Box Checking at Marbury Reveals Nathusius Pipistrelles

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hlacy
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Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Box Checking at Marbury Reveals Nathusius Pipistrelles

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Box Checking at Marbury Reveals Nathusius Pipistrelles:

Wowzers, what a day!!!

Sunday 27th April 2014 was our annual spring trip to Marbury to check the bat boxes and we were joined on this occasion by Steve & Fiona Parker from South Lancs Bat Group and Sam Dyer from Clwyd Bat Group. Their aim was to reccy the site for the forthcoming Nathusius project which will take place this year and also to see what we got in the boxes.

Oh and well, what a day! For those of you who couldn't make it, sorry, we are about to make you rather green with envy!

The first box Steve picked out to check, what did he find? Not one, not two, but THREE Nathusius pipistrelles! All of these bat were weighed, measured, sexed, a fur sample was taken, dropping sample and they were ringed as Steve & Fiona are licensed to do so under the BCT approved/Natural England licensed project. Steve & Fiona went through the ID process for this species and pointed out the differences between them and common and soprano pips.

Meanwhile tucked a few feet away high up in a tree Mike Freeman (chair of the group) had a typically vocal noctule so all those present also got to see not just one of our rarer bats (the nathusius) but also one of our biggest with the noctule. Once In the hand it was nice and calm and also quiet and Sam went through the ID process for this not so little beauty.

Just at the end of the day we had another box with 8 soprano pips in so everyone got to tick off all three pip species in one day-such a rarity!!!

For those of you who were there, and for some we know it was your first outing with us, you were extremely lucky today to not only see all these bats but get to see processing, ringing and also do some handling. Not only that but there was of course cake too, courtesy of Ged's wife Becky- thanks Becky!
You'll find photos on our Facebook page.

So we hope that has whet your appetite for the season ahead and if you want to get involved in the group its easy - full joining instructions on our page here on the rECOrd website.

Thanks to everyone for coming along today and extra special thanks of course to Steve, Fiona and Sam. Brilliant day.

cheshirebats@yahoo.co.uk

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