Bath: The UK Hot Spot for Bats

Did you know that our historic city of Bath holds residence to 15 species of bat, out of the 18 varieties found in the UK? This makes Bath one of the greatest places to spot bats in the whole country. It’s observed that bats do so well in the area thanks to what is actually the industrialisation of the city, living and hunting along the canal, the suburban fringes, and even the Combe Down stone mines. From the common pipistrelle to the much rarer horseshoe species, both Bath’s greenery and buildings provide a home to an untold number of bats.

All Creatures Great and Small

From Carr’s Wood to South Stoke, an evening walk along the canal or river, or a trip to any park should reward you with the sight of at least one species of bat. As well as the common variety, soprano pipistrelles, and a third type, the rare Nathusius pipistrelles can also be found along with serotines, Daubentons, and noctules. These smaller animals usually only weigh the equivalent of a 2p/£1 coin and typically eat gnats and midges that hang over the water and shrubs, each type easily distinguished by their individual hunting skills. A summer stroll around Bath as the day ends is best for a bat walk, when they’re out of hibernation and teaching their pups how to hone their techniques.

Insectivores

All of the bats found within the UK eat insects including flies and beetles, but they each have their own attributes that help them get along in their environments without eating the other’s meal. The country’s largest bat, the noctule, is big enough and fast enough to not have to worry about birds such as the sparrowhawk and so comes out to hunt earlier than most other bat types, often the first to be seen on an evening. A high flyer, you’ll probably need a bat detector to help you spot the noctule, where it’s identified by its loud deep calls.

Calling Cards

The use of a bat detector is not always needed to accurately pinpoint which species of bat you’ve spotted, serotines, for example, are commonly acknowledged by their broad wings, though being a larger bat, they’re often confused with the noctule. Here, the detector helps. A noctule’s call is known for its regular chip-chop sound whereas the serotine’s call is described as a jazzy, irregular drumbeat. A band of bats known as the myotis group show no discernible characteristics between their echolocation noises and so often go unidentified, but a myotis known as the Daubenton manages to stand out from the rest with its specialist hunting skills; this bat likes to fly inches above the canal water, catching skimming insects in its hairy feet.

Urban Dwellers

While the bigger varieties of bats seem to prefer trees, the tiny ones prefer houses, roosting in warm lofts and under roofs. This can cause some grief to locals trying to renovate homes or applying for planning permission, as the disturbance of the habitat of roosting bats can be seen as a criminal offence, and often a bat emergence survey is needed. Luckily, an Arbtech survey can help with that.

Arbtech offers surveys for homeowners with all manner of naturalist and conservation-based issues and queries. Thankfully, bats don’t cause damage, they’re not diggers or chewers, but you might need to clean out some guano from behind the gables!

Spooky Sights

The brown long eared bat prefers churches, as a slow flyer, it doesn’t like to go far, so a sunset visit to a churchyard filled with trees could be your best bet to spot one of the UK’s most common bat species. Brown long ears are hard to detect, as they turn their echolocation off while hunting, preferring to use their identifying large sensory organs to listen for bugs instead. After a quick trip to catch a moth, they will hang up in church porches to feast, and droppings in these areas help you find the parishes best for bat spotting. Walking around Smallcombe Valley provides stunning views and with the cemetery there, it brings to mind gothic stories with bats flying over the tombstones, a perfectly atmospheric place for finding serotines.

Browne’s Folly

As a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Browne’s Folly, on the edges of the city, holds a reserve with 13 of the bat species to be found in the stunning surrounding areas. With a flowing woodland and flower-filled pastures on top of the old Bath stone quarries, this environment is the roosting place for some of the UK’s rarest animals. After being filled for safety 20 years ago, some of the mine’s tunnels and chambers were kept specifically for both the lesser horseshoe and the greater horseshoe varieties to hibernate in and also raise their young.

Following the steady decline of bat populations throughout the last half of the past century, horseshoe bats have been documented and studied to progress efforts in re-establishing their numbers and they can even be found roosting here in summer as well as hibernating in the winter. The oldest known bat recorded in the UK was found to live in the mines, having been found some 30 years after being tagged as a juvenile.

Wealth of Knowledge

The Avon Wildlife Trust offers bat walks around Bath with the opportunity to use the detectors that help you identify all the species of bat you happen across by listening to the distinctive echolocation calls of the different species.

Whether it’s a stroll around the Folly or along the canal, you’ll find bats everywhere from the Southdown area to Moorsfield Park. Avon Bat Group are volunteers who actively get involved with conservation all over the county from Victoria to Moorfields Park and Organisations such as Bathscape and Bath City Farm are fonts of knowledge on the world’s only flying mammal; nationally, the Bat Conservation Trust is the UK’s ‘go-to’ with an extensive collection of information on these fascinating animals.