Bat of the Day!

[Deb London]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

It's called a rictus grin - it was dead!

Do you mind?

[Jim Ford]

I've been experimenting with a video camera with infra red lighting in a car port. Several nights an indistinct small white image has been captured, but this time it's clearer and appears to be a bat.



I wonder if the bat was attracted to the infra red lighting, or more likely insects were attracted to the light, and the bat to the insects?

The wings also seem to be partially transparent to infra red light, because you can see the body through the starboard wing.

Jim

[The Woodman]

It looks like a brown long eared bat, Jim. Either that or a ghost.

Is that your face on the left of the image?

I do a lot of bat filming with 940nm and 830nm IR and have never noticed bats attracted to it or insects come to that. If you do have a bat visiting your car port its possibly due to one of four reasons.

Investigating potential roost sites
Depending on time of film capture, returning to a day roost
Using your car port as a night roost or feeding roost
Foraging for either flying or static prey

[The Woodman]

Here are three stills from a video of a common pip emerging from a roof the other night taken using a Sony handycam with nightview and two external IR floodlights

The three frames are one second of video. The bat is clearer on the video and emerged from a slate just above the small IR light you can see on the right, not the place I was thinking it was going to fly from!







Have you set up your video specifically to catch bats?

[The Woodman]

Another Brown long eared. This time a single bat looking for a night roost site in a store at a derelict factory site last night.

Here it is looking for a roost site



and here it is happily hanging

[Bobby D]

It would appear that although it can be very exciting to have a bat roost it can also be rather expensive. I would hate to think that I had to clear up such a mess.
Thanks for the photos they made it possible for me to share your experience without having the mess or expensive clean up.

[Littlesparrow]

Bats flying around in Cheshire tonight i will have to find out what sort next.

[sunnydale]

Bats fly around my garden most nights now, just as darkness starts to descend. I haven't been able to get a clear view as to which species they are, although I've heard that we get around 11 different species in Derbyshire!

Chatsworth, especially around the small river bridge in front of the house, is a regular spot for both Pipistrelle & Daubenton’s.
It's been a while since I've been to see them there though.

I can sit on my balcony, cuppa tea in hand and watch bats in comfort, without even leaving my flat

Tracey

[nightshade]

Rare Leislers
Rare bat discovered during annual survey of woodland - Local stories - Yorkshire Post

[trondi]

The last 3 weeks has been very quiet on my late evening dog walks with a Batbox. Even February had more visible activity (no Batbox back then).

Where have they gone?


Dave

ps next doors nursery roost from last year hasn't been used this year yet either