Day 6 - Bat Survey (conserve)

On June 6th, I participated in a Junior Rangers bat survey night in Balmaha, we learned a lot about different bats and their nature and - perhaps after dressing up as one (image 1) - I discovered I was really interested in them. So, over the summer holidays, I borrowed a bat detector from the national park and conducted several bat surveys on different days, times, and seasons. The first evening we went out was late July when bats are very active mating and preparing for hibernation - they are one of only 3 fully hibernating animals in the UK (the others being dormice and hedgehogs). With the bat detector at around 45-50kHz, we walked around different paths near Kinlochard and down to the loch for just under an hour. I counted 35 bats although there is potential for double counting. For the next few outings, my results were very similar, though as I was gaining knowledge about the species, I began to be able to identify that most of the bats I was hearing were Soprano Pipistrelles, a common bat that when detected at 50Khz will have a short, sharp clicking sound that evolves into a wet slapping sound when the frequency is increased. In my time out, I also detected common pipistrelles and think I heard a Daubenton's bat down by the loch. I also participated in a bat detecting night at the David Marshall Lodge in Aberfoyle, however, it was very wet and we found no bats. As the summer ended and autumn began, I began to detect fewer bats as they went into hibernation until when I last went out, in mid-September, I only detected 8 bats (all soprano pips). I found that there were many factors affecting bat's activity, including temperature, time, weather and season, however, in general, Kinlochard has a thriving population of bats. Unlike when I went on holiday to Laggan in the Cairngorms and only detected 1 bat on a night with perfect conditions. Due to the nature of the activity, I only have one (very blurry) picture as evidence (image 2) but hope my new knowledge and results are sufficient otherwise.