Bats

[jacey]

Found a bat on the floor outside this morning, a pipistrelle I think. A bat on the floor is a bat in trouble already, but one can but try. It didn't look damaged and it didn't look like a juvenile (it's the end of August they should be self-sufficient by now) so we did what you're supposed to do... put it in safe box with airholes and water and kept it quiet until dusk, then put it on a seven foot windowsill so it could take off easily and get airborne again.

But it hasn't.

It's still in the box. Alive but very quiet.

Called the bat helpline. No bloody help at all. Just an out of office reply and: 'please take it to your nearest vet as they have a duty of care to wildlife'. Yeah, right. Saturday night.

We think the bats roost in the eaves of our house - not that we've found evidence, but we see them flying each dusk. I'm very pleased to say that according to all the websites they are rather nice creatures to share accommodation with.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I think bluehairsue has contact details for a bat lady.

Just a thought, was it raining when you tried to release it? Apparently they can't echo-locate in the rain, so will stay put. Apparently the awful summer means they've not been able to feed as well as usual. (Caveat: I really know nothing about bats, other than what I've gleaned from the occasional BBC radio wildlife programme.)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

No it wasn't raining, but I think it may already have been too far gone when we found it. It didn't survive the night. Bat RIP.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Alas! Poor bat. :(

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

It's been a month for things falling out of the sky. A couple of weeks ago we found a homing pigeon in the yard. Luckily help was at hand because a farmer-neighbour races pigeons. This poor little bird was completely at the end of its tether and thin as if it had been lost for a while. It had an ID band and a race band which said it came from somewhere up in the North East so neighbour took it back to his loft to look after it with his own birds.

[ferlonda.livejournal.com]

Poor flying things...