bat walk

Sat 21 July 2007

The Cheshire Bat Group gave us all a very interesting evening on Sat, with a slideshow and talk about Britain's bats. We were also privileged to get a close look at a live Pipistrelle bat that was brought along to the evening.

After the slideshow we went out around the ponds with bat detectors. Even though it wasn't the best evening for bats the detectors picked up their calls and we soon saw many bats flying around the viaduct and ponds.

Thanks to the Cheshire Bat Group, Anne and John for a great evening.

Pipistrelles are the smallest and most common of Britain's 14 bat species. Pipistrelles belong to the Vespertilionidae family of bats, known as ordinary or earlet bats, they appear earlier in the evening than most other bats. They have a jerky, erratic flight, flickering their wings rapidly as they pursue their prey. The jerky flight of the Pipistrelle gave rise to the ancient name for bats-Flittermouse.

Although the Pipistrelle is the most common bat in Britain, it has been in declining over the years along with other bats. The 14 species of British bat are all protected under the Wildlife and Countryside act. If any of them have made a home in your roof it is against the law to interfere with them. They do not harm you or your property, so there is no need to worry if you have resident bats!

When bats fly in the dark they can avoid obstacles and track down prey by using a system of echo-location, similar to the radar equipment used in ships and aircraft. The bats emit very high pitched squeaks which bounce back from any solid object into its ears. The sound that bats emit is so high pitched humans cannot hear it, bat detectors pick up the sounds the bats make and convert them to a frequency we can hear.