Getting Batty

I really like bats, they eat midges........as many as 3,000 a night each!

Dumfries and Galloway Bat Group surveying Carstramon Wood

​I had a good morning out with the Dumfries and Galloway Bat Group at Carstramon Wood. They were doing a bat survey and I went along to learn a bit more about bats, it was fascinating. I wanted to learn a bit about bats as at certain times of the year they will be out and about on stargazing nights.

I had been at Carstramon a couple of times this week already as the bluebells are superb at the moment and it is a great place for a walk. This was great as it was looking at everything from a different perspective. With ladders, gloves and people who knew what they were doing bat wise it was quite a different experience.

Bluebells at Carstramon Wood

We looked at several different types of bat boxes that had been put up over the years. The wooden ones were a bit worse for the wear and didn't have any bats in however the newer woodcrete ones had bats roosting and some even had bluetits nesting in them. How the birds managed to get in such small entrances is amazing, let's hope that the chicks manage to get out!

As we were conducting a survey of the boxes to find out what species were using them we got a close up look at the bats themselves which was a great privilege. To tell the difference between a Soprano pipistrelle and 'common' (bandit) pipistrelle you have to look at their noses. At dusk when they are flying around they echo locate at different frequencies which can be picked up on a bat detector so it is much easier. 

Natterer's Bat found during the survey