Bats On The Brain

Who's got bats on the brain?

Well, aside from Mr Wayne, that would be me.  With the warmer weather, I've dug my detector out these last few nights and been waving it around on my balcony after dark.


No dice.


So, on Friday I abandoned my usual haunts and took my daily exercise after dark...!

And succeeded! [Yes, really].


 Most notably along IMD, where I even saw two bats - one of which was most unbattily hunting by a street light?!? [I thought they avoided lights due to raptors being sneaky and far more nocturnal than us humans realise?!?] - repeatedly and over several minutes each. Thanks entirely to the detector telling me to stop and look thattaway :)

To said bats;
First up, the detector gave a sonar frequency of just over 50khz and it was a brown bat of a reasonable size without obvious long ears. Bit of a toughie this; flying mostly at head height and parallelling a hedge [above and to the side] and a treeline, switchbacking with a straight and direct flight but also zipping off into loops. Having done some umming and erring, I've arrived at Natterer's*. It certainly seemed different to the Pips, Long-eareds, Noctules and so on I've been able to [more or less] ID visually so far, at least.

Secondly, flying up and down [and possibly off into trees] a tight dark drive, treed both sides. Bat appeared greyish and smaller [though of course v. hard to tell exactly] than Bat1. Frequency peaked at about 47 khz; good for Common Pipistrelle.

Also several short contacts, where I didn't have a signal long enough to get a good frequency on it [and I need a lot of time as I'm not very good at this yet!], though they sounded Pipistrelle-ish.

Ah, it's like being a kid again, trying to work out how to hit birds with bins, let alone ID that brown thing diving into a bush with a 'tchak!' call..



Finally [though, actually first contact], I detected a very different sonar at about 81khz, away from IMD. I've a fair guess what that was! :D



Now, some of you dear readers might be expecting photos of some sort.


Seriously?

Pitch dark with my camera..??

Also, I have serious ethical issues about zapping nocturnal animals with a flash.

Though having said that, a bat flying back and forth under a frickin' streetlight... Hmm.


[[I'm never going to see one doing that again, am I?]]


Anyways, warmer nights may provide more batses, hopefully without having to stay inside all day!


::Looks hopeful::

Be Seeing You...


[[*I need a book. 'Bats of Britain and Ireland', anyone?]]