The weather has been a problem for all our activities this year. Insufficient notice of dry days in the fluctuating forecast has made all our arrangements a last-minute scramble to organise. Those that we have been bold enough to gamble on for them to remain as predicted dry days, have often had to be cancelled at the last minute prior to the event. Such was our demise with our bat box surveys again this year. Lots of locations to visit and a seasonal deadline to meet, but no obvious dry intervals to undertake them in. This dilemma required last minute working teams to be organised to capitalise on emerging dry intervals. Thanks to the willingness of our volunteers to respond to this situation, we managed to form sufficient teams to complete all of them before the permanent onset of cold, wet, weather. Despite the pessimism we felt beforehand about the weather impacting badly on a successful outcome in terms of bats found, we were pleasantly surprised.
Our seasonal bat surveys began late in our richest location at Talbot Field.
We always begin here to try to obtain sightings of the more uncommon species before the seasonal warmth recedes.
All boxes in this site contain evidence of bat occupancy having occurred at some stage during the summer months.
Once again this year, despite the miserable wet and cool weather, we were rewarded with a box containing three rare Bechstein’s bats.
Last year the early onset of cold conditions prevented their presence in our survey, so we were delighted with finding them again this year.
Whatever the weather, we are always pleased to find the delightful Common Pipistrelles who regularly appear each year. This box contained five.
Two appear in this box above a huge pile of bat droppings which indicate intensive seasonal bat use.
A team of willing volunteers are assembled before each site is visited. Without this valuable help the surveys would not be possible.
Almost all locations reveal box usage by bats of some species.
This box contained a cluster of Common Pipistrelles.
The strong gales experienced throughout the year leave a trail of woodland damage which often makes our progress difficult….
.…but with determination, the team members overcome all obstacles.
It does however, slow progress, which realistically makes only one site location feasible for any chosen day.
These were two further Bechstein’s bats found in another woodland. This was again a site they had used before but were absent from last year due to the cooler conditions.
This box rewarded our effort with three Common Pipistrelles found roosting inside.
We try to disturb them as little as possible to ensure they remain in the positions we find them rather than, as sometimes occurs, they begin crawling towards the doorways. When they do this, extra care has to be taken to gently move them back, so that there is no possibility of trapping them when the door is replaced.
Each tree box is logged and the occupants recorded.
Helpers select specialist roles for themselves….
….and repeat their task every time the ladder sections are moved to a new tree location.
This teamwork is essential to progress the huge annual task these checks create….
….to enable every bat found to be recorded.
The smaller Common Pipistrelles were the most prolific species found….
….but we also found the larger species of Noctule bat in our survey, as shown here.
Noctule bats are one of our largest native bat species with a wingspan up to 460mm. They are fairly common but always a distinctive species to find.
Some of the woodland locations were a ‘nightmare’ to negotiate, with thick bramble understoreys making travelling through them very difficult….
.…and negotiating ladder sections through them almost impossible on some occasions.
This extreme effort expended made every occupied box found a just reward….
….and each occupant a highly prized discovery….
….regardless of species.
This particular woodland, was so thickly populated with bramble understorey and fallen trees that some boxes were difficult to reach….
….taking several hours longer than normal to achieve successful completion.
The recordings of bats found indicated that all were healthy and flourishing well….
….giving us the reassurance that our effort was helping considerably with their conservation.
There were of course some things that depressed us, like this woodcrete bat box found showing evidence of attempted grey squirrel penetration, which made a replacement door necessary on our next visit to make it suitable for bats again.
Generally however, the overall activity was completed successfully….
….thanks to the hard work and dedication of our volunteers who, despite the reduction in available dry days….
….willingly gave up their time to create teams at short notice in order to complete the overall activity before the seasonal deadline. We are very grateful to each of them.
However difficult the weather made the progress of our bat surveys, at least we had some really encouraging finds within them. We rarely get the same satisfaction with the number of dormice found in our many dormouse boxes. This year however, at the end of the year we did find evidence of a dormouse nest within one of the boxes, but no additional evidence of dormouse habitation from food consumed or other indicators. It does give us encouragement to keep our conservation effort going and spurs us on through the many time consuming box surveys where we usually find a wide array of other wildlife species occupying them.
These were some deserted blue tits eggs found this year in a dormouse box.
Volunteers again gathered on different days, to form teams to check all the boxes in the various locations in our conservation area.
Wood mice nests were found in plenty along with the tit’s nests.
The team members again selected individual roles to improve the efficiency of the checks.
This greatly increased our progress around the sites which required crossing several streams and negotiating some difficult terrain.
With many locations allowing only single vehicle access, which made car sharing necessary, the teams had to be small. For some of the larger locations this meant extended survey periods were required. These were some of the volunteers who recently worked through the morning and into mid-afternoon to complete one of the surveys. They are shown having a sit-down break to have lunch midway through the day.
This is a wood mouse captured in one of the boxes. Some boxes contained pairs of mice.
All nesting material was left in the boxes where wood mice were discovered so that they could continue using it. The mice were either returned to the box or released after the inspection. In all other boxes any old nesting material was removed in readiness for possible later occupancy by dormice.
This box was found to contain an old dormouse nest although there was no sign of recent occupancy. The find however, reveals to us that however scarce they have become, there is still a local presence to be nurtured.
A new addition found in our boxes in our later surveys this year was the Common Shrew. These delicate creatures were found in two locations, further indicating their value for all species of wildlife.
Adjacent to one of the last boxes examined this year, a woodpecker had been practicing its hole-drilling skills….
….and another box we had found to have been visited by the Grey Squirrel species that plagues all our wildlife projects, and was removed for hopeful repair.
Again we are very grateful for the valued help from our group volunteers who enable all our conservation work to be achieved. Volunteers are essential to assist with installing group wildlife conservation measures and equally so for maintaining their effectiveness with surveys and maintenance.