Farnboro John
Well-known member
What a glorious evening yesterday! And what a rubbish weekend the forecasters have sorted for us...
After failing to run over the Grey Squirrels that crossed the road in front of me at work, I picked up Clare mid-evening and we went batting down by the canal. On the walk in she spotted activity at the sett and we had five minutes of two Badgers in really good light (about 2020hrs). This followed a good view of a Little Owl she had found in the parkland just by where I parked the car.
Once the Badgers had trundled off about their business we completed the walk in to the best spot for bats, where a pylon line crosses the canal next to a large pond. We didn't have very long to wait before the detector started tocking away and a Serotine droned past us along the canal line. It was quickly joined by about five others and the detector was nearly saturated with their calls, harmonics overspilling way beyond where I thought they should.
In about ten minutes we started seeing Noctules out over the lake beyond the canal, but sorting out their calls with this huge roar of Serotines right in front of us was actually quite difficult! Fortunately after a while the Serotines dispersed and we could listen more usefully to the Noctules.
I could also start trying to makes sense of other calls that had been nearly drowned out up around the 40 - 50 KHz mark. There was a long afterglow (one of the good things about this spot is that you mostly face West and can see what is flying around quite well with naked eye and bins long after sunset) and we could see small/medium, long-winged bats zipping around about half-tree height, hawking for insects and diving nearly to the canal surface for them. What we didn't get visually at this stage was any Exocet Daubenton's, and I eventually came to the tentative conclusion from the call descriptions and behaviour that we probably had a bunch of Natterer's.
At this point I also finally managed to sort out our first Pip of the evening, which slightly to my surprise was a Common. It was a very friendly bat that at one point passed within six inches of my nose.
As the light faded the first canal-skimmer finally turned up and I was finally able to compare the character of a known Daubenton's with the calls we had been listening to earlier: this confirmed to my satisfaction that the earlier bats had been Nats. Which is not perhaps the same as saying they were: in a couple of years I may look back at this and laugh!
By now a Tawny Owl was hooting nearby and a Red Fox went through a long barking display. We headed back along the towpath and near the badger sett, where the canal is much more overhung by trees and a green tunnel is formed, I continued checking for Pips. I found at least a couple of Sopranos and another Common all patrolling the same airspace: I guess with the water and the joining tree canopy requirements for both species are pretty much met.
Back in the car, we decided on a short tour of some back roads in the hope of meeting a Polecat or a Muntjac. We were disappointed on both counts but found a Red Fox casually sniffing the flowers near the Qinetiq front gate and were briefly confused by a badly seen Rabbit standing on its hind legs, probably having scented the fox on the night breeze.
Ten mammals for the day for the first time this year. Grand evening out.
John
After failing to run over the Grey Squirrels that crossed the road in front of me at work, I picked up Clare mid-evening and we went batting down by the canal. On the walk in she spotted activity at the sett and we had five minutes of two Badgers in really good light (about 2020hrs). This followed a good view of a Little Owl she had found in the parkland just by where I parked the car.
Once the Badgers had trundled off about their business we completed the walk in to the best spot for bats, where a pylon line crosses the canal next to a large pond. We didn't have very long to wait before the detector started tocking away and a Serotine droned past us along the canal line. It was quickly joined by about five others and the detector was nearly saturated with their calls, harmonics overspilling way beyond where I thought they should.
In about ten minutes we started seeing Noctules out over the lake beyond the canal, but sorting out their calls with this huge roar of Serotines right in front of us was actually quite difficult! Fortunately after a while the Serotines dispersed and we could listen more usefully to the Noctules.
I could also start trying to makes sense of other calls that had been nearly drowned out up around the 40 - 50 KHz mark. There was a long afterglow (one of the good things about this spot is that you mostly face West and can see what is flying around quite well with naked eye and bins long after sunset) and we could see small/medium, long-winged bats zipping around about half-tree height, hawking for insects and diving nearly to the canal surface for them. What we didn't get visually at this stage was any Exocet Daubenton's, and I eventually came to the tentative conclusion from the call descriptions and behaviour that we probably had a bunch of Natterer's.
At this point I also finally managed to sort out our first Pip of the evening, which slightly to my surprise was a Common. It was a very friendly bat that at one point passed within six inches of my nose.
As the light faded the first canal-skimmer finally turned up and I was finally able to compare the character of a known Daubenton's with the calls we had been listening to earlier: this confirmed to my satisfaction that the earlier bats had been Nats. Which is not perhaps the same as saying they were: in a couple of years I may look back at this and laugh!
By now a Tawny Owl was hooting nearby and a Red Fox went through a long barking display. We headed back along the towpath and near the badger sett, where the canal is much more overhung by trees and a green tunnel is formed, I continued checking for Pips. I found at least a couple of Sopranos and another Common all patrolling the same airspace: I guess with the water and the joining tree canopy requirements for both species are pretty much met.
Back in the car, we decided on a short tour of some back roads in the hope of meeting a Polecat or a Muntjac. We were disappointed on both counts but found a Red Fox casually sniffing the flowers near the Qinetiq front gate and were briefly confused by a badly seen Rabbit standing on its hind legs, probably having scented the fox on the night breeze.
Ten mammals for the day for the first time this year. Grand evening out.
John
