Bats

[Doolally]

We're sitting in the house just now watching bats flying back and forth past the window.

Can anyone tell me what kind of bats we get in Caithness and which kind are most common?

[davem]

Pipestrilles are the commonest - there are others too. The Rangers often organise Bat walks with detectors - usually on whats on on the .org

[Fulmar]

We have a maternity roost of common pipistrelles in our porch roof. Love to watch them and do a bat count every year for the National Bat Monitoring Programme. They exit by means of the tiniest gap between the barge board and the roof. The soprano pipistrelles are also in the county but they are rarer and you can only tell the difference by means of a bat detector and difference in 'song'.

[aqua]

How many bats have you counted?

Even though I don’t dislike bats, I’d be a little freaked out if I found a roost in my roof.

[Fulmar]

78 was highest count last year. They don't do any harm and are a joy to watch. I daresay there is some mess in the porch roof space but we don't see it so it doesn't bother us. I would hate them to be disturbed but that will no doubt happen one day when we're dead and gone. Bats and all wildlife need all the help they can get.

[aqua]

Thanks. That’s a lot of bats!

This may be a naive question, but how do you know you’re not counting the same bats multiple times?