It was the perfect weather for it, even down to the midges providing snackettes for the bats we were hoping to spot and hear. The two species we were listening out for with the bat detectors were soprano pipistrelles (it was only relatively recently discovered that there were two separate species of pipistrelle) and Daubenton's bats (who tend to hunt over and near water).
With the detectors turned to 55Hz we found a clearing in the trees and everyone was soon ping-ponging their heads back and forth tracking the feeding bats flying above. Their high-frequency echolocation clicks are translated to a wet slapping sound through the bat detectors, which quickens and ends up sounding like someone blowing a raspberry when they home in on a midge!
Listen to the video and you'll see what I mean -
No signs of Daubenton's were found at the loch unfortunately so we wandered along to where the first moth trap was set up, a Robinson with a terribly high UV light which was attracting all sorts of night flying insects. Of the species I can recall there were July High Flyers, Square Spot Rustic, Yellow Underwing, Garden Carpet and Common Wainscot among many other pedestrian looking micromoths (of which there are approximately a bajillion species in the UK alone).
There was (half of) a Skinner moth trap set up in the bushes nearer the loch not far away so it could be seen if there were any difference in the species caught. There were some new faces as well as a lovely chunky carrion beetle which Richard Sutcliffe of the Butterfly Conservation Society spotted just shortly after starting to talk about the trap. The guys had also tubed some moths they caught earlier and so those were passed around with everyone trying to remember the names and identify them on their own with varying degrees of success.
If you are interesting in more fun and frolicks involving bats and moths, then why don't you check out these websites?
http://www.bats.org.uk/
http://butterfly-conservation.org/
http://www.buglife.org.uk/local/buglife-scotland
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