Bats

Lostock Park 

I had lots of plans for a mild, sunny Saturday, slept through the setting-off times for most of them and settled down to a lazy day. I felt guilty about this so I thought I'd do a bit of local patch-watching to see if I'd have any more luck finding much going to roost than I've been finding during the day. 

The answer was no There were plenty of woodpigeons about, some joining a magpie in having one last rummage in the grass before going to bed. A wren sang. A migrant hawker patrolled the sweet chestnuts by the skateboard park. And lesser black-backs headed for the Salford Quays roost.

Barton Clough 

Lostock Park 

As the sun set the parched grass glowed eerily and reminded me of photographs taken on infrared film. I'd brought my bat detector along hoping to find something but didn't even pick up any mutterings about the bat nesting/roosting boxes. The latest candidate for my last swift of the year shot overhead bearing Southwest.

On the way back home I had a look for any bats at the station and saw a couple of soprano pipistrelles (I need the detector for the ID) flitting round the trees on Humphrey Park.

It took me more than ten minutes to walk the less than hundred yards home. Nearly all that time was spent watching another soprano pipistrelle dancing round the railings by the playing field. Yet another joined it for a moment before being chased off into the night, the victor coming back to its dance.