Thank you to Nicola Anderson for the above drawing. Click here to see it in full.
On a glorious September evening, a band of twenty eager would-be ecologists set off in pursuit of our resident Aynho bats. We had ear-marked three areas to watch: The College Field Lakes, The Market Square and the Church. As we left the Sports Field Pavilion and made our way down Charlton Road, the deep red sun, setting over North Oxfordshire, presented a stunning scene, and most agreed that even if we were not to spot any bats, then the evening would not have been wasted.
On reaching College Field Lakes, our hopes were raised by the quantity of flies on the water. Daubenton’s bats are particularly keen to pick flies off the surface of the water, and there were flies in abundance. However, the bats would have competition, as the large fish in the well-stocked lake were also keenly feeding on the flies and every now and again, a loud splash, or even the sight of a large fish leaping in the air broke the silence.
As the light faded, the bats started to appear. We had set out bat detector to 45khz, which is a frequency used for most of our bat species. The children in the group took it in turns to “spot” the bats using the detector, and they did a sterling job. Pipistrelles were the first to appear: a small, fast-moving bat. Then the larger, chunkier, Long-Eared Brown Bat made an appearance. Finally, we spotted bats feeding off the water. Unfortunately positive identification of bats in flight is extremely difficult, so we can only say that they might have been Daubenton’s bats. There were two groups, or colonies, of bats feeding on the lake. One group were feeding next to the road, the other were gathered at the far end of the lake.
After a while, we made our way to the other areas to be observed, but we only spotted one lone bat flying in extremely satisfied with our evening’s work.
We have erected bat boxes around the Sports Field and in the Small Play Area, as we believe it is crucial that we provide these endearing creatures with all the help we can. Many thanks to Nigel Oakey in granting us access to the lake. A beautiful spot. We will certainly conduct a bat watch again next year.