Paula Radcliffe with Mark Cavendish – release! - and more guests… Over the weekend, Sarah gets four more bat calls.........

One (a late night call) was a false alarm – a lady with a maternity colony that she understands well (having had a Roost Visit from Natural England) thought a baby was in distress and alone but it was preparing to fly, hence breathing rapidly to raise its temperature, and took off while she was on the phone. So that’s one wild baby doing well!

Two more calls came when we were out and about. Hero Husband is always great about this. He’s well-versed enough to know that a rescue at this time of year won’t just be a collection but will be a good few hours of hand feeding. The callers had left messages while I was busy so, as I return the calls, he cancels our day’s plans and re-routes us to the first location.

The first of these was from a local nature reserve, where a fisherman was apparently surprised by a bat (now known as Raymond, I’m told) falling out of a tree beside him. The reserve holds regular bat walks and talks and had the number of the Forest Row hospital, who gave him my number. The warden kept Raymond in a box with some water (plus a dot of honey) until I arrived. This chap is a juvenile pipistrelle, probably just flying and underfed but not starving.

Third call of the weekend was from a modern house in a residential area, where the bat apparently fell down the chimney and was discovered by the resident Labrador. He’s another juvenile pipistrelle, so again probably just flying and not starving but low in fat reserves. An inspection at home found that he had an injury to his wing. Bat wings are essentially a membrane from the arm bone and over elongated fingers which meet at the wrist, with a tiny thumb for gripping. His fourth finger bone was inflamed suggesting an injury, probably sustained from his fall, had become infected. A discussion with the bat hospital confirmed that I should administer a course of antibiotics to tackle the infection, which might in turn help him with his appetite.

The fourth callers are kind enough to bring the bat to me, which is always appreciated! This is a long eared. My heart sinks. He’s totally starving and long-eareds just don’t recover easily. I am hugely encouraged that he feeds straight away; this is unusual and gives me hope. He takes water and is immediately ready to chew something, including the tissue he’s wrapped in. He takes a good few meal worms and then I hope he will take some initiative to feed himself and tuck him in a box with the usual accoutrements.

The two juvenile pips - one soprano and one common – both eventually take food offered by hand but they don’t take the initiative themselves. I tuck injured pip up with a heat pad in the hope that this will help, as he’s taking less food than Raymond. Using a wet cotton bud, I set to grooming some muck off of Raymond’s head that he hasn’t attended to, as it may be disguising an injury. Bats groom diligently, so this is bothering me. He doesn’t like this very much and when he gapes at me I take the opportunity to offer a meal worm, which he chews while I clean him up.

It’s slow going. Six hours of hand feeding later and they still haven’t had a good amount of food and none are feeding independently.

Over the next few days, the pattern is the same and I try feeding them in their food bowls to demonstrate that food is there for them if only they’ll eat it. More regular feeds (fitted in around work) seem to be the only way to get any food into them and it’s painstaking progress.

But, tonight is a big night for Paula and Mark. A lot of work has been done by a fellow bat worker to work out where the maternity roost is that these bats came from. It’s at a local museum, and we are meeting someone who is kindly providing out-of-hours access for the release, right beside the roost.

We meet up at dusk and I take Paula and Mark out in their tea-towel to make sure they’re warmed up and hold them up while they get their bearings. Mum Paula seems to know where she is and soon takes off with confidence; baby Mark is more tentative about his first flight in the wild. Mum swoops past twice to encourage him and eventually, he takes his flight of freedom and joins mum flying over the trees, where his next lesson, of feeding on the wing, is no doubt about to start! See the video here.

What a brilliant thing to be a part of! I thank the patient chap, who has appreciated the special moment, head home and settle in for some more hand-feeding of the next round of bats….

Woo-hoo!

Freedom!

As a footnote - this conservation effort, in which I am a distinct novice and a very small part, is carried out by extremely knowledgeable volunteers and is one of the more hands on and (for me, at least!) emotionally-charged aspects of bat ecology work that I’m involved in. But this care work makes an enormous difference to my consultancy work; whenever I do a rescue I need to work out where the roost is, which has sharpened up my bat survey skills rapidly as well as enabling me to see a huge range of different roosts for different species, and from test-flying bats up close, I can appreciate different flying patterns readily when surveying. The rescue calls I receive ensure that I’m attuned to seasonal bat behaviour, how weather patterns affect bats and how that might impact commercial surveys I plan and advice I give. I’m aware of different species’ foibles and while this might seem slightly indulgent, it can make a difference to the details of mitigation design which help to improve the chances of its success. Most importantly, I have opportunity to continuously learn from people with an enormous wealth of knowledge who carry out this bat care with huge attention to the individual and with great understanding of their overall ecology. We know comparatively little but it’s fascinating learning!

For more information about what to do if you find a bat visit the Bat Conservation Trust's web page

Find out more about the Sussex Bat Group and opportunities to volunteer visit their website

Bat services from The Ecology Consultancy

As well as caring for bats in our spare time we offer a range of bat surveys and mitigation services. You can see the full range on our website

Bat surveys and mitigation

The second week of bat care and things settle down for Sarah's remaining bats. Days 8 to 14

Over the week, I carefully tend to Paula. Each morning, I get up early before work to measure out and administer her dose of antibiotics and do the same each evening. An improvement in her character is noticeable immediately and builds through the week – she’s less grumpy, less distressed, more co-operative and getting back to her normal calm, gentle self. It’s a huge relief. The obsessional grooming has ceased, there are no little tell-tale spots on the tissues and it’s obvious that the treatment is working.

She doesn’t like being separated from baby Mark and there is indignant chatter from both of them each time I extract her. On one occasion baby Mark actually spread-eagled himself over her, which was beyond adorable from the point of view of their bond but concerning from the point of view of how stressful this must be for them. On balance, it’s reassuring to see that their delicate bond is intact, as this is my main worry while her treatment is underway and delaying their release.

I wrap her up in a tissue while I give her the antibiotics to stop her wriggling and to make her feel warm and secure and able to ingest the liquid. Her co-operative nature makes this a pretty quick task and so I can pop her back in no time to reunite with baby Mark. The happy reunion is always accompanied with more chatter, a race towards one another and a thorough snuggle.

In between medicinal interludes, I carefully sterilise everything and change the tea-towels in Paula and Mark’s box so that everything is super-clean to help the healing of the infection and to prevent any other complications, making a fairly hectic week of washing, cleaning and laundry.

An inadvertent flight during one check tells me that mum is almost recovered, as she wouldn’t be trying to fly if she was still suffering discomfort. But I cut that little unnecessary bout of exercise short with a deft capture as activity now may cause another problem and then further delay their release. Mum will just have to be patient and wait for the course of medicine to finish.

As soon as the course of medicine is finally complete, I let them have a day of total peace to relax together and, the next day, give them their (hopefully final) test flight.

They know the drill by now. I hold them up, warm them in my hands and then wait for them to take off. There is some hesitation but after a few moments of chatter, echolocation and looking around, Paula is off, fluttering around the room. Mark tiptoes over the edge of my hand, grips with his toes and…… dangles. It’s quite comic. He sits here for a little while, spreads his wings out as if stretching pre-event and then suddenly swoops off, circling around with Paula. His agility is evident, so the lack of practise hasn’t set him back and his stamina is good. Mum Paula lands soon after take-off and seems to need a bit of confidence, which isn’t surprising after her last two attempts to fly, but Mark’s assertive flying seems to provide the encouragement she needs and she is soon flying with him. How wonderful that now he’s able to support her. They circle around the room in beautiful arcs, drawing figure of eights around each other. It is amazing to see her recovery and know that they can be released. Tomorrow will be the big day and I tuck them up for a good feed in advance of their adventure.

Release-ready!

On the home straight now!

For more information about what to do if you find a bat visit the Bat Conservation Trust's web page

Find out more about the Sussex Bat Group and opportunities to volunteer visit their website

Bat services from The Ecology Consultancy

As well as caring for bats in our spare time we offer a range of bat surveys and mitigation services. You can see the full range on our website

Bat surveys and mitigation