featured post » Shropshire Wildlife Trust Talk Bats
Shropshire Wildlife Trust Talk Bats
author: Sarah Gibson - 26 September 2017
People have always lived with bats like the Common Pipistrelle bat above, in past centuries much more closely than we do now. Before glass was used in windows we would have shared our houses intimately with these creatures. Seventy years ago my mother encountered them in her draughty school in Monmouthshire, while exploring forbidden underground passages. They hung on the dark, dank walls, fascinating the curious schoolgirl. In medieval times bats were admired for their friendly habit of roosting together, hanging on walls like bunches of grapes.
Most of us are still happy to give them roof if not room space, though bat colonies continue to be disturbed and destroyed when roofs are renovated, despite legal protection. The loss of old hollow trees resulting from the modern compulsion for tidiness in the countryside has also been a blow to bat colonies. Food supplies have dwindled with a steep decline in the abundance and diversity of insects. A pipistrelle needs to find 3,000 midges and mosquitoes a night to keep itself on the wing; other bats snap up moths, beetles and craneflies. Growing honeysuckle, night-scented stocks and other good nectar plants in our gardens can be a real boost for them. If you have space, plant a hedge or a native tree; these will encourage a good insect supply.
Look out for pipistrelles from sunset. They are our commonest bats; you see them twisting and turning around buildings, streetlights, hedges and trees. Brown long-eared bats fly close to trees, hovering like big butterflies, while Daubenton’s hunt over water, seizing insects in their big, hairy feet.
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