knowledge and skills.
Daft Mumblings 