John's Blog

There have been many Bat surveys undertaken at Croft Castle over the years, a quite extensive one in 2016 where the Fishpool Valley was noted as having a consistently higher Bat activity than any other of the areas at Croft Castle that were surveyed at the time; this naturally highlighted the importance of this particular habitat. Since the Bat Survey of 2016 the Fishpool Valley has undergone considerable disruption. In 2017 a project to restore the dams and spillways ran for five consecutive years. The valley has also suffered the effects of Ash Dieback, which resulted in the need to fell large numbers of the infected trees. The Valley is not the habitat it was in 2016 and this may well have had an impact upon the Bat population. Towards the end of August this year 2023, the Herefordshire Bat Research Group arrived to undertake a survey in the Fishpool Valley. A few of us were invited to attend and observe the process which I have to say was fascinating, seeing the equipment that was used, watching the handling and recording of each individual they caught and listening to the most enthusiastic group of folks who were more than happy to share their knowledge as we tried not to get in the way.

Harp Nets & Mist Nets are used to catch Bats.

With several nets in place in what were considered the most likely flight paths it was a case of sitting and waiting until dusk and the appearance of the first Bats. Despite it being a chilly night it wasn’t long before the team were busily engaged in measuring, sexing and weighing a variety of species.

Because several of the team are licensed handlers we were able to photograph some of the species, I took a few photos and a few of the following were taken by the team who have allowed me to add them to this Blog Post.

It was a chilly night 8/9 degrees and the catch nets were constantly monitored to ensure the bats were not left in the cold and damp for long. After recording was completed many were placed in an incubator to keep them warm thus ensuring they were able to fly when released. Not all however were that keen to get underway and a couple decided to do some tree climbing as was the case of this one in the video below.

Between about 7:30 and midnight 21 bats were caught & recorded, in fact some of the small pipistrelle’s were released without being recorded as they were small and it was getting rather chilly. It was however, thought to be a good catch rate. The list of species caught is below.

• Noctule (new record for the site),
• Natterer’s,
• Daubenton’s,
• Brown long-eared,
• Common pipistrelle,
• Soprano pipistrelle,
• Barbastelle (just one pass on the bat detector)

The survey in 2016 was from May until September and a total of 2,761 bat passes were recorded across the whole of the estate. This was a survey undertaken using bat detectors which clearly indicated high levels of bat activity. The results from one night of netting bats and recording them provides some reassurance that despite all the changes to the environment in the Fishpool Valley, it would appear that we have almost the same species remaining in the Valley. The list below are the species recorded in the Fishpool Valley in 2016

• Natterer’s,
• Daubenton’s,
• Brown long-eared,
• Common pipistrelle,
• Soprano pipistrelle,
• *Barbastelle. (The Barbastelle Bat is rare across the UK, and very rare in Herefordshire)
• *Brandt’s
• *The NSL group (Noctule, Serotine Leisler’s) only a small number of this group were recorded in 2016.

As the Valley floor slowly returns to a more settled environment and the replanting of native tree species begin to become more established, perhaps future Bat Surveys will show an increase in the Bat population grow.