Daubenton’s bat | Wild South

At the start of 2014 I began a huge challenge: trying to see every different type of British animal in the wild. The list has changed a little bit over the year, but here’s the latest version. It includes mammals, amphibians and reptiles. In all, there are 107 species.

I’d seen a reasonable number before I started the challenge, but many of the ones remaining are, for one reason or another, tricky. Some are very rare, some restricted to small parts of the UK (including tiny islands), and others are hard to see because they’re nocturnal, or live at sea.

So, what progress have I made this year? I’ve visited different corners of Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Cornwall and Surrey on my quest, and spent quite a few hours trying to see some of our elusive animals.

New species seen:

And species I haven’t seen, despite several attempts:

In all, I’ve seen 45 species, and still have 62 to go. It’s going to be a busy year next year!

At last some success with bats! In fact, 3 new species (and 2 old ones) in one night!

You may have noticed that I have been struggling with identifying bats. When I go out with a bat detector without expert help I detect new species, but can’t pin down which ones. And my previous bat walk with an expert found nothing but common pipistrelles. Still, I can persevere when needed, so I went on another bat walk.

This time I headed down to Winkworth Arboretum. This National Trust site is bat heaven, including woodland and lake, and is home to seven species of bats. And they weren’t all in hiding!

About 17 people gathered just before dusk, to listen to a short talk by an expert from Surrey Bat Group. Armed with detectors we then headed into the woods.

The first species to show up were common pipistrelles, feeding over our heads, silhouetted against the still light sky. Soprano pipistrelles soon joined them. As we walked over a bridge our guide was disappointed not to see Daubenton’s bats, and I worried I wouldn’t find any new species.

We then came out of the wood, to the shore of a small lake. That’s where things really got exciting. Soprano and common pipistrelles flitted over head. Skimming the water, Daubenton’s bats scooped up insects, emitting fast clicks. Then, tuning the detector lower, we picked up serotine bats at 25khz. Finally, we picked up the deep signal of Britain’s largest (and loudest) bat, the noctule. It’s just as well we can’t hear high frequncies, as noctule bats calls can be louder than a rock concert. Imagine the complaints from neighbours!

It was amazing seeing (through occasional torch flashes) so many different bats in one place, and watching their acrobatic manoeuvres. It was particularly satisfying being able to distinguish between the species, as they had quite different call patterns and frequencies.

So, five down, 11 more to go!