Small pond project

Sunset / Sunrise Survey - Bat Conservation Trust
Sunset / Sunrise Survey
Keen to get involved in bat monitoring?

This survey is ideal for you if you don't have previous bat surveying experience. It is also a perfect opportunity to get together with family/friends and discover bats and other wildlife in your local area. Simply head out at dusk or before dawn, or both! Spend an hour in your garden or walking around your local area and look out for bats.

• You can carry out your survey anytime from April to September.
• You will need: Survey form, pencil/pen, torch, watch.
• If you are doing your survey in the evening start at sunset. If you are doing your survey at dawn start one hour before sunrise.
• Spend an hour looking for bats and any other nocturnal animals you can see or hear.

Three sights to look out for
1. Bats in flight

Virtually everyone who takes part in this survey sees bats. This common pipistrelle's calls can be heard on a bat detector but you don't need a bat detector in order to take part.



2. Bats emerging from a roost at dusk

If you think a building or tree might have bats roosting then take a look just after sunset to see if you can spot bats emerging.



3. Bats swarming around a roost before dawn

The easiest way to locate a roost is just before dawn when bats swarm before entering the roost. Each year several new roosts are located by volunteers taking part in the Sunset/Sunrise Survey.


Sign up to the National Bat Monitoring Programme and get access to the bat sound library, receive the monthly Bat Monitoring Post e-bulletin and get the latest information on our surveys and results.

If you are interested in improving your skills, we run bat detector workshops so that volunteers can take part in our surveys.

Need help with a bat?
Follow our advice
or call us on 0345 1300 228

 

Ooh thank you! I will be out surveying bats. Martin, thanks for.the info. My OH is an electronics engineer. I might just talk him into making one!!

 

Went to Camperdown Wildlife Centre today and they have a bat viewing room there. Very dimly lit with a red light. Had the pleasure of watching at least a dozen short-tailed bats flying, eating fruit, grooming and sleeping. It was fantastic! Unfortunately my phone wasn't able to take clear photos.

 

I found some new snails in the pond today, ive not noticed this type before the others are small black ones.

 

Pond update, ive got lots of algae at the moment some areas are clear,

I'm presuming one reason is that the plants are not feeding atm,

Ill leave it as I don't want to disturb any wildlife, maybe remove some by hand later in the year ?.

 

Hi,

You will always have algae in the pond, partic the first couple of years.

Green water, blanket weed and duck weed the biggest culprits.

Whatever the problem, now is not the time to do much about it, other than manually removing any you can get hold of.

Once it gets warmer, say about 10c + than you could try some of the many ready made solutions.

Barley straw could be added now, though again not sure if would work when so cold.

I've used a bio/enzyme type before and its work well and fish etc not affected; (no longer sold)

Be wary of some products which just kill all the algae suddenly as that can be harmful to the fish as all the sudden dead matter has to decompose.

They always say add more plants to out compete the algae never seen that work in practice.

 

Many thanks A and ricky I will leave it be,

Its main cause is for wildlife but I do want to see in it , I don't want to add any chemicals, ill see how it goes later in the year its only a small pond and manually removing algae shouldn't be a issue just leave it by the side for at critters to crawl back in the pond.

 

Thank you A I did buy two very small bales and cut one in half one half can be seen here with the snail on it.
Small pond advice please

 

This is kind of a side comment. @martin-f, where did you source your plants from? I have noticed that GCs that sell pond plants are usually infested with blanket weed. When buying these plants one is bound to introduce this pesky algae. I bought some pond plants online from specialist pond plant nurseries and they arrived bare rooted and clean. I’m no expert but it seems to me that buying from a GC in pots is a sure way to introduce blanket weed. It would be informative to hear of other people’s experiences.

 

Hi Redwing I got the plants from a local nursery, the issue has got worse as other plants have died off, as mentioned it can take a few years for the pond to get established I'm doing what I always do run before I can walk

 

I`ve found that water cress is particularly beneficial, I also made a pre filter last year that has improved things hugely.

Before I installed the pre filter, I found baby fish and other creatures were being sucked into the pump - very distressing..... that doesn`t happen now.