Easter Bats


Barge tunnel entrance
Last night the sky clouded over sufficiently to prevent the temperature descending too quickly, so we took a skiff along the River Thames to monitor the bat activity. 

Unfortunately, there did not appear to be any Daubenton's bats using the Barge Tunnel roost and there was little other early bat activity along Barge Walk.

However about fifty minutes after sunset the river came alive and as it grew dark several bats overflew the bank so we had superb views of foraging common and soprano pipistrelle bat.

There was a brief pass of a Natterer's bat followed a few minutes later by a passing Daubenton's bat but no great activity until we got to the R. Mole where the bats detectors started going berserk! Nathusius' pipistrelle featured briefly but no 'big' bats (noctules or Leisler's bats) indicating their maternity roosts may not yet have formed.

On the return we had limited foraging evidence of some Myotis bat species. The late arrival of these suggest they had traveled to this location rather than being resident. So it seems the bats have not returned to  form a maternity colony yet. If you want to read more about Myotis bats see Benton the bat
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