I was called into the house from my study as I was told there was something interesting in the end room.
This is a room we do not use very often and my immediate thought was that my wife had found some more silverfish. We had been looking out for some more of these of late after my efforts at the recent silver anniversary of the Highland Biological Recording group in Inverness. Readers may recall we had been asked to bring along something with a natural history theme of "silver".
The silverfish in our house live mainly in the kitchen and we had great difficulty is finding one, particularly as the five dachshunds thought it was a great game with us on our hands and knees.
As for the end room, as I went through I was told the item of interest was on a bare brick wall behind a curtain.
My immediate thought was of a hibernating butterfly, but surely a small tortoiseshell would not merit being called in. But perhaps it was a peacock or even a red admiral, as we still do not know whether the latter can survive our winters as hibernating adults.
It was neither butterfly nor silverfish as to my amazement there hanging on the rough surface was a hibernating bat. It was thrilling to say the least, but then I became concerned about it. We could not leave this room unheated throughout the winter, so the bat would have to be moved. I immediately thought the best place would be up in the roof space, as after all there is, each summer, a breeding colony of brown long-eared bats.
With that in mind, I guessed the bat I was looking at was a brown long-eared bat but with its ears tucked in out of sight for the winter.
Despite all my years of interest in wildlife conservation, I just did not know what to do with the bat, so started telephoning people to find out.
To start with, I was told it was not just as simple as just moving the bat. Technically I would need a licence to handle it under the circumstances and of course I would need to be inoculated against rabies. Also, no photography would be allowed until I had had training in disturbing or handling bats.
In the end, as some local people who could have given advice were on holiday, I consulted the National Bat Conservation Group who were more than helpful. There was much discussion over the problem and a number of telephone calls.
What did surprise me was the advice that the bat should be moved outside, but this was because it was just before Christmas and still relatively mild. I had just presumed I would put it in the roof space where its companions had been in the summer, although they had long since gone.
In the end a compromise was reached and the advice from the bat group was that it should be disturbed. The idea was to make sure it had water, so as soon as it started moving we should force some water into its mouth with a small spoon. Then a mixture of wet dog food should be mixed into a paste and pushed carefully into the bat's mouth. Then when it had recovered a little it should be put outside. Instead of thick gloves, a towel should be used to prevent any chance of a bite.
So we advanced on the bat that was still hanging there motionless on just one leg. I moved it slightly and it fell off the wall - dead. To say I was upset was to put it mildly, but I did place it back just to take the photograph.
Interestingly, it was not the brown long-eared bat I had expected but a pipistrelle.
* The record of the week was a comment from a reader following this Country Diary earlier this month about dragonflies. It was pointed out just how easy it is to make new discoveries for the Highlands in terms of dragonflies.
This group of insects is split into dragonflies and damselflies, the latter being much smaller, about the size of a matchstick, and their delicate wings are always held closed above their abdomens.
They can be quite common, especially the large red damselfly that despite its name is very small.
They are often the earliest of the damselflies to fly and can often be seen in large numbers over suitable breeding sites such as lochs and lochans. Despite their red colour, they can be easily overlooked until you "get your eye in".
Another common damselfly and, because of its colour, more conspicuous is the common blue damselfly. Most people, including myself, rarely ever check these out, just accepting the fact that they are only going to be one species in the Highlands. However last year around two ponds on the Black Isle, the azure damselfly was recorded. This is very similar in shape and colour to the common blue damselfly, so check it out in a book.
The nearest previous records for many years for the azure damselfly was close to Pitlochry, yes that far south. However, there are more recent records from Strathspey.
So are the Black Isle records from damselflies moving north or have they always been there as a relict population?
For this coming season it is worth checking out any damselflies you may see, wherever you are in the Highlands.
