Wildlife 2007

[Andrew]

Firstly, Happy New Year.

I looked out the window this morning and this was sitting on the lawn.

Picus viridis or Green Woodpecker.

[John Forrest]

What a super start to the New Year. Hope it's the start of many more.

[mark smyth]

A note for your diary and those with Sky+

Friday January 12th at 7.30pm Channel 5 - in the UK & Ireland
'Flight of the Bat'
Jake Williers visits Bracken Cave, San Antonio, Texas
home to 20 million bats that eat 20 tons of insects every night.
That equals
2857 stones or
40,000 pounds or
18,144KG

I believe it is also the same as us eating a days worth of food in one setting. And to make y'll jealous I've been there. http://www.jacksonresources.com/batcave2005/sunset2.jpg There is a short video here http://www.jacksonresources.com/batcave2005/index.htm including the emergence seen by radar

[Lesley Cox]

Now Mark, go easy with those statistics. Remember Paddy will be lurking out there!

[Paddy Tobin]

In despair AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

[Joakim B]

Especially for the metric people.
I would expect a ton to be 1000 kg rather than 2000 pounds. That is how we do it. Maybe You call our ton for metric tone?
If not then it would be 20 000kg and some 44 000 pounds just to make the figures one more time 
Nice bug eaters if they would eat slugs they would be even more wellcome.

Take care
Joakim

[Anthony Darby]

I think you mean 1 tonne Joakim? 1 (long) ton is 20cwt which is actually 2240lb whereas a tonne is 1000kg or 2204.6lb. A "short ton" is 2000lb, and like all short measures, came from across the pond!

[annew]

I don't think the bats can count.

[Joakim B]

Thanks for the lesson in the different ton(nes). I can only admit we play a bit with the inch aswell. It is suposed to be 2.54cm but there is a 2.5cm inch aswell. Funny that after more than 200 yeares we still have to make some confusion with weights and measures.
We will see what measurements exist in the next 200 years.

Kind regards
Joakim

[mark smyth]

I Googled the weights

[Paddy Tobin]

Bats: So how much crap do these little fellows deposit each night? Now, there's a big weight whether in metric or imperial.

Paddy

(See how good I am being tonight - I didn't even say where I would like them to drop it.)

[Anthony Darby]

I think you mean mass Paddy. I don't think gravity will affect the amount? All I can say is when you are watching bats keep your mouth shut Now where did I put that spirtle?

[John Forrest]

Has everyone gone chiroptera....y 

[mark smyth]

these bats, Mexican Free-tailed aka here European Free-tailed, the same bat, are long distant flyers flying up to 100 miles to meet migrating Corn Ear Worm Moths, Helicoverpa zea, migrating north from Central America http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/agricultural_sciences/report-24774.html These moths fly up to 1Km high to hitch a ride noth on the wind.

A large colony of these bats lives under Congress Bridge in Austin using expansion joins to roost in. The council was going to get rid of the bats because they were "a health hazard". People started at arrive to see what the fuss was and now the emerging bats are a tourist attraction with 100s attending every night during the summer

[Andrew]

Jake Williers visits Bracken Cave, San Antonio, Texas
home to 20 million bats that eat 20 tons of insects every night.

They must be light eaters !

Did anyone see 'Expedition Borneo' last night? I seem to remember that the cave they were in, had 3 million bats and they ate 10 tons of insects a night or is my memory going