A volunteer’s account


I became involved in this project in April 2016 when Rich Flight asked for volunteers to deploy bat detectors in the fells. It was fun to study the maps and choose locations which might be attractive to bats near linear features, crags, trees or gullies. It was also a great excuse to explore new places. The detector was fixed and disguised, then left for ten


days or so before relocating it, replacing the batteries, swapping the SD card and moving it to a new place.


which you rarely find more than 500m from woodland. We had bats that were just flying over – possibly just taking a shortcut over the mountains; we had feeding bats – taking advantage of the plentiful midge population in the hills; and we even had hibernating bats, utilising the caves and mines that are doted around the craggy mountainsides. Many of the bats seemed to appear later than you would expect at low levels, suggesting that they actually roost at lower altitudes but make the energy expensive journey uphill to feed. This shows just how important these insect- rich areas are to the bats.


On looking at the traces to see what bats had been found, inevitably there were some poor results where the detector had picked up too much stream noise, or had malfunctioned, but these were eclipsed by the good results. My most memorable location was in a wall on the top of a fell in late August where there was a lot of bat “chatter”, possibly from colonies looking for winter roosts.


Jane Newport


Although we had anecdotal evidence of bats in the fells, no one had ever carried out a concerted study to find out what bats were there. And so it was great to get some real data on what bats we get in the higher altitude areas. Conservation can only be effective if you have a baseline of data, and this study has provided such a baseline for the fells. Future decisions on habitat management may now be made knowing that bats are active in the fells.


Rich Flight is an ecologist, bat specialist and Chair of South Cumbria Bat Group. www.cumbriabats.wordpress.com


SPOTTING BATS IN CUMBRIA


n You’re likely to see bats anywhere where there is water and trees.


n Rivers, such as the Kent, Eden and Derwent, and parkland like Lowther or Levens are ideal places, but why not spend time in your own garden and see if they visit you.


Bats are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. All bats and their roosts are legally protected.


Cumbrian Wildlife | September 2019 27


DALE SUTTON/2020VISION


involved Get


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