Another NWN walk coming up this Saturday. Anyone interested in coming along?

Bat Blitz at Earlham Park in Norwich

On Saturday 15^th of August, we successfully ran our first Bat Blitz. This unique and special event took place at Earlham Park near the University of East Anglia (UEA) Village, next to the River Yare. 23 people turned up, which included members of St Mary’s church, students from UEA, local residents, volunteers and the Myotis Study Group.

Slightly different from our other events, the Bat Blitz was delivered mainly to provide members of the public with an opportunity to see a bat close up. It is also a chance to go on a walk around the grounds listening out for bats using different detectors, which are provided by NWN, purchased from the grant given by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Walking around Earlham Park © Norfolk Wild Nights

To catch bats, requires a licence, as bats are legally protected and any attempt to disturb them in anyway, means that you are breaking the law. To enable us to set up some nets and catch some bats to show to those who came, we trapped under the project licence of the Myotis Study Group, and invited a couple of expert bat workers, who all held the appropriate licenses. This also means that any bats caught will provide important information for the Myotis Study Group and aid them in their ongoing research to learn more about the ecology and distribution of myotis bats in the county.

In order to catch any bats we used two mist nets, which were set up across the River Yare (see picture below to see what a mist net looks like). The bats that fly into the nets will fall into the pockets, therefore becoming trapped.

A mist net © Norfolk Wild Nights

The nets are checked every few minutes and any bats that are caught are untangled and placed into a cloth bag, to keep them calm and quiet.

The cloth bags used to hold a bat © Norfolk Wild Nights

Each bat is then processed, meaning they are identified, sexed, their forearms are measured and they are weighed. Additional information such as age (juvenile or adult), or whether they are lactating or post - lactating may also be obtained if required. 

Table where the bats were identified and processed © Norfolk Wild Nights

In total, during the evening 13 bats were caught. These included:

3 male Common Pipistrelles bats

3 female Common Pipistrelles bats

1 male Brown Long Eared bat

4 female Soprano Pipistrelles bats

2 female Daubenton’s bats

Brown Long Eared bat © Norfolk Wild Nights

In between walks around Earlham Park, participants were able to observe how the bats were processed. 

Observing how the bats are identified © Norfolk Wild Nights

As a result of a good trapping night we were able to show the group a variety of different bat species, after they were processed. Bats shown were Brown Long Eared, Daubenton’s, Soprano Pipistrelles, and Common Pipistrelles. The group were not only presented with a bat, they were also shown how each bat is identified using the wings, face, tail, ears, and feet. 

 © Norfolk Wild Nights

Each bat was then released and flew off in front of the crowd, giving the group a close up view of a bat flying.

© Norfolk Wild Nights

To finalise the evening, bat carer, Jane Harris brought out a couple of bats that were in her care -  2 juvenile Brown Longed Eared bats. She was able to show the group these small, young bats and answer any questions regarding caring for bats (see pictures below).

© Norfolk Wild Nights