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The evening was well attended with many families and an estimated number of between 50 and 60 people.

The Friends were supported by the Harlow Bat Group who brought with them a number of bat detectors kindly loaned for the evening from Parndon Wood Nature Reserve.

Rather disappointingly, bats were absent from one of the main “beats” which could have been relied on in previous years. We did however find a small number of Pipistrelle bats flying along Oak Walk at various places.

Also disappointingly, we did not record the Noctule bat and we believe that this is due to the fact that the cattle had been removed from the Park in June due to problems with dogs. This will have influenced the insect and invertebrate populations.

On the recording you will hear the chatter of the bats as they produce ultrasonic pulses both to navigate and also to locate prey. You will hear a “feeding buzz” when the bat homes in on the insect and puts in some extra pulses as ‘fine tuning’ before making a catch.

In the background and interspersed between the bat calls you can also hear Dark Bush Crickets with their single rasping/clicking calls. They are most likely to have been positioned in the tree canopy above us.  RR.

Pishiobury Bat Evening - Friday 26th September