We’re going batty at Wheatland Farm’s eco lodges… Or rather we’re checking out our batty-ness with a bat detector borrowed from the Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project.
The bat detector stays up for 3 days detecting what’s flying around by recording the bats’ high pitched sounds. The big prize would be Greater Horseshoe Bats, but that’s pretty unlikely really. Greater Horseshoe Bats have declined by 98% in recent decades (but a one third of those left in England and Wales are found in Devon). We don’t think we have the buildings they need for roosting – but it will be interesting to see what we do have. There are about 3 species around here we think.
The bat detector is part of a county-wide partnership project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Even when we know for sure we don’t have Greater Horseshoe Bats we should get a better understanding of what we can do around the eco lodges to manage habitat for bats in our landscapes.