How prevalent are Bats ?

[bats-n-trees]

Thanks for that. wish I had more time to devote to the forum and bat research. We know so little really. Bats are the largest mammal species on earth.-over 1200 at last count. Wingspans up to 2 metres. Wouldn't want to be in the firing line when one that big flushes the toilet !!!

 

On the question of your house and bat improvements can you bring some pics next week to Moccas and I will try to advise. Off to the fungi forum now !! cheers.

[ashman]

Not read the whole thread so appologies if i have missed something but.....

 

We get loads of bats in the woodland where i work, felling is a nightmare as it takes lots of legwork to make sure they are not inhabiting a tree due to come down, we only take down dead or dying trees and it seems these are the ones they like.

Mainly oak, and usually there is a hole in the fork where they decide to reside.

I have spent hours at dusk studying trees to see if anything is using them, as often they are very hard to see from a ground based survey.

The guy who used to do the felling on one estate i work on said he felled 5 trees one day and each had bats in it.

 

I guess if you are unlucky enough to drop one with bats resident, then a lot depends on the time of year how devastating it is, during summer i guess it would be easier for them to find a new home, however in the winter ......

 

Am pleased to say i have never dropped a tree and found any, reckon all those hours in the evening looking into the branches must pay off.

 

Rob.

[David Humphries]

from a tweet off the work twitter page, a few days back..........

 

 

"Fresh bat scats at the Pergola show the resident brown long eared bats (see photo) are stirring after hibernation"

 

 

Twitter

 

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[Nimby]

Hi Nimby. thanks for the post. Snip Haven't fished for a long time but seem to remember long -trotting for barbel. How do you fish for them these days ?

 

Thanks for that BnT's.

 

I am pretty sure they are Daubs because they come really close and they are pretty big. I have been on a bat course and also readf a brilliant book on bats so I have a reasonable understanding of them.

 

My fishing is heavy ledger and rod in the air. The bats actually ping into the fishing line regularly, probably thinking it's food? A lot of anglers think it's a bind but for me it's just part and parcel of it all. Man and nature.

[armybloke]

Thanks for that. wish I had more time to devote to the forum and bat research. We know so little really. Bats are the largest mammal species on earth.-over 1200 at last count. Wingspans up to 2 metres. Wouldn't want to be in the firing line when one that big flushes the toilet !!!

 

In my travels around the world I have been lucky to have witnessed massive roost sites in the urban environment and in some unusual places too - in a bus stop outside of Singapore Zoo for example. I did a bit of bat surveying for a local research firm in Hampshire as part of my wildlife management college course. Unsociable hours but a real eye opener. We were shown bat roosts in a wall where the mortar had deteriorated and the pips were crawling through the smallest of holes and laying up behind a breeze-block. You really need a keen eye for these sorts of sites and I am sure it would be the same for tree roost sites whether for single males or family roosts? I am still awaiting my 1st arb-sighting. My volunteer work for the local woods and reserves often require me to erect bat boxes so I have volunteered to survey them all this year (with the help of a licence holder). Like the thread and cool pics

[David Humphries]

This resurrection is a hollow branch from a Sweet Chestnut from a tree that 'may' have had bats using it.

 

The cut end has been stuffed with moss leaving two entrances, one side hole & the open fracture end.

 

 

We decided to place it in an area where there are bats already, rather than 'waste' it on a sterile site.

 

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[armybloke]

Some snaps from my recent trip to Belize (See General Chat for my travel biography). I was lucky enough to stay at a house where a lady was an eco-warrior and put in place food and habitat for bats. These shots are amazing and yes we did get that close!

[David Humphries]

These shots are amazing and yes we did get that close!

 

They are great shots AB, top notch

 

 

This Ash trunk was left as standing dead in a very urban North London Park.

Been about four years now.

 

It's a known roost for pips.

 

Because of location & target, we'll be reducing this one down shortly.

Absolutely covered in fung, mostly Daldinia

 

 

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[armybloke]

The forest school near me would love that little collection of 'cakes' for their bushcraft days! Could you consider a little 'garden' around it to reduce the target and keep the tree?

[David Humphries]

The forest school near me would love that little collection of 'cakes' for their bushcraft days! Could you consider a little 'garden' around it to reduce the target and keep the tree?

 

The tree is being retained, just being reduced a bit lower, probably to main fork.

 

The removed sections will be going in to this parks woodland walk, possibly resurected.

 

 

 

 

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