We start off with a stunning sunset taken from the M275
Anyway more to the point the bat walk was taking place from budgens car park at bishops Waltham and was a joint collaboration from the wildlife trust and the Hampshire bat group and started for 7:00pm. Here we compare some dead bats found in the uk.
Me comparing two bat detectors, the left one used by the wildlife trust and the right one being my own. After a small briefing on safety we set off towards bishops Waltham palace were bat dropping have been found.
The walk started with a tour of the palace ruins and a description of equipment and local bat species
As night fell The first bats arrived sparsely and were widespread and infrequent. A few noctule bats could be seen at this point flying high overhead which can be heard at 25kHz
As more bats arrived they were identified as soprano pipistrelle's which can be heard best at 55kHz and are relatively uncommon and widespread through out England.
Then we were then suddenly bombarded by common pipistrelle's which are one of the most common bats and are peaked at 45kHz. Here we have on an echo meter the common pipistrelle's social and hunting calls with the hunting calls to the right.
The 'bombardment' lasted for around 30 minutes of loud chattering like gunfire which echoed off our bat detectors. In all the chaos a single daubenton bat was recorded flying overhead
We then left the palace as activity began to fade so we headed for a nearby lake in search of daubentons bats which are unique because they fly very low over water and are detected at 50kHz
We got lucky, daubentons and more importantly serotine bats were recorded and seen. Here we have a recording of daubentons (left of picture) and serotine's (right of picture) noise on an echo meter which have a lower reading at 31kHz. Serotine bats are fairly rare and this is the first time catching one.
I then set about filming the echo's for daubentons bat with a faint serotine's call briefly heard at the beginning
