Bats

[Nostromo]

At 5pm today, I was walking through the garden (I'm a gardener on a country estate) and I caught some movement in the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was a bird flying around, then thought it was a swallow (bit early for swallow though), then realised it was a Bat (not sure what kind). It was circling over a pond. So I ran (well trotted) indoors to get the camera, it was only 40' away. Well these bat things are fast and can change direction at the speed of light. Much too much for my camera and lens to cope with. I did get a couple of shots, they're not particularly sharp though.
Isn't it a bit early in the day (it was quite light) and year to see bat'?

 

[gramps]

Not entirely uncommon to see Pipistrelles catching up on feeding in the daytime, had one in our garden some time back.

 

[Tringa]

Oddly enough I was wondering if there might be bats around tonight - today has been mild here(east London) and it is has been very calm for the last few hours. I've read (I cannot remember where) that the temperature at which bats might start to fly is around 9C, and the weather has been mild in many place in the last few days.

I haven't seen bats particularly early in the evening but have seen them when it was fairly light in the morning.

I look forward to seeing bats emerge in the Spring.

Dave

 

[Mr Badger]

I saw 2 common pipistrelles feeding over the garden at dusk last Saturday evening (south Cheshire), as it had been mild (comparatively) all day and was around 12 degrees C at dusk. As Gramps says, bats will sometimes come out and feed during the daytime if they get hungry and the weather is warm and calm enough. They'll also feed during mild spells over the winter period too, but we've not had many evenings over 10 degrees C for a while so I expect the one you saw had got a bit peckish. A day flying bat is always a good 'spot' though, so well done and thanks for sharing your experience with us.