On Friday 21st September about 30 members of Friends of Chesworth attended a very enjoyable evening meeting Jenny Clarke and her rescued bats which was held in The Studio at the farm.
Jenny delighted us all with her stories about the bats and how she looks after them when they come into her care. This year she has been incredibly busy with more bats then ever being brought to her. One of the problems the bats have been having is with fly papers, they see the insects on them and think it is an easy meal and then get stuck on them. They have to be carefully cleaned with warm water and then looked after for several weeks to get their strength back before being released back close to where they were found (minus the fly papers). The wet summer has also been a problem for the bats and many inexperienced mothers have been found starving. The more experienced mothers have the ability to reabsorb or abort their babies so that they can survive in difficult times.
Jenny showed us several different types of bats, telling us the difference between ‘Gleaners’ and ‘Hawkers’, she brought them around to show us very close up, so we could look at their faces and wings, we could plainly see the differences between all the different sorts. We also saw the different types of droppings and the debris that is left under a bat’s favourite eating place.
After the talk was over Steve took everyone out to see if we could find some wild bats around the farm buildings. We soon heard their echo locating squeaks on the bat detector and then a Pipistrelle flew past. We then went down to the bridge over the river where we saw a Daubenton hunting low over the water.
Thank you to Jenny for such an interesting evening and thank you Steve for organising it.
We hope to be arranging more talks and activities for Friends of Chesworth Farm, if anyone has any suggestions please let us know.
Friends of Chesworth Farm 
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