Pippa the pipistrelle
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and the Wildlife Trusts attended the
Country Landowners and Business Association 2010 Game Fair this
weekend at Ragley Park.
The Trust's chief executive Stephen
Trotter attended the show on Saturday - and whilst travelling on a
tractor-drawn trailer with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Brandon
Marsh volunteer Alban Wincott and family in the early morning - we
spotted a bat perched precariously on the edge of the trailer in
broad daylight. Stephen Trotter, who happens to be a licensed bat
roost visitor, rescued the bat - placing it in a box until the
evening when it was safely released back into Ragley
Park.
Stephen said, "this was amazing; I've never seen anything quite
like it before in 20 years of working with bats - I've often seen
'grounded' bats in the daytime but none in such a noisy and bizarre
location. The bat - which turned out to be a pipistrelle - was in a
state of 'torpor' - or basically asleep - in open daylight on the
back of a trailer which was driving to and fro between the car
parks and the Game Fair showground. It was 'sat' next to other
passengers on the edge of the trailer and was being bounced around
with the rest of us! It was clearly not going to survive for long
in that position - so we rescued the bat and tucked it away in a
dark and quiet box, out of harm's way for the day.
It turned out to be a juvenile female bat and visitors to the
Wildlife Trust stand took part in a 'name the bat' competition. We
received around 30 entries from which the bat was duly named 'Pippa
the pipistrelle'.
Pippa was born earlier this summer and she may only have been
flying for a week or two. Young bats often get lost and disoriented
when they first start flying and finding their way about - so
perhaps it had hung up in the trailer the night before unaware of
the consequences when the trailer started moving the following
morning. Anyway after having a good drink of water and a day's
rest, Pippa seemed none the worse for wear and flew off into the
night to hopefully rejoin her colony which must be roosting
somewhere nearby in the parkland around Ragley Hall. The presence
of bats is a good sign of a healthy living landscape - pipistrelles
like to eat thousands of small flies and midges and they prefer a
landscape full of trees, hedges, woodland and clean watery places
like ponds and streams where insects can be plentiful.
If you'd like to find out more about bats - why don't you attend
the Bat and Moth Spectacular at Brandon Marsh on Saturday 14th
August."
For more information on the event,
please follow this link.