Kitchen Garden Forum

It's 7.30pm, the sun is shining and I have just watched two bats (most likely pipistrelle) hunting for insects above the small nature reserve opposite our house. I assume they are doing this because our recent evenings have been damp and cool. How weird is that?

at our other house we use to see them, not seen any here this year but we were near a river and I think they were Daubeton sorry can't remember the spelling !!

Yes I assume they're struggling to hunt given the miserable conditions - we're seeing a lot of the barn owl for the same reason.

Hi Monika,
To see bats in quite early evening is not unusual here. I have both Pipistrelle and Long Eared in the house loft and a small colony of Lesser Horseshoe in one of the barns. I often see a Pipistrelle around midday. The Lesser Horseshoe love to get into my tunnels and if you put the lights on you have to duck as they are very fast and they fly at you.
Hi Gilly,
I think the name is Daubenton's and you might be interested that they actually enter water and swim!
I witnessed this a couple of years ago when birdwatching at a local quarry pool. I could not believe my eyes.
Hi Fen,
Barn Owls are crepuscular at both ends of the night as well as silent night time hunters. They are more so when they have young to feed. We are lucky and have at present one pair that nested in a tree that forms my boundary but sadly not owned by me.
There are 3 other pairs in the district. Aren't we just very very lucky!
A very strange thing has occurred here that after 15 years House Sparrows materialized in high numbers this Spring but this is the strange thing, since the heavy rain of last week there is not one to be seen anywhere they have just upped and gone. I fail to understand this at all.
JB.