A rabid vampire bat in England? Never.

The cameras are up and waiting. Now all I need is an otter. At the moment, the big gun cameras are in use so I have only my trusty trail cams to rely on. I'm confident in their ability though and am looking forward to Friday when I will be able to check the footage (and hopefully get something more than raindrops on water!). Until then I wait with bated breath.

Did you know that bat season is upon us? I'm sure you've all seen the shadows of pipistrelles and daubentons (amongst others) flitting through the night sky (so have worked this out for yourself). I, for one, have a bad mother of a bat hunting in and around my garden so the aim of the week is to find out what bat it might be, armed with just a bat detector and my (not so) wiley perception. If you've never been on a bat walk or heard the eerie sounds that a bat makes while flying and hunting, I seriously reccommend you try out a bat walk. For most of us (unless you are young and spritely), we can only 'hear' a bat with the aid of a bat detector and only the proffessionals or the wildly enthusiastic tend to have this kind of kit. I won't go into all the technical stuff of how the detectors work but check out the Northumberland and Durham bat group websites for a series of walks led by super knowledgable people or join WildPlaces (also super knowledgable)on 20th May for a walk through Harpley Woods. Honestly, its something you have to do at least once in your life and the window of opportunity will close in around October (depending on how soon winter wants to start). Hearing a bat blowing a raspberry is priceless. Just priceless.


Oh and dont be afraid of bats. The smallest species of UK bat (the pip) can fit into a matchbox. Now how can you be scared of that? The UK currently doesnt have any blood sucking (or otherwise) vampire bats and its even a bit of a myth that bats will give you rabies. In the UK, it is so so so rare for a bat to even have rabies (never mind transmit it) and its not the classical foaming-at-the-mouth-rabid-dog rabies that we all know and love. In fact, according to the Bat Conservation Trust, classical rabies has never been recorded in a native European bat species. Bats get something called European Bat Lyssavirus and since 1986, over 9000 bats have been tested and only 9 have been found to have the live virus. And you can avoid the risk by not handling bats unless you really, really have to (and I mean really have to) and to wear gloves if you do. Anyway, thats me off my soapbox and you hopefully learning something new.