Many years ago I worked at chiswick house grounds where we had to fell a large tree which had succumbed to old age and as a result were left with a number of pipistrelle bats to take care of, one of which I took home to nurse but it succumbed in the night.
Move on several years and I was living in Clungunford when someone attempted to rehouse a number of pipistrelle bats as a result of the barns where they lived being redeveloped. Without success as it turned out.
Nevertheless pipistrelle bats were quite a feature of the village and I once had to catch and release a pipistrelle bat into the wild which had attached itself to a curtain in my study.
Move on several more years and one august bank holiday weekend I came out of my bedroom in the early hours intending to use the toilet and met a large bat with pointed wings flying at speed around my cottage.
The sight was unexpected but I put on the costume I wore when tending my bees for extra protection and eventually managed to get the bat, to go out of the house on its own accord. Further investigation revealed the bat to be a noctule, Britain’s largest bat, known for its high speed flight on long pointed wings.
I never saw it again, but some years later, having been up in my loft to return the Christmas decorations we’d been enjoying, I was aware of a large something moving on the periphery of my vision and took it to be a bat because of my past experience. Eventually it settled itself down to sleep again and I never saw it again despite living in the cottage for twenty years or so all told.
I have moved home how and am living in an apartment so wasn’t expecting it to be true when my partner came into the room where I was at dusk telling me that she thought a bat had just joined us.
It was a revelation I must admit I had doubts about, but she was right, because she was sharing the room with a bat which had perched on our new windows and remained there until I opened a window closer to it and it went out of there like a shot.
It seems most likely from its brief appearance that it was a serotine bat which is found solely in the south of England occurring mainly along a line from the wash to south wales.
Serotine bats are amongst the largest British bats with dark brown fur paler on the underside of their faces and with very dark ears. They make extensive use of buildings to live in and are thought to roost in them all year round, making them vulnerable to disturbance during building work
They generally live in woodland habitats and with their long broad wings are able to manoeuvre skilfully amongst the trees and dive quickly to catch flying insects.
They favour living in houses with high gables and cavity rooves, which is just what the apartment we have moved into is. Are we ever likely to see a bat again however? Past experience, unfortunately, says no.
