Bat surveys finishing soon as weather turns colder
Paul Stevens, our former Reserve Manager and licenced Batman, was on site last week to check all of our site bat boxes.
In total we found 17 Soprano pipistrelles and one Brown long-eared bat - all roosting and producing a build up of droppings! Two bat boxes also contained blue tit nests from earlier in the season. These cheeky interlopers have not deterred the bats from continuing to use the boxes, although it must be a squeeze to get in! I once saw a pipistrelle squeeze itself through the tiniest gap around a door frame on the building and was completely amazed by the real size and manoeuvrability of these incredible animals.
As we approach the colder months, October is the last chance for us to really see bats and do our monthly bat detector surveys. In a matter of weeks, the bats will be hibernating.
Last week we saw good numbers of Daubenton’s bat feeding over the water bodies from the Scrape Hide and Arun Riverlife. See the results of last week’s Oct 6 bat survey listed below.
– Suzi Lanaway, Reserve Manager
Tues 12 Oct
Ramsar hide: 1 cattle egret, 2 cormorants, 18 mallards, 9 shoveler, 2 gadwall, 1 coot, 1 grey heron, 1 greylag
Sand martin/Ramsar hide: 24 Canada geese
Sand martin hide: 20 mallards, 1 black-headed gull, 1 gadwall
Arun Riverlife: 1 grey heron, 25 coots, 8 mallard, 1 little grebe
Mon 11 Oct
WeBS Count (Wetland Bird Survey)
Arun Riverlife: 18 mallards, 29 coots, 2 moorhen, 8 gadwall, 6 tufted ducks, 1 black-headed gull
Pelican Cove: 23 mallards, 5 coots, 2 moorhen, 2 tufted ducks, 4 gadwall, 1 pochard, 4 Canada geese, 3 black-headed gulls
Lakes & forests exhibit: 44 mallards, 3 coots, 5 moorhen, 2 mute swans, 12 Canada geese
Reedswamp exhibit: 31 mallards, 1 coot, 3 moorhens, 1 mute swan, 2 greylag geese
Old Black neck pen: 11 mallards
Trumpeter pond: 26 mallards, 8 moorhens
Reedbed: 25 mallards, 1 water rail, 1 moorhen
Scrape hide: 32 mallard, 24 teal, 4 shelducks, 5 mandarin, 2 shoveler, 2 snipe, 1 water rail
Pond by Scrape hide: 6 mallards, 2 coots, 1 moorhen
Sand martin hide: 14 mallards, 1 coot, 33 Canada geese, 4 greylag geese, 1 heron, 1 cormorant
Bewick’s swan exhibit: 1 mallards, 1 coot, 1 moorhen,
Tundra exhibit: 49 mallards, 2 coots
Ramsar hide: 15 mallard, 1 moorhen, 1 little egret
Sunday 10 Oct
Wetland Discovery boat channels: 18 mallards, 5 tufted ducks, 6 gadwall, 2 coots, 1 kestrel, 1 green woodpecker
Scrape hide: 1 little grebe, 1 cormorant, 1 water rail
Sand Martin hide: 10 shoveler, 1 wigeon, 1 lapwing
Sat 9 Oct
Arun Riverlife lagoon: 38 coots, 3 little grebes, 2 shoveler, 26 Canada geese, 26 mallard, 4 gadwall, 4 tufted duck, 1 Black-headed gull, 1 greylag
Scrape hide: 15 teal
Fri 8 Oct
Woodloop: 3 moorhen, 8 blue-tit. 2 long-tailed tit, 2 robin, 2 goldcrest
Ramsar hide: 25 Canada geese, 16 shoveler, 2 Egyptian geese.
Scrape hide: 10 teal, 7 shoveler, 2 kingfisher
Thurs 7 Oct
Lapwing hide: 3 grey herons
Scrape hide: 1 snipe, 1 kingfisher
Reedbed boardwalk: 1 Cetti’s warbler
Wed 6 October
Bat Survey 6.40-8.30pm
Clear weather, 12 degrees using echometer
59 noctule bat passes recorded
1 Natterer’s bat pass recorded
85 soprano pipistrelle passes recorded
6 brown long-eared bat passes recorded
78 Daubenton’s bats passes recorded
2 common pipistrelle passes recorded
1 Nathusius’ pipistrelle pass recorded
1 whiskered bat pass recorded
59 noctules bat
