Bats
10 bats along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.
Best time, place by place
Where to go, north to south
Bat hibernacula in the Mønsted and Daugbjerg limestone minesAudible squeaks and wing-flutter of hundreds of Myotis swarming at the entrances; on a detector, dense FM sweeps and social calls; tawny owls in the beech above; otherwise rural silence.
Bat emergence & autumn swarmingMostly ultrasonic: echolocation and feeding buzzes, social calls. Noctule social calls and some horseshoe calls are partly audible.
Autumn bat swarming at the Segeberg Kalkberg caveAudible chatter and wing-flutter of hundreds of Myotis circling the cave mouth; on a full-spectrum detector, dense FM sweeps and social calls — one of the busiest bat soundscapes in northern Europe.
Bat emergence from karst cavesAudible squeaks and wing rustle at cave mouths from Miniopterus colonies of thousands; with a bat detector, horseshoe-bat constant-frequency calls at 80–110 kHz and bent-winged FM sweeps.
Straw-coloured fruit bats over FreetownThe squabbling, squeaking chorus of a straw-coloured fruit bat roost and the wing-rush of the dusk emergence over a city — one of the great urban wildlife sounds of West Africa, if the colony can be found.
East Nimba Nature Reserve — the Liberian side of Mount NimbaBat emergences from the disused iron-mine adits below the Nimba ridge (a full-spectrum recorder finds far more than the ear), chimps and hornbills in the remnant forest, and the wind on the grassland summit.
The Plateau fruit bats of Abidjan — a city-centre roost flying out to the Banco forestA shrieking, squabbling wall of sound from the big trees of the Plateau administrative district, wing-slaps and jostling, then the rush of the evening emergence over the avenues and the lagoon bridges. The return at first light is quieter and more musical — thousands of bats settling and arguing over branches above the empty Sunday streets.
Îles Ehotilé: fruit bats, waterbirds and mangrove lagoonFruit bats chattering on the roost islands and rushing out over the water at dusk, egret colonies bickering as they settle, terns and whimbrel over the flats, and dugout paddles in a mangrove-lined lagoon.
Fruit bat colony on the cliffs of Wli FallsA high, ceaseless chattering from many thousands of bats hanging on the cliff face beside the upper cascade, then the rush of wings as the colony peels off at dusk over the pool, all against the falls.
Straw-coloured fruit bat roost at 37 Military Hospital, AccraA continuous shrieking, chattering wall of sound from the roost trees over the hospital and the 37 lorry station, wing-slaps and squabbling as bats jostle, then the rushing of the evening emergence over Liberation Road. Pied crows and a few raptors work the edges.