No bats here!

At the beginning of October a bat survey was carried out at Matfen by Shona (Go Local Admin) and her little helper, Alina.  The weather forecast was saying showers later in the evening but during the survey period it was showing as dry (bats don’t tend to come out when it rains as there is usually not much food availability during this time).  

We wandered around the edge of the field with our headtorches and bat detector hoping to get a glimpse or at least to hear a bat. However, it was not meant to be.  Around 1 hour into the survey, the heavens opened (by this point it was dark) so we decided to make a (quick!) exit.

The most probable reason for having no bat activity on the site is the lack of good habitat for foraging.  Bats like to commute via hedge lines and treelines, and at Matfen the majority of the site is too open.  We were hoping that a small wooded area adjacent to the site might have been more productive, but no activity was seen/heard in this area either