Bats

Sarah loved bats! Doing something on bats (e.g. sponsoring some bat boxes) was one of the obvious things we had to do. So we have sponsored bat boxes in a) Paradise Bottom, Leigh Woods – one of Sarah’s favourite places to walk with Buddy and us; 2) Weston Moor, one of Avon Wildlife Trust’s Reserves. And we continue to watch and listen to the bats in our back garden on Goldney Road. More on each of these below …..

1. Paradise Bottom, Leigh Woods.

Forestry England kindly allowed and organised to mount 10 bat boxes – a) Six (6) to the left of the main path down towards Paradise Bottom, b) Two (2) above the pond, c) Four (4) with two (2) either side of the stream downstream of the pond.

Following on from the mounting of the boxes, in June 2021, Anna of My Green World, Forestry England’s Education Partner for Leigh Woods, organised with Luke to do a bat walk for Sarah’s Friends which was really lovely – ” …. common and soprano pipistrelles, plus daubenton’s bats. We also found some newts living in the pond as well!”.

Hear some bats at Paradise Bottom – from by the pond in July 2023, 21:45pm …. we think they are feeding pipistrelles. Anybody any other ideas. Other nights have picked up soprano pipistrelles.

For location and pictures of bat boxes please see:

Sarahs-WIldlife-Projects-Paradise-Bottom-Walk-and-Bat-BoxesDownload

We’re keen to do a little more science on bats and our bat boxes. Max, who knew Sarah from his time with Motts, and friends from Avon Bat Group (ABG) did a ‘bat box check’ for us in November 2022 which Dad went on. Max had combined that with a bat box check at Tyntesfield and Dad’s box there (surprisingly) had bats in – yay! Laura, friend of Max’s who also knew Sarah in her time at Motts, planning to do bat box checks across Leigh Woods in September 2023! 🙂 And then, Sarah’s old friends and colleagues from Mott MacDonald are hoping to do some more formal expert surveying next year.

In the meantime we’ve been wandering around Paradise Bottom a bit after sunset with bat detectors a little through 2023 and Sarah’s old friends and colleagues from Mott MacDonald are hoping to do some more formal expert surveying, perhaps next year. Seen and a heard a few bats, most interestingly what we think are pip feeding noises around the pond e.g:

 

2. Avon Wildlife Trust’s Weston Moor Reserve

Avon Wildlife Trust accepted the offer of sponsorship of, our request to sponsor, some bat boxes. They identified Marston Moor as a good place to be part of a wider project to monitor the status of bat populations and possible impacts from developments in the North Somerset levels.

Bat Boxes at Avon Wildlife Trust’s Weston Moor Rese

3. Some of Sarah’s Bat Photos