From
BCT's Scottish Officer, Liz Ferrell, comes a fascinating story of winter bat
behaviour:
Graham
White, a nature enthusiast, had never seen a Daubenton’s bat before and
certainly not during daylight hours! He therefore felt very lucky to see one
(on two
separate occasions) over the
festive period where he lives in Coldstream, the Scottish Borders. Graham told
us he had been walking along a section of the River Tweed on the 4th
December. It was south facing and the bank was getting a lot of warmth - even
on a very cold day. The old mill weir also meant the river was slow flowing and
about a metre deep. The result was like a mirror with not even a ripple on the
water. The only movement came from insects which dotted the surface. And then
there it was, a Daubenton’s bat flying over the water at one o’clock in the
afternoon!
By pure chance, on the 7th
January, Graham saw another Daubenton’s. This time 1.5 miles from the River
Tweed flying over Hirsel Lake along with the geese, swans and goldeneye he had
been watching. The bat flew right next to Graham and for a further two minutes
he watched and photographed the bat before it disappeared into the waterside
trees. Graham mentions that the most astonishing thing this time around was
that the lake was 95% covered in thin ice! The bat of course had found the
other 5% unfrozen water (all thanks to some very clumsy geese after they had
landed on the lake).
It led Graham to ask what
exactly the bats were doing – were they drinking, actively foraging, both, or
neither! In truth, it is hard to say. It was certainly a very surprising
encounter with this little hunter. I think this story just goes to show that we
have so much to learn about bats' activities through the winter and perhaps
climate change is also going to have its effects. We all hope that these two
bats were able to survive the winter.
Thank you Graham White for
sharing your story and photos!
Have any readers seen anything similar? I'd love to hear about it!
Monday 12 February 2018
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