A whats-app message on Saturday morning kick-started a great run of species for us:
'Hiya. Is this wee guy okay here?' followed by a couple of photos:
After quickly establishing where it was I asked Turtle if she was interested in undertaking a spot of bat rescue with me - and I've never seen a 6yr old get dressed so quickly! I've done a number of bat rescues over the years, so Turtle is quite accustomed to watching me check over and deal with captive bats (to be clear, I am a licensed bat worker - not something anyone without experience should be undertaking).
We headed off and quickly found the unlucky bat held captive by a burdock plant. Turtle had the important job of holding the box in the car, and providing 50% of the audience at home while I carefully checked it over and removed the tiny hooks of the burdock from it's wings and tail. Seahorse at this point kept asking more and more loudly if she could cuddle the bat (err, No - but I'm very glad you're so interested and caring!). It was a common pipistrelle, and probably a young of this year which would also explain it's ill-judged proximity to barbed vegetation, but otherwise looked in good condition with no obvious injuries once the hooks had been removed. Long discussions ensued about what we would call her - I opted for Dandelion, after all it was hooked up on Burdock, but the girls out-voted me with Bluebell. I'm still not impressed with that!
We left it in a darkened box with water during the day, and I took Turtle back with me that evening to release it, along with the young family who had first alerted me to it's presence. She took very little time to warm up, but was reluctant to fly immediately - quite possibly discombobulated by the sheer noise two young children can make, especially when they are apparently being 'quiet' so as not to scare the bat, so I hung her on a tree and we kept an eye on her. Shortly afterwards she flew away, jut as we were picking up calls from other common pipistrelles, and also soprano pips. Thanks to Louise and Jonathan for letting us know she needed help!
Obviously we were out and about, so it was the perfect opportunity for a short bat walk, which quickly raised our species tally considerably: as well as two pipistrelle species we heard brown long-eared bats, several Noctules and a Leislers. I also haven't' yet had a chance to mention the Greater Horseshoe bat we found on the bat camera at Cardigan Castle on the last day of our holiday, but all in all it was a very batty week.
Finally we had some great views of rabbits when releasing Dandelion (Bluebell) too.
No comments:
Post a Comment