Five bat species seen at riverside meadows

FIVE species of bat were recorded during a survey in Henley.

The animals were observed in Mill and Marsh Meadows and adjacent areas including the “grassy triangle” and the River Thames on three dates in June and July last year.

The survey was commissioned by Henley Town Council to provide information about bat species and possible roost sites and was carried out by the Henley Wildlife Group.

The recorded species included common and soprano pipistrelle bats while some others could not be identified.

The group’s report said: “There was one unconfirmed record of a single brown, long-eared bat, feeding on trees at the east end of Marsh Meadows. A single noctule was seen/heard flying high at the east end of Marsh Meadows.



“The most numerous species was the Daubenton’s bat, which fed in good numbers over the Thames in all three surveys. Daubenton’s bats were also recorded flying over the banks of Marsh Meadows in the first survey.” The report said the tree lines and associated marginal strips of long grass at the meadows were important foraging areas for the bats.

It added: “The River Thames is also important, providing an important feeding area for Daubenton’s bats especially. Other than over the river the density of bats was not particularly great and bats were more or less absent from the shorter mown areas of the central parts of the grassland areas.”