Forum Topic

Bats Tonight

Some good news. Plenty of bats tonight around the towpath by  the Barnes Wetlands:https://flic.kr/p/2nDz3Yr

Michael Ixer ● 1272d15 Comments

Hi Unfortunately the wader scrape is dry at the moment - I think the pump is broken so its not just the dry conditions. I never go into the captive collection side but I imagine that's topped up !

Lynne McNulty ● 1267d

I've been told by a regular visitor to Barnes Wetlands that they aren't that wet at present.  :(

Philippa Bond ● 1268d

Thanks, Lynne. Yes, that's normally a good spot for seeing pipestrells. We have been on an organised walk in the Wetlands Centre and seen daubentons skimming the water. There were pipestrells and daubentons on Wimbledon Common (they daubentons were around Kings- or Queens-mere, can't remember as it's probably over a decade since we've ventured there in the evening). I won't volunteer for the survey as with other comments I couldn't do it very often or systematically at present, but will keep it in mind for the future.

Michael Ixer ● 1269d

Hi Michael - You'd expect some activity there - there are several species in the centre. Good to know you detected lots although pipistrelle are artificial light tolerant. I have volunteered for the National monitoring programme and have carried out a daubenton's survey along the river starting at Riverside pier. Lots passes in the central part of the park but none elsewhere. It highlights how important the park is for biodiversity. In case you're interested the Trust are appealing for people to carry out a dawn and/or dusk survey of wildlife

Lynne McNulty ● 1269d

What did the rat say when he encountered his first bat?I've just seen an angel.

Alexander MacLeod ● 1271d

I suppose humans would have to adapt to their own way of hibernating :-) Just imagine sleeping for, say, four months every year but living to ~ 120 years! Ok, only joking. It's obviously not going to work for a species living globally …

Michael Ixer ● 1271d

"Are you asking us to hang upside down from the rafters?"Good for your spine that is. Possibly annoys the brain a bit though.

David Ainsworth ● 1271d

MI: Are you asking us to hang upside down from the rafters?

Alexander MacLeod ● 1271d

Perhaps bats could show us the way to beat the energy crisis: hibernation. Apparently its good for longevity as well. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-hibernation-biological-aging.html

Michael Ixer ● 1271d

Sue. The sounds are from our "Batbox" which translates the high frequency echolocation squeaks (typically 40kHz for a common pipistrelle or 50kHz for a soprano pipistrelle, the most common bats) into audible clicks. I don't think there's any on that clip but every so often one hears what sounds like a raspberry being blown; that's a bat consuming an insect! The (well used) Batbox: https://flic.kr/p/2nDEeDb

Michael Ixer ● 1272d

It worked this time. Wonderful to see them and I'm amazed that you picked up their sounds too.👏🏻

Sue Hammond ● 1272d

Hahahahaha the thought of bats bonking behind the bushes made me laugh!  I'll try the link again.

Sue Hammond ● 1272d

Weird, Sue! The Bats were just flitting around, they didn't seem to be up to anything "naughty". There seem to be over twenty views of it on Flickr and several comments on the Facebook version, with no untoward remarks. I did notice that Flicker had tagged it's safety level as "moderate" (adult content), so I've reset it as safe; is it possible you security utility has a low threshold for naferious content? (The Flickr bot sometimes gets confused.) Try again, anyone looking for adult content will be disappointed - I don't think we missed a couple behind the bushes :-) 

Michael Ixer ● 1272d

I love bats so I just tried to look at your photo but when I opened the link it said Adult Content You must be signed in to see this content 🙀ooh err 😸

Sue Hammond ● 1272d

"Plenty of bats tonight"Anyone for cricket?

Alexander MacLeod ● 1272d