Gone Batting..

This last week has been a bit like my days as a bat surveyor and full of bats. On 29th May I thought I would go for an after dark stroll around the meadow at Funtley and along the disused railway track. It was a chilly night but I still recorded three species of bats. Two of them were expected, Common and Soprano Pipistrelle but the third was a bit of a surprise, Nathusius' Pipistrelle. 

I was using the new Echometer Touch detector attached to my phone.  It was a complete change for me as I am used to using a Petterson D240x time expansion detector and identifying bat calls in Sonobat. The Echometer provides an instant sonogram for looking at calls as you hear them and also has an auto ID function, which appears to be pretty accurate, but I intent to test it further. Calls can then be exported to my laptop so that once again I can analyse them in Sonobat.

On Sunday 31st May I decided to go and check on the bats at Hook Barn, it was pouring with rain so I wasn't intending to go birding. I was pleased to see some fresh long-eared type bat droppings, and urine staining, indicating that bats were still using the barn. Looking up in the apex of the roof there were also two Brown Long-eared Bats; one awake and one roosting.

Brown Long-eared Bat - Hook Barn

Brown Long-eared Bat droppings

Torpid Brown Long-eared Bat - Hook Barn

Last night (2nd June) I had to do a bat survey in Selborne. I was checking a building for emerging bats but also recorded any other bats passing by. As it turned out I did not record any emerging bats but did record three species foraging, Common Pipistrelle, Serotine and a Natterer's Bat.