It's not easy to locate bats and bat roosts. However, armed with some background knowledge and a bat detector it's certainly worth giving it a go! Generally, Nathusius' pipistrelles in Great Britain and Ireland have been found near to large water bodies. Examples include Blagdon lake (see aerial view - right) (178 hectares), Chew lake (486 hectares) and Barrow reservoir (51 hectares) in Avon and Lough Neagh (39777 hectares) and Upper Lough Erne (5771 hectares) in Ireland. The roosts are not always found close to the shore but may be located within one or two kilometres. Maternity sites are often shared with soprano pipistrelles. One of the best way to locate maternity roosts is to wander around at dawn looking for swarming bats which indicates the presence of a large roost. A video of this behaviour can be view here. |
|
|
Male roosts consisting of either solitary males or, during the August-October breeding season, a single male with a number of females, have been reported occurring in cracks in brickwork, tree holes and splits, in ventilation gaps in walls and in gaps in soffit boards. Males 'sing' almost continually throughout the night and it is assumed that this behaviour attracts females. Often, large numbers of male roosts are located very close to the maternity colonies.
|
Examples of males positioned around a maternotity colony for two separate roost sites (a and b) |
|
|
|
|