Bats

Bats in Laverstock

If you have been for a walk in the evening along the watermeadows or just sat out in your garden you may well have seen one of the many bats that live with us in Laverstock. The photograph shows a common pipistrelle being ringed by a licensed handler as part of a monitoring exercise by the river near the Laverstock Sports and Social Club (please don't try handling these protected species yourselves!).

As well as the common pipistrelles, we also have soprano pipistrelles, long eared bats, serotines and noctule bats (Britain's biggest bat) living in the village and probably other species inclding Duabenton's as well. You can find a helpful guide to the different species of bats in the UK on the Woodland Trust website.

Spotting and Identifying Bats

If you go for a walk along the watermeadows from Riverbourne Community Farm to the Laverstock-Harnham path in the evening just as the sun is setting, you are likely to see some of our local bats. They are often easiest to find along tree and hedgelines as they fly around hunting insects. They move quickly and quietly and so aren't the easiest to film (as you can tell from my efforts in this video!). The best way of identifying the species of a bat, is to use a bat detector. These detect the high frequency echo-locating tones that bats produce and then reduce them to a frequence that humans can here. Simple bat detectors can be purchased from £65 from webisites such as NHBS and can really add fun to a family walk!

There is a great video of Pipistrelles in a local garden by Lorraine which you can find here.

Giving Bats a Helping Hand

Bats have lived alongside humans for centuries and over that time quite a few myths have been created from the drinking blood (all UK bats stick to insects!) to the idea that if you have bats in your house or church you can't do any building work (again not true- by law you do need to think about the bats in things like the timing of the work, but it won't stop you doing things you need to do).

There is lots of helpful information on what you can do to help bats and living with bats on the Bat Conservation Society website.

They also have some great tips for making your garden more bat friendly. These include:

Plant night-scented flowers
Build a pond
Let yoru garden go a little wild
Put up a Bat Box (the photo shows our Bat Box at St Andrew's Laverstock- less than £8 from In Excess)
Creat linear fueatures ie.e hedgerows and tree lines.
Reduce or remove artificial lighting
Keep cats indoors at night.

If you have found a bat that appears to be injured, the BCT runs a national bat helpline, call 0345 1300 228. You can also find information about the local Wiltshire Bat Care Network and Wiltshire Bat Group on their website.

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