Out today at Harewood on a beautiful day roadtesting my new camera. Was expecting lots of red kites - which there were - but came across this lovely buzzard too. Nice to see one quite close to see the markings on the underwing and to see how different it looks in the air from the kites.
Saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a long tailed tit - to my amazement it was a bat - a pipistrelle, I think. It was 2.30 in the afternoon and really bright sunshine. It was flapping around near a stream for a few minutes and then disappeared. I saw it again further up the track, this time being chased by a red kite. Thankfully the kite was not agile enough and the bat escaped...
And I couldn't come back from Harewood without at least one red kite picture, so here it is!
Super sightings and rare to see a bat captured so clearly
ReplyDeleteTa v much, want to try this camera on those owls!
DeleteBloody hell missus. Anybody can get a shot of a Kite (assuming you frequent the correct locality) but not many can get a Pipistrelle. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks P, not a bad first day with the camera. Good to see the owls are still out and about at Prestwick Carr.
DeleteAmazing pictures of the bat .... brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil
DeleteI've just gone green !!
ReplyDeleteI had one (bat) last night but obviously no chance of capturing it.
Your new camera has served you well already. Nice images.
Thanks Johnny couldn't quite believe my own eyes when I saw the bat. Can shoot more frames per second on the new camera, otherwise I wouldn't have caught it.
DeleteGreat effort to get a bat on camera! It looks quite big, might it of been a noctule ?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a pipistrelle because of the ears - noctule pictures I've seen have larger ears - but I'm prepared to be wrong! It flew like a pipistrelle too - very flappy. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteWow Linda, great bat shots. I only seem to see them when it's too dark to photograph them. The new camera and its operator are working well.
ReplyDeleteHi John - it is Andrea, the other half of the dynamic duo that is kirkstallcreatures. I took these Harewood shots -Linda was at work and missed all the action!
DeleteBoth have new cameras though so are hopefully now inspired to go out and get some stuff for the blog.
Thanks for your comments!
Oo-er Linda!! I've fiddled about for years trying to get a half decent bat flight shot...and failed. Some thoughts on the i/d front, if I could add my tuppenceworth - it certainly looks like a pipistrelle to me. Your first picture has captured wonderfully a key feature. It's called the post-calcarial lobe, and it's that little semi transparent half circle of skin on the edge of the tail membrane just by the left foot. Put that together with the small ears (by bat standards) and your 'flappy' description of the flight and it really has to be a pip for me.
ReplyDeleteOnce you've got the lobe present in a small eared bat then your choices are the various pipistrelle species; noctule; leisler's bat and the serotine.
Noctules have a higher faster direct flight - certainly nothing you would describe as 'flappy'. It's impossible to judge size from the photo of course but given your northerly location then serotine is less likely.
Allan
Hello Alan
Deletethanks so much for this information - I don't know a great deal about bats and have never seen one in daylight before, so it is always good to hear from someone with more knowledge. I have seen noctules before and would agree with your description of the flight - they seemed more like swallows to me when I have seen them, and this was definitely not flying like that. I'm about to put some of the other pics up too but I think the two I've already posted were the clearest.
Andrea (the other half of Kirkstall Creatures!)