The Bat Station

A very battered Speckled Wood butterfly flying around today showed how much this weather has been giving a battering to some of the wildlife. It landed or flopped onto the road until the draft of a passing car was enough to blow it out of sight and safety onto the bank of the grass verge.
A party of 10 or 11 Long-tailed Tit moved through, many of them being juveniles but 3-4 adults probably meant it was a family party with Mum, Dad, the bairns and an aunty or uncle or two.
The Durham Bat Group got a call from the local vet that a bat had been found by the train station a few days ago. The tiny little thing was a young one and had been brought down by the rain and unable to feed. It was the commonest of the bats a Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus). After a few days of T.L.C. it was fit enough to be released. So tonight, I was at the station with one of the members of the group, and at about 8:30pm there were two Pipistrelle Bats flying around. The youngster, after a bit of hesitation, joined them feeding over the trees along the railway line. A good job done.

Pipistrelle Bat ready to leave its perch