At 8.30 tonight I realised that my wife was in the bath, and it was my turn to take the dog for a walk. Now, this is not a surprising thing, since it is my turn to take the dog out every night, without exception, and me being ill, as I am currently, doesn't change that.
I decided to get on with it, before temperatures dropped further, so grabbed a thick coat, a torch, and my bat detector, the latter because I knew the local bats are now out. I decided to take the dog in the car to a more rural stretch of the Monmouthshire and brecon canal.
Good decision.
There were Daubenton's bats by the dozen in places along the canal, skimming just above the water, swooping from head height to catch insects, whirring past my head, all completely oblivious to my Tesco cree torch. There were pipistrelles hunting along the woodland edges away from the canal, and at least three tawny owls all calling at once. In the canal and along the towpath there were frogs and toads, and at one point I had a chorus of owls, frogs, and the whirrs and clicks from the bat detector, and I found myself just standing still, watching and listening. Wonderful.
In addition, with the aid of the torch I was able to find all sorts of stuff under the canal bridges as well: two sorts of laceweb spider, including the big black Amaurobius ferox with its death's head markings; the largest of the false orb weaver spiders, Metellina meriane, including a beautiful example of the rare golden-banded colour form; there were snake millipedes, a banded snail, and two sorts of woodlice, plus all of the flying insects that the bats were feeding on.
It was wonderful.
And if I hadn't taken the torch or the bat detector, the only thing I would have noticed would have been the owls, despite the bats coming within a few feet of me.
I decided to get on with it, before temperatures dropped further, so grabbed a thick coat, a torch, and my bat detector, the latter because I knew the local bats are now out. I decided to take the dog in the car to a more rural stretch of the Monmouthshire and brecon canal.
Good decision.
There were Daubenton's bats by the dozen in places along the canal, skimming just above the water, swooping from head height to catch insects, whirring past my head, all completely oblivious to my Tesco cree torch. There were pipistrelles hunting along the woodland edges away from the canal, and at least three tawny owls all calling at once. In the canal and along the towpath there were frogs and toads, and at one point I had a chorus of owls, frogs, and the whirrs and clicks from the bat detector, and I found myself just standing still, watching and listening. Wonderful.
In addition, with the aid of the torch I was able to find all sorts of stuff under the canal bridges as well: two sorts of laceweb spider, including the big black Amaurobius ferox with its death's head markings; the largest of the false orb weaver spiders, Metellina meriane, including a beautiful example of the rare golden-banded colour form; there were snake millipedes, a banded snail, and two sorts of woodlice, plus all of the flying insects that the bats were feeding on.
It was wonderful.
And if I hadn't taken the torch or the bat detector, the only thing I would have noticed would have been the owls, despite the bats coming within a few feet of me.
