# Bats In The Garden



## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

There is a huge field behind my nans garden fence with lots of trees and a stream running all the through it.. Every now and again you see bats flapping around catching insects and things!

Was just out in the garden having a cigarette and noticed that the bats fly directly over head. Got a bit worried about how close they were flying to my face! :lol2:

It's something I have always known to be there but have never really took the time to sit and observe. My nans garden has a couple of lights which are dim but I guess they still attract moths and other flying creepy crawlies which attract the bats. It's too dark to get a photo of them or see them in any detail but to just know that they are there and get the odd glimpse of them as they fly past has really made me think about how lucky we are to have bats living so close that we can sit and watch them (even if all we see is what looks like tiny black birds) :no1:

Just thought I would share, because this got me really excited :lol2:


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## laurencea (Aug 28, 2009)

you need a bat detector!

you should report your sightingts to the Bat Conservation Trust, they have a map on their website where you can log sightings.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

laurencea said:


> you need a bat detector!
> 
> you should report your sightingts to the Bat Conservation Trust, they have a map on their website where you can log sightings.


Oh that sounds interesting, could you give me the link please?


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## laurencea (Aug 28, 2009)

MrJsk said:


> Oh that sounds interesting, could you give me the link please?


The Big Bat Map

is the big bat map.

Bat Conservation Trust 

is the main site


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

laurencea said:


> The Big Bat Map
> 
> is the big bat map.
> 
> ...


Thank you :thumb:


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Do you need to know the species? We have bats every summer evening in the garden at the boyf's place on the Isle of Sheppey- but none of them has ever slowed down long enough to pass over it's ID! :lol2:


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

Ron Magpie said:


> Do you need to know the species? We have bats every summer evening in the garden at the boyf's place on the Isle of Sheppey- but none of them has ever slowed down long enough to pass over it's ID! :lol2:


Not a clue but I would be interested in finding out! I had a quick search on the internet and found that pipistrelle are one of the most common species. They seem kind of small compared to these in the garden but I can't be too sure as all I have seen of them is just a black shape :lol2:

edit: I see them more when they fly against the sky, but still they are just black..


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## Sponge (Jun 18, 2012)

We have a pipestrelle in our garden. It flys a circuit of our street each night. Lovely little thing. 

My nan gets them nest in her loft every year and often ends up with a few working their way into her house!! She found one in her bathroom sink one morning.


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## George_Millett (Feb 26, 2009)

Ron Magpie said:


> Do you need to know the species? We have bats every summer evening in the garden at the boyf's place on the Isle of Sheppey- but none of them has ever slowed down long enough to pass over it's ID! :lol2:


I could be talking b:censor:s but I think the easiest way to identify the different bat species is in the frequency of the echolocation clicks. If you were to get a bat detector I think you can set it to the different frequencies to see what sort of bats are in the area.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

Sponge said:


> We have a pipestrelle in our garden. It flys a circuit of our street each night. Lovely little thing.
> 
> My nan gets them nest in her loft every year and often ends up with a few working their way into her house!! She found one in her bathroom sink one morning.


Oh wow that sounds wicked :thumb:

aha how do you manage to get the bats back outside? :lol2:


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

It could be a Daubenton's Bat, cos they are always to be found around water, as they hunt over it. Pipistrelles and Soprano Pipistrelles are very small, but Daubenton's are classed as medium to small.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

feorag said:


> It could be a Daubenton's Bat, cos they are always to be found around water, as they hunt over it. Pipistrelles and Soprano Pipistrelles are very small, but Daubenton's are classed as medium to small.


Ah I see, that sounds more like what I see in the garden!

Thank you 

:thumb:


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

If they are flying up and down the stream in the garden then it certainly could be as they feed on midges 2thumb mayflies and small flies.


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## slippery42 (Mar 23, 2008)

Sponge said:


> We have a pipestrelle in our garden. It flys a circuit of our street each night. Lovely little thing.
> 
> My nan gets them nest in her loft every year and often ends up with a few working their way into her house!! She found one in her bathroom sink one morning.


Bats do not NEST

They ROOST


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Splitting hairs a bit! :roll: We all knew what he meant.


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## redvoodoo (Aug 12, 2012)

We get bats flying around our garden, I love watching them


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## Naturally Wild (Jul 1, 2012)

feorag said:


> Splitting hairs a bit! :roll: We all knew what he meant.


Try getting a licence for a bat nest!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Yes, but you have to remember this is a reptile forum, not a bat forum, so although there will be people with bat expertise on it, most of the people on here won't have it, so it's still splitting hairs a bit, given that everyone knows what the poster meant.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

Naturally Wild said:


> Try getting a licence for a bat nest!


I didn't know there was such a thing!



feorag said:


> Yes, but you have to remember this is a reptile forum, not a bat forum, so although there will be people with bat expertise on it, most of the people on here won't have it, so it's still splitting hairs a bit, given that everyone knows what the poster meant.


Although this IS a reptile forum, there are other sections such as exotic mammal, fish keeping etc.. Also in this wildlife section I have seen a couple of posts of people say "I was called out to a rescue" so people like this must have some kind of expertise themselves or if not point somebody in the right direction of an expert.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

feorag said:


> Yes, but you have to remember this is a reptile forum, not a bat forum, so *although there will be people with bat expertise on it*, most of the people on here won't have it, so it's still splitting hairs a bit, given that everyone knows what the poster meant.





MrJsk said:


> Although this IS a reptile forum, there are other sections such as exotic mammal, fish keeping etc.. Also in this wildlife section I have seen a couple of posts of people say "I was called out to a rescue" so people like this must have some kind of expertise themselves or if not point somebody in the right direction of an expert.


Indeed and I believe that was what I said.

People like me who work at a wildlife sanctuary, who can offer some help to people who have rescued a wild animal. I also bred and showed pedigree cats for 20 years and have a lot of expertise to share in the 'fluffy section' and that's what I said in my post. Most of us start here because we keep reps, but that doesn't mean to say that reps are all we keep or have knowledge of.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

feorag said:


> Indeed and I believe that was what I said.
> 
> People like me who work at a wildlife sanctuary, who can offer some help to people who have rescued a wild animal. I also bred and showed pedigree cats for 20 years and have a lot of expertise to share in the 'fluffy section' and that's what I said in my post. Most of us start here because we keep reps, but that doesn't mean to say that reps are all we keep or have knowledge of.


Sorry thought you was trying to start some big disagreement, sorry! But yeah I agree with you, I came here because I was interested in getting a Bosc Monitor and once I found out what I needed to know I got curious of some of the other sections..


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

MrJsk said:


> Sorry thought you was trying to start some big disagreement, sorry! But yeah I agree with you, I came here because I was interested in getting a Bosc Monitor and once I found out what I needed to know I got curious of some of the other sections..


Then you don't know me very well! :lol:

I'm not on this forum to cause disagreements, merely to enjoy talking about animals - any animals and helping anyone with any advice they may need with a problem I've had first hand experience of.

i just think sometimes people can be a little pedantic about things (such as nests and roosts), with new people that could put them off posting again cos they've been made to feel 'thick'.

I joined for boa information for a boa we had at our wildlife sanctuary that wasn't being kept in the right conditions - I've only got experience with corns and garters, so needed to ask for help and I've been here ever since.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

feorag said:


> Then you don't know me very well! :lol:
> 
> I'm not on this forum to cause disagreements, merely to enjoy talking about animals - any animals and helping anyone with any advice they may need with a problem I've had first hand experience of.
> 
> ...


Again I agree, not a clue who you are :lol2:

Sorry, there are just soo many people on here that seem to be here just to make themselves looks smart and others stupid. So when you said that i thought.. "oh here we here go" But I am glad I was wrong : victory:

Oh I see, how did you end up with a Boa? I would have thought that a wildlife sanctuary would have only dealt with native species?


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

The person who made the mistake of saying nest, only had 75 posts, so still very new and I just thought it was nit picking to have a go about it, so I commented, because I didn't want him to think that everyone was thinking he was a divvie, basically.



MrJsk said:


> Oh I see, how did you end up with a Boa? I would have thought that a wildlife sanctuary would have only dealt with native species?


Sorry, but I really wanted to lol at that. 

That was the idea originally when they started out, but my bosses - in particular the husband, will never turn an animal away and it often happens that people will ring up and ask us to take a domestic animal or a 'foreign' animal and my bosses say yes! Consequently although we have badgers, foxes, hedgehogs kestrels, barn and tawny owls etc we also have a huge amount of goats (his favourite animal - he will *never *turn away a goat), sheep, a very large obnoxious pig, and rabbits and guinea pigs in every available corner! And again, consequently my bosses spend all their lives worrying and struggling financially to keep going. We all laugh when people visit with their idealist viewpoint and say this is their 'dream', because, having done it for over 18 years, it's my bosses' nightmare.

Even when people ring up to ask if we will take their rabbit cos the kids are bored with it, or 25 guinea pigs because the owners are emigrating, (yes! Honestly! :bash or 2 rats because one has bitten them and they don't trust it any more :roll: and we say "no, we don't have the space for them", we're a wildlife sanctuary, inevitably within the next week, those animals will be found abandoned at the gate! :bash:

The boa came because the guy who owned it though it might be a nice idea to allow it out in the garden to sunbathe, then when he came to catch it, it became defensive and he bottled it and called the RSPCA and they brought it to us! Similarly the carpet python had been bought in a pub by a guy who was drunk and thought it was a good idea, without taking into account his girlfriend was terrified of snakes. After a while he left, but didn't take the snake with him, so the girl just shut the door to the room it was in and left it - for months, before calling the RSPCA to take it away and again, they brought it to us.


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## MrJsk (Jul 29, 2012)

feorag said:


> The person who made the mistake of saying nest, only had 75 posts, so still very new and I just thought it was nit picking to have a go about it, so I commented, because I didn't want him to think that everyone was thinking he was a divvie, basically.
> 
> Sorry, but I really wanted to lol at that.
> 
> ...


Ohh I see where you are coming from now :thumb:

OMG that really :censor: me off. People get animals and say yeah they have time for them and everything. I see it loads within the reptile bit.. that lizard is going to live 15 years or more "yeah I know I have time" a few years later.. "I need to rehome my lizard because I no longer have time" If you won't have the tike for the whole life of that lizard then you shouldn't of got it saying you have time for it in the first place... sorry rant over, but that is one thing that really does make me angry!

Do they not try to rehome some of the domestic animals? That's soo bad, I would never be able to just abandon any animal. You because your sanctuary wont take peoples animals it doesn't mean nowhere else will.. When you turn them away is there nowhere else local to you that might take them which you could suggest?

ohh what a stupid :censor: why did she not just phone the RSPCA straight away!? But at least now the boa is in safe hands and being cared for properly. Some people should just not be allowed to have animals! :censor:


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I totally agree, too many people buy animals based on their present positiion without thinking ahead to how or whether they will cope if their present position changes, due to job/marriage/redundancy. That's why my husband and I never take on more than we can look after if the worst ever happened for us.

There is a farm attraction barely 8 miles from our sanctuary which breed rabbits etc to sell, but if anyone rings them up to ask them to take the rabbit back because the kids are bored with it, they refuse and when the new owners ask if they can suggest anywhere, they send them to us! :bash: That really ssipes me off!

When animals come into us pregnant (like the 5 female rabbits that social services asked us to take from a family they were investigating that turned out to be 4 females and a male, resulting in 5 turning into 15+ in a few weeks) we do try to rehome the youngsters, but we tend not to rehome animals we've been asked to offer a home to.


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## laurencea (Aug 28, 2009)

feorag said:


> It could be a Daubenton's Bat, cos they are always to be found around water, as they hunt over it. Pipistrelles and Soprano Pipistrelles are very small, but Daubenton's are classed as medium to small.


not that likely... daubentons tend to hunt over water, prefering still, calm water. canals and lakes are best really.

pips are the most likely to be flitting around a garden. they look bigger in flight.

bat detectors work by tuning them to the frequency of the echolocation - bats use different frequencies, so by tuning until the sound is strong will give you the correct frequency and help id the bats. saying that, some use frequencies not too far apart, so then you go by the sound of the calls.


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