Back in May we welcomed members of the Lincolnshire Bat Group to the reserve. RSPB staff and volunteers assisted them in carrying out a survey to see which bats use Frampton Marsh as a feeding ground.
The exciting news is, despite a rainy night, five different species of bat were detected, including three which had never before been found on the reserve! The bats were
With those being new to the reserve being marked with the *
So how do you tell which bat is which? Well, by using a fancy bat detector. Different species of bat not only use different frequency squeaks for echo-location and finding their way (and their prey) in the dark, but they also use a different rhythym too. By using recording equipment together with tuneable bat detectors, it is possible to record the squeaks, then plot them on a graph. Like this:
This is the graph from a common pipistrelle. It looks quite different to that from a noctule bat
Isn't technology wonderful?
We hope to be doing more bat surveys in the future. And we will also be listening out for bats with our own bat detectors during the Big Wild Sleepout which Sarah wrote about yesterday
Many thanks to Richard Green, Ian Nixon and Annette Faulkner from the Lincolnshire Bat Group.
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.