Bechstein's Bat in Pembrokeshire

Matt Zeale was hoping to catch Barbastelle bats last night, and he succeeded in an area with no previous records. Not only that, but he caught a Bechsteins bat too - is it a county first?

Bat over the Irish Sea

Some whale-watchers and bird-watchers out on a pelagic trip looking for seabirds and dolphins in the Irish Sea on 21st September were surprised to see a bat flying past in the middle of the afternoon. John Stewart-Smith managed to get a photo of it. The bat was flying eastwards, about twenty miles off the Pembrokeshire coast towards the Smalls lighthouse.

After some consultation with others, including Bob Stebbings, we have established that the bat is either a Leisler or Noctule, but without a size reference, or more details, it's not possible to be sure which.

Leislers are found in Ireland, and in the rest of Britain except the far north. Only occasionally have they been recorded in Pembrokeshire. Noctules, on the other hand, are relatively common in Britain, including Pembrokeshire, but are apparently absent from Ireland.

(the following information is from Bob Stebbings)

Now the real question is how do bats navigate. Clearly bats do a lot of water crossing eg between Norway and Scotland/England at least 350 miles and that migration route has been assumed for over 130years. Migration all across northern Europe east to the Urals is all NNE to SSW in autumn and back again in spring. The direction is similar to many birds. It has long been known bats often fly with flocks of birds as they are seen at the south coast bird observatories in particular. That is by day, but John Parslow, who used to work at Monks Wood, studied migrating birds at night crossing the Channel using radar. He could identify the different species of bird from their flight ‘signature’ but he saw these other flying animals which were not birds – ie bats. These were flying up to 10,000 feet high in moderate numbers.

So a bat flying across the sea by day is not unusual, but seeing one flying low over the water is just luck. It's not as if it was out looking for food with the birds in the Celtic Deep!

Greater horseshoe night roosts

During bat surveys for planning applications, I've found two sets of disused farm buildings being used by greater horseshoe bats as night roosts. One is in the village of Mathry, the other nearly four km to the south-west. These are both outside the expected foraging range for the known maternity roosts, and may well be used by male bats.

Greater horseshoes were also recorded at set of farm buildings north of Tiers Cross, and this could have been either males or females visiting.

Lesser Horseshoe Counts 2008

The first count period is May 27 to June 6. Second period is June 7 to 17th.

Site allocation is pretty much as in previous years. Any extra volunteers, or corrections to list, please let me know.

Stackpole Flats and Park House: Bob, Annie, Robin, David, Carl

Orielton: David, Robin

Trefloyne: Bob & Annie

Beech Cottage: CCW? or just auto bat counter?

Colby woodshed: Jane, Trevor & co

Little Craig-y-Borion: Bob, Annie, Dave Welton

Cresselly House: Jane & Annie

Upton: Bob, Tim, Annie

Williamston Nursing Home: Andrea & Jane

Little Milford: Jane

Boulston: Annie, Bob, Jane. Need to re-establish where the bats are as they have been excluded.

Blackpool Mill: bats seem to have been excluded, check

Llwyngoras: Margaret, Rupert, Janet?

South Dairy: new site needs checking, but not necessarily within count period.