Witton le Wear Roost Briarwood is the one of the largest pipistrelle colonies in the north of England, with a population of over 500 individuals.
Situated in the loft of a bungalow at the top of the village, the bats have their own sealed off section within our loft especially for the colony to protect them and offer a permanent roost - thanks to the ever helpful Pinkney Building Contractors a great local building firm who helped us create the perfect bat habitat - be sure to check out their website!
NEW -
(more photo links at the bottom of this page)
Information.
Our Pipistrelles are a mixture of 45kHz ("common") and 55kHz ("soprano") pips - referring to the frequency of their calls. The proper name is pipistrellus pipistrellus. They are light brown in colour and are one of Britain's smallest species of bats. They are insectovores consuming up to 3000 insects a night!
CLICK HERE
to learn more about pipistrelle bats on the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) website
- the page opens in a new window, so simply close it to return to this
page. For more information on all species of bats, FAQ's and exploding the
myths about bats, CLICK
HERE for the BCT's FAQ page.
NOTE on images: ALL photographs on this site are FREE for use by anyone for educational purposes, I activley ENCOURAGE the printing and redistribution of my photos if it helps educate people about bats, as I know good close-up photos of bats are hard to come by. All images are english 45kHz pipistrelles, no bats were captured for the purpose of photographing them, ALL bats pictured were relocation cases where they had become trapped in an unsuitable or dangerous area (in a house with cats!) and were inspected for injury and photographed, being held for the MINIMUM time possible before release.
If a bat is healthy it is photographed and released IMMEDIATELY, or if not very active, released at dusk, only potentially injured bats are kept until I can get them to a vet, and this never takes more than 12 hours.
The Bat Conservation Trust (UK) - A great bat resource.
Durham Bat Group - My local Bat group.
Bat Conservation International Another great bat resource.
BatBox.org - Jim Buzbee's AMAZING bat links! - you will never have seen so many links on one topic on one page in your life! if you're batty about bats this is the place for you - and it will keep you hooked to your computer and exploring for months!
BatBox.com - home of Stag Electronics, I bought my wonderful BatBox III heterodyne bat detector from them, great merchandise, friendly and knowledgable customer service, super-swift delivery of your purchases, these guys are great!
"Batty Diaries" want some bat-laughs? read Den Whitton's great little stories about Australian rescue bats! (click on "the rescue diaries" link on the page)
hows this for small?
Click HERE for details of the 2003 bats - Bill, Ben, Bert and Bubbles.
Click HERE for details of Bob, the baby bat from 2002 (my only 2002 rescue thankfully)
Click HERE for information on the first of the 2001 bats, "Jack"
Click HERE for information on the second of the 2001 bats, "Scoot"
Click on the flying bat for the 2000 Witton Bats picture index.
Updated with more pics and diagrams! Click HERE for information and photos of our GIANT bat box.
Witton Bat Count 2000 done Sunday 30th July 2000- click on the counter for figures
Email me: [email protected].
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