Bat Bothering

Bat bothering was a term I coined when explaining to the missus what I was doing at the weekend. Little did know how accurate it would turn out to be.

The official term was a bat box check, with some bat ecologists. This involves tramping over Rempstone estate in the Purbecks with a ladder, then using that ladder to inspect a bat box nailed about 3m up in a tree. The side of this bat box would be prized open, and then a torch would be shone in and, hopefully, the beedy eyes of a bat would be seen staying back at us.

In a couple of instances, the bat was be brought out and inspected to fully judge it's breed and sex - the sex bit being pretty bloody obvious, as the gentleman's part of a bat are of impressive proportion in relation to the size of their body. This, now mildly traumatised, bat would then be returned to it's hidey-hole and the amount of poo on the bottom of the box recorded and then shovelled out. Which is fair I s'pose as, having just rattled the bat's house, removed the front of it, grabbed hold of the bat, shown him to your friends, had a good laugh at the size of his cock and then put him back again, the least you could do was tidy the place up a bit.

This was all in the name of conservation, rather than just plain hooliganism. Bat sex and species and the afore mentioned amount of poop (showing how often the bat box was used) was all noted, in the name of science or something. I did take pictures of the numerous teeny little soprano pipistrelles that we found, plus the one, massive, toad-sized, noctule. Sadly, for complicated legal reasons, I can't post any of them up here.

However, I can offer a suggestion as to what these complicated legal reasons might be. One, none or several of the following reasons may be true:

-The bats refused to sign a waiver allowing their image to be used in public

-This wasn't an official an organised site visit by professional bat ecologists but just a bunch of hooligans going round ruining some bat's quality nap time

-We didn't want to give away the exact location of the bat boxes

-The landowner is unaware that conservation efforts are being carried out on their land

-Bats are highly litigious

I am able to post other pictures, just not ones of bats:

 A rhinocerous beetle Sinodendron cylindricum

Oak apples, or oak gall, caused by a parasitic wasp laying it's eggs in an oak twig. It causes the twig to grow in this crazy way, giving food and shelter for the wasp larvae

More purple sprouting orchids. A little late in the season for these.

Some moss. While I was taking this picture, a tawny owl, spooked by our bat-bothering, took off from a nearby tree, knocking off a rotten branch that hit the ground a few feet away from me. Quite a way to go if you think about it: killed by an owl.

So there you go. Hopefully, there will be further bat bothering expeditions in the future, with photos that I will be allowed to upload!