Harp Trapping Ham Gate Pond Richmond Park



London Bat Group continue to participate in the National Nathusius’ Project during 2018. Four 3-bank harp traps and lures were purchased in May 2016 and a series of training events were organised.

A total of eight species of bat have been caught during the south-west London surveys so far including ringed Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats along with a few surprises - four noctules 2 Leisler’s bats and two small Myotis (Whiskered bats Myotis mystacinus).



 
So far in south-west London, survey sites have included Wimbledon Park, Richmond Park, Barwell Lake, Jubilee Wood, Sixty Acre Wood and Tolworth Court Farm Moated Manor site. Last Saturday we went to Ham Gate Pond at Richmond Park - the first bat caught was a Nathusius’ pipistrelle at 21.30 sufficiently early to be deemed roosting in trees nearby!


We also caught 6 juvenile common and soprano pipistrelles and this female Leisler's  bat - which played dead - a  sufficient length of time, for this shot taken by T. Hooker.


 
 
The following evening/early morning Mark and Jean Wagstaff assisted members of the Surrey Bat Group with radio-tracking a Nathusius’ pipistrelle that was monitored flying around the Hampton Court area.

 It was a highly mobile juvenile roosting behind very loose bark - as can be seen from Mark’s photo - on a dead tree at a very open location in a nearby park. The tag falls off after a 7-10 days, so the effort required for monitoring animals is quite intense for those few days before the tag is shed.


If you want to find out more about bats come along on some of the bat walks scheduled for August.












Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts

Most viewed

Heritage Trees part 2: street trees.

Image
  Oaks and maples Cambridge Gardens 2019   Street trees can often be the most beautiful objects in our streets. They are important to their communities as well as having environmental benefits. They are a living history in our landscape and can have particular connections. They may be fragments of a previous landscape incorporated into a modern street scene, such as the oaks at Cambridge Gardens once  part of the Duke of Cambridge's estate.  A great read with information on how to research street trees is a  History of Street Trees by Dr. M. Johnston.  London plane trees CRE 1976 Beech tree, Chesterton Terrace 1976 Studies show that the difference in local tree cover can reflect the various socio-economic groups. In Victorian times middle class areas were planted with many street trees or had higher quality front gardens than working class districts; now referred to as 'green equity'. It can be demonstrated by looking at old photos of the seven...
Read more

Fishing the Hogsmill

Image
Fly-fishing the Hogsmill   It is interesting to see the river from a different perspective: the Hogsmill is popular with anglers at this time of year; although it is unusual to see someone fly- fishing. A chub has just been caught on bread and it looks a good size. Trout are sometimes seen in the Hogsmill and can sit in the weir notch by the school. Our own Richard Jefferies in his book 'Nature Near London'  remarked on the Hogsmill trout as far up as Tolworth Hall Bridge (now the A240). chub    This fish was carefully unhooked and orientated in the swim where it soon finds it way - probably to the next father and son - sitting further upstream. These anglers have caught the 'ghost' koi within the last two weeks and appear to be the second successful pair to catch the pond-escapee in the last few days. Ghost koi are a British invention. They were produced by accident in the early 80’s when a farmer allowed a mirror carp and a koi to spawn together. The offspri...
Read more

Seething Wells: they've done it again

Image
The last day of May, I went to see if I could find the black redstart that had been widely reported, no luck but it will turn up again on one of the old buildings. The lush vegetation was looking beautiful between the Filter Beds at Seething Wells. I made a note of the breeding birds: goldfinches twinkling away, blue tits gathering food, sand martins flying over the FB's (only two this year unfortunately) moorhens and some scruffy little coot chicks entangled in the algal blooms.   Proud parents were showing off their four Canada chicks; they can cover a lot of ground in a short space of time they were soon feeding on water pepper and bistort gleaned from  the ziggerat-sided basins. A song thrush sang from the wharf alongside greenfinches as well as the seasonal chiff chaff; although this year all numbers are down, reflecting not only the topsy-turvy Spring but also the continued tumble in insect numbers (even seed eating birds are dependent on insects to feed their youn...
Read more