1st April until 30th June 2013 ...Spring Highlights
My last blog was written in March as the snow was gently
falling. Since then it’s been; freezing freezing, freezing , warm, back to
freezing , warm and then in the last couple of week ABSOLUTELY SCORCHING!!! (I
suppose on average that might be considered just right).I don’t know how our
poor bats have coped with the extremes, I await the National Bat Monitoring
programme results with interest.
So what have I been up to since the first of April? The answer …Loads of batty things; here are
some highlights…. .
Visits to Bat groups
I visited Fife and Kinross bat group for their AGM. It’s a fantastically sociable night, members
all bring their special “signature” dish and after the bat group business is sorted
everyone tucks into a veritable feast of wonderful food. (Its one of the
highlights of my social calendar!)
Another great treat is the knitting!! Yes I said knitting ,
some of the group are part of a project called Fife’s knitted nature
and are busily knitting all the biodiversity species in Fife (naturally this
includes bats) . The results are
charming and so inspiring they make you want to pick up your pins.
Fife and Kinross Bat
group – bat skills, knitters and chefs, their talents are limitless.
Talks, training and
events
May was a busy month for delivering talks and training
sessions, it was also mostly freezing cold with few bats about.
Training for Vet
students
I owe a HUGE THANKYOU to volunteer bat carers; Michelle
Appleby and Carol Ann Terry who were absolute stars during a training day
introducing vet students to bat care. They brought captive bats with them and
answered non-stop questions. Enormous thanks are also due to Laura Dunne
and Emma Keeble my contacts at the Dick Vet School, without their help the
course would not have gone ahead. This
was a new venture for BCT and was very well received. Thanks to Jess Barker too
from BCT.
Hillcrest Housing Association
in Dundee have an active
interest in encouraging wildlife and
asked for particular advice on helping bats.
I gave a short talk, a quick lesson on using detectors and some top tips
on identifying local bats. Now they are
busily bat watching at properties they own. They will present their wildlife records
(including bats) at a special celebratory event in October. (In the meanwhile I
hope bat activity and the weather warms up)
Other training events included evenings with;
·
Scottish Wildlife Trust apprentice ecologists (
who will go on to survey for Leisler’s bats on Arran later in the year),
·
Paisley University Zoological society, (a freezing
cold night, we got about 3 bats!)
·
students at Elmwood college , (a fantastic night
watching Daubenton’s and pipistrelle bats),
·
A bat care training night with North East
Scotland Bat Group.
·
A bat detector workshop in Kinlochewe.
The outdoor session at Kinlochewe was very memorable. A huge
full moon rose over the mountains. We
watched Daubenton’s and pipistrelle bats flying up and down the river and
then…… we heard something quite different, something much lower and slower than
the usual pipistrelle calls. AAARGH, I
am pretty sure it was a Nathusius pipistrelle, but it flew past and did not
return so there was no opportunity to make a recording of the call. Anyone heading for Kinlochewe please keep
your ears open and recording device switched on!
Bird fair 13/14th
May Hopetoun
A wild, wet and windy weekend was survived at the Scottish
Birdfair. Our tent was set up on Friday only to have its roof blown off during
the night. I’m very grateful to the kind
security guard who not only rescued the roof but used it to protect all our
boxes of leaflets and displays. Over the
weekend six volunteers heroically helped to promote bat conservation not only by
chatting to the public but also by holding on to the tent and displays when the
wind blew. ( These
heoes are ; Sarah Jupp,Natalie Todman, James Morrison, Alastair Hood, Eilidh McNab
and Danny )
BCT tries a new recruitment
technique - Become a member – or we send
the kids round!
Wales
Bat conference – I
had a brilliantly batty time at the Wales
bat conference. A real treat for me was
the evening field work where I enjoyed listening to the funky sounds of noctule
calls and a bonus sighting of otters. The
conference was a great opportunity for updating my bat knowledge and practical
skills, meeting up with other batty people and to get ideas for the Scottish Confererence.
Participants at the Wales
Bat conference - Great excitement when serotine calls are confirmed
A challenge not to be
sniffed at…
And finally I had a rather unusual request – could I make a model cowpat and create a display that linked cowpats,
insects and bats?
No bother! I
immediately set too creating a wildflower meadow (grass and wildflowers that
were weeded from my flowerbeds were put into seed tray)
A cowpat wascreated; flour,
salt, water , grass clippings and food colour where mixed to a sloppy dough and
dropped onto a backing tray, then left for 3 weeks in the shed to partially dry
out.
My collection of plastic minbeasts was delved from the toy
box
A variety of menu cards were written and voila…. “Pat and
Flora’s Café” was created
A paper tablecloth was hastily drawn on with chunky wax crayons, to suggest
wildflowers and grasses. The seed trays were put on this, the cowpat on top and
minbeasts hidden in the “meadow”, bat shapes were hung above to complete the
food chain.
Children made cow pat and bat hats from a band of card (the
cow pat was optional but most children quite enjoyed drawing a big sloppy pat
along the bottom of their hat) A fringe snipped along the top of the hat suggested
grass and stickers (with flowers and minbeasts) were added to increase the
biodiversity and make the hats look pretty.
Westquarter event –( meet the faeces). Children in cowpat hats find mini-beasts (bat food) at Pat and Flora’s Café.
Other little snippets
Thanks Dumfries and Galloway bat group for hospitality after
the AGM
Thanks Fife and Kinross bat group for taking species Champion
Jayne Baxter on a day’s checking bat boxes
It was slightly depressing the week before mid-summer to go
on a bat walk and see only 2 bats (It was chilly!)
How things changed by July! More updates soon ...
How things changed by July! More updates soon ...
Posts
