Bat Survey: Trottick & Caird park ponds.
On 14 July, members of bat group carried out a sunset survey of the Trottick ponds and Caird park ponds. ( See route on attached map ) Blue marks the route followed, and red marks the "hot-spots". Route starts at flag, and ends at Exit. Click on map for larger map.
It was a nice evening, a bit breezy, but dry with an air temperature of 14C.
There were plenty of insects flying and we had a good evening's "listening'.
The route started at Trottick and we were a bit early on first part of route, but soon started picking up echolocation calls on detectors once dusk approached.
The route will have to be checked again with time expansion detector to confirm species, but tentative guess would be that we encountered pipistrelle, ( both 45 & 55kHz "smacking" calls ) Also Daubenton at both ponds, again at 45 kHz but with the distinctive "Tik-ke" type call, and were also seen skimming the pond. Possible Brown Long ear with their very soft "tick" call, again between 45 -50khz.
There were many passes and feeding buzzes at both ponds and at times detectors were going like geiger counters.
Both sites are worthy of further examination, using a time expansion detector so as to analyse calls and identify to species level. Also, it is important that we try to identify where the roosts are. We spotted a few likely sites which will be followed up on.
Anyone interested in joining the Dundee Bat Group or helping out on our Dundee City Bat Project or if you just want to know more about bats and maybe come along on a bat walk to listen to bats yourself, please contact secretary@dundee-bats.com
It was a nice evening, a bit breezy, but dry with an air temperature of 14C.
There were plenty of insects flying and we had a good evening's "listening'.
The route started at Trottick and we were a bit early on first part of route, but soon started picking up echolocation calls on detectors once dusk approached.
The route will have to be checked again with time expansion detector to confirm species, but tentative guess would be that we encountered pipistrelle, ( both 45 & 55kHz "smacking" calls ) Also Daubenton at both ponds, again at 45 kHz but with the distinctive "Tik-ke" type call, and were also seen skimming the pond. Possible Brown Long ear with their very soft "tick" call, again between 45 -50khz.
There were many passes and feeding buzzes at both ponds and at times detectors were going like geiger counters.
Both sites are worthy of further examination, using a time expansion detector so as to analyse calls and identify to species level. Also, it is important that we try to identify where the roosts are. We spotted a few likely sites which will be followed up on.
Anyone interested in joining the Dundee Bat Group or helping out on our Dundee City Bat Project or if you just want to know more about bats and maybe come along on a bat walk to listen to bats yourself, please contact secretary@dundee-bats.com
Leave a comment