What bats do I have, then?

[ChemicalChaos]

Looking out my window in rural south Cheshire (near Nantwich), I very often see bats flitting about the courtyard. I can never get a good glimpse of them, but they look about the size of a blackbird with their wings spread. Does anyone know what they are likely to be?

Sadly I've no idea where they nest, or I'd attempt to get some photos.

[Granville]

How long is a piece of string? Very difficult to say unless you get a good close up shot, quite a few species native to England

[Yertis]

ChemicalChaos said:

Looking out my window in rural south Cheshire (near Nantwich), I very often see bats flitting about the courtyard. I can never get a good glimpse of them, but they look about the size of a blackbird with their wings spread. Does anyone know what they are likely to be?

Sadly I've no idea where they nest, or I'd attempt to get some photos.

A friend and neighbour of mine is a world-renowned expert on bats, he's often off on expeditions to caves in south America etc. Anyway I was round his place the other night chatting about the garden when he suddenly whipped out his iPad and a little USB gizmo. This was basically an ultrasonic mic hooked up to an app that converted the bat's calls into the audible range, and also showed a graphic of the intensity, frequency and duration of the call from which the bat could be identified. Really good fun actually, two or three different species of bat in the garden in 15 minutes or so. He also uses other gear for triangulating the position of bats.

So that's what you need!

[FunkyNige]

Yertis said:

A friend and neighbour of mine is a world-renowned expert on bats, he's often off on expeditions to caves in south America etc. Anyway I was round his place the other night chatting about the garden when he suddenly whipped out his iPad and a little USB gizmo. This was basically an ultrasonic mic hooked up to an app that converted the bat's calls into the audible range, and also showed a graphic of the intensity, frequency and duration of the call from which the bat could be identified. Really good fun actually, two or three different species of bat in the garden in 15 minutes or so. He also uses other gear for triangulating the position of bats.

So that's what you need!

Dad has a lower tech version of that
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MAGENTA-BAT4-DETECTOR-LIST...
You have to turn the dial to see what frequency the bat is chirping(?) at to see what type of bat it is. Pretty cool to listen to as you get to hear the navigation chirps and the hunting calls.

[ChemicalChaos]

Thanks, those sound really cool! I'll look at getting some

[TheJimi]

Yertis said:

A friend and neighbour of mine is a world-renowned expert on bats, he's often off on expeditions to caves in south America etc. Anyway I was round his place the other night chatting about the garden when he suddenly whipped out his iPad and a little USB gizmo. This was basically an ultrasonic mic hooked up to an app that converted the bat's calls into the audible range, and also showed a graphic of the intensity, frequency and duration of the call from which the bat could be identified. Really good fun actually, two or three different species of bat in the garden in 15 minutes or so. He also uses other gear for triangulating the position of bats.

So that's what you need!

That sounds seriously cool!