The Dark Night

This week I went on a bat walk with a friend who works for the Bat Conservation Trust. We completed a waterways survey which was last done 10 years ago, previous to that it had been done yearly so it was about time for a re-count!

The bats we were counting were Daubenton's, known as the 'water bat' as they fish insects from the water's surface with their large feet or tail.

So here's the drill, starting 40 minutes after sunset. There are 10 set points along the route, at each point you stand by the water for 4 minutes, one of you holds the bat detector (set to approx 35kHz for Daubenton's) and the other one holds the timer and a torch. When you detect a bat coming you shine the torch on the water to see the bat fly across. Then you write down how many you see in the 4 minutes. 

We had good fun, when we arrived it was still light and so we saw loads of Pippistrelles bats, it's cool when you're holding the detector and you hear when they're coming close. It was quite spooky wandering down a woody path in the dark and I kept on having to put various scary thoughts out of my mind. As well as the bats we heard an owl, saw loads of geese, some night fishermen and we startled a swan by shining a torch at it when it was minding its business on the water. 

I forget how much I enjoy being out in nature, it makes me ridiculously happy.