Midsummer usually sees bat rehabilitators madly busy caring for baby bats that have become separated from mum – either because they’ve wandered off while mum was out foraging and can’t work out how to get back in the roost, or because the adults have moved to a different roost (when the weather changes or there’s a predator around) or the pup has fallen off while mum was flying.
This year the maternity season started exceptionally early, we heard of soprano pipistrelles giving birth in Essex on 21 May, seven days earlier than the earliest previous record, presumably a result of the sunny spring. In Berkshire we encountered our first pup the first weekend in June.
The best option for the baby (and the carers) is always to get the pup back to mum. But in the 10 years doing bat care we’ve only managed this three times, all three were rarer species, one Barbastelle and two Natterer’s bats. This is a still from the video of the 2019 Natterer’s in Wargrave being picked up by his mum, with a soundtrack from the village festival next door, posted on the Bat Rescue Berkshire facebook page and on YouTube.
So, although we see far more pipistrelle pups than any other species and had attempted to reunite them with their mums probably more than 30 times it had never worked. Five unsuccessful nights out already this year and it seemed like this would be like every other year. At one site there were plenty of adults around but no takers, at the others we couldn’t find a roost anywhere and there were worryingly few bats seen or heard.
I made the decision that this year I would really concentrate on getting pups back to mum rather than taking part in hand rearing, at least until they need feeding less often than every three hours. Instead I’d pass any pups that aren’t picked up on to our small dedicated team. It is tricky spending hours waiting for one pup to be picked up if you have hungry pups at home waiting for their next feed. So I was feeling bad that I was not pulling my weight (though I’d already had four nights feeding the pups that hadn’t been picked up, before they could be passed to the team).
We made a few minor changes to our setup – a larger landing platform for the adult and a more comfortable secure place for the pup to wait so it doesn’t try to wander off and hide. And finally we got a 7-10 day old baby soprano pipistrelle back to his mum! This is just another still, for the video, see our YouTube channel
It was a perfect situation – a warm, still evening, the single roost entrance in the modern suburban terraced house was already known, as was the direction the adults flew out to feed. And thanks to the efforts of another carer, the householders were coming round to appreciating their bats, despite having been very anxious about them last year and still being unhappy about the copious amounts of droppings on their patio not to mention the occasional dead pup turning up.
The pup was warm and calling for mum and shortly after the 162nd bat emerged the early adults were already back to feed their pups, swarming round overhead. We were hopeful and prepared to stay until the early hours if there was still interest in the pup. But by 11pm the householders had to go to bed and by 11:30 we were making plans for the ongoing care of the pup when his mum landed, licked his ears while he attached himself and they flew back towards the roost, reunited after 24 hours apart. A great feeling for those present!
Next day, another call, opposite end of the county, this time a common pipistrelle and a rather different situation – a rural setting, brick & timber converted barn, large garden running down to the upper reaches of the river Pang. No signs of an obvious roost entrance but probably hundreds of potential ones, the householders weren’t aware of a roost but regularly saw bats flying of an evening.
Back there in the evening we waited for bats to emerge, trying to keep an eye all round the building. But bats turned up in ones and twos from different sides and flew off in different directions, both common & soprano pipistrelles and a possible long-eared bat. I decided eventually to set up halfway between the house and the stream, and there was soon lots of activity with the pup picked up within 15 minutes of being put out on the contraption.
Again, this is only a still (this blog only allows such short clips it wasn’t worth adding), the video is on YouTube. And apologies for the commentary in the background – we really ought to remember the camera picks up everything but we did get quite excited!
Hopefully now we’ve made it work a couple of times we’ll be able to get more pups back to their mums, leading to a better outcome for the pups and a less stressful summer for us!
In case anyone is interested, this is what we use (any questions, please contact BatRescueBerkshire@outlook.com):
- Large hessian shopping bag
- Lengths of pipe lagging (to keep the landing platform rigid & discourage the pup from wandering off)
- Narrow tube plus plastic sheet (pipe lagging not suitable at the top as you need to be able to access the heat pad)
- Microwaveable pet heat pad, plus sometimes a handwarmer, with silver foil for extra heat retention
- Pegs, lots of pegs
- Piece of fleece, with the corners sewn into a tray shape
- Speaker stand with T bar, can be extended up to 2.5m
- Night vision camera (Sony handycam) with IR light
