Orkney goes batty!

Over the weekend of 9-11th September Anne Youngman, Scottish Officer from the Bat Conservation Trust was in the county to lead a ‘Bat discovery weekend’ in conjunction with the Orkney Bat group and the RSPB’s Wildlife Explorers.

On the Friday night Anne gave a very lively and interesting presentation in the Cromarty Hall, organised by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership. She described the bat-friendly habitats in the county followed by an overview of their lifecycle and biology including the main features of the various bat species that are found here. There were specimens of bats to see and recordings of the various calls, including those of the Orkney bats to listen to. Anne explained the importance of recording bats and the best way to do it in Orkney. The use of bat detectors was then demonstrated and the evening ended with a lively discussion of bat- life in the county. The meeting was well attended with a lot of interest expressed in the local bat population with folk keen to find out more. A bat watch will be organised in St Margaret’s Hope in the near future by the Orkney Bat Group, which is a branch of the Orkney Field Club.

Saturday evening saw 30 enthusiastic young Wildlife Explorers become “bat detectives” in Finstown. Armed with Anne’s bat detectors they headed out along the burn as dusk fell. There was a sense of excitement in the air and before long, the background “hiss” from one of the detectors was interrupted by the unmistakeable, somewhat flatulent, sound of a hunting pipistrelle bat. Before long there were multiple contacts as bats flitted among the trees and several bats were also seen silhouetted against the sky as they flew over nearby gardens. Children and adults alike were thrilled to see these intriguing Orkney bats, who somehow manage a nocturnal lifestyle and insect diet despite our short summer nights and blustery weather, and it was a great climax to the evening.

Earlier Anne had introduced everyone to the life of a bat, with some great pictures, sound recordings and props. The cut-out of the world’s largest bat, which has a wing span of 1.8metres (think of a tall man with his arms outstretched and that’s the kalong wingspan!) was quite a contrast to a pipistrelle, which can fit into a matchbox! Some of the children experimented with cardboard “ears” to learn about how bats “see” using sound and others made colourful bat masks, fridge magnets and finger puppets. The evening finished with warming cups of hot chocolate, bat-shaped biscuits and hearty applause for Anne and her helpers from the Orkney Bat Group. For further information on Orkney Bats contact orkneybats@hotmail.co.uk and for RSPB Wildlife Explorers phone Aileen on 851755 or Jane on 841212. The next Wildlife Explorers meeting is on the afternoon of Sunday 9th October. KT