The Half Marathon

If you intend to run a half marathon, you can’t just stroll up to the start line and go for it without any preparation. You probably need to do plenty of training in advance of the event and eat healthily a few days before, or at least this is what I was told by various people. I had plenty of encouragement and kind words in addition to some who thought I’d certainly struggle and possibly not even make it around the 13 and a bit mile (21km) course. They needn't have worried though; despite my lack of preparation I didn’t do too badly!

I agreed to run the half marathon with my dad earlier in the summer; it seemed like a good idea at the time despite having never done much running before. My dad is a member of a local running club and has done a few half marathons in his time, his aim was to do the 13 and a bit miles in under two hours. As this was my first half marathon, I thought if I can keep up with him most of the way I will have done pretty well. My aim was to finish not too far behind my dad, ideally in under 2 hours and fifteen minutes.

My cousins birthday cake in the foreground with slices
of other delicious calorific cakes behind.
(Photo: Nicola Brown)

The night before the marathon I was at my cousin’s 21^st birthday party and although I didn’t drink I ate a lot of calorific cakes. My plan was to get lots of sugar into me but my girlfriend reckoned I’d just feel bloated! After crawling into bed quite late I then missed my early morning alarm. Following a super quick breakfast of Weetabix and sultanas my dad and I turned up to Victoria Park in Leicester at around 8:30am. We then spent most of the 45 minutes we had before the start of the race queuing in the rain for the porta-loos! At 9:15 we were stood before the start line in a holding pen like cattle waiting to be let out into a new pasture!

The first part of the race was a long downhill from the park into the centre of Leicester, my dad, being 6 foot 3 has long legs and bounded down the hill away from me. When we got onto the flat I managed to catch back up with him. We went through the centre of Leicester, up the famous Golden Mile and into Watermead Country Park. The rain wasn’t too heavy but there had been enough of it over the course of the morning to create lots of puddles. Up until this point I had managed to avoid most of them and my feet were still dry (maybe not completely dry, they were probably a bit sweaty). Coming over one bridge in the middle of the park there was one large puddle which we could not avoid. My socks soaked up the water like a sponge but luckily this didn’t hinder my running too much.

A staged photo of me running looking slightly
manic! My sister and girlfriend were going to
get there to watch us cross the line and take
photos, but we were too quick for them.
(Photo: Nicola Brown)

A little way out of the park we approached a water station, until this point my dad and I had been together most of the time (on the odd occasion he had managed to pull ahead but I had always managed to catch him up again). He slowed down to get some water while I carried on. We then went through Abbey Park and looking over my shoulder I could see my dad not too far behind me. The route then took us back through the centre of the city and uphill back to Victoria Park where we had started the race (the organisers of the half marathon have done very well in choosing a route that incorporated a variety of parks which I work on in my early career as a Parks Officer).

My dad and I after the race with our medals.
(Photo: Nicola Brown)

I knew the uphill back to the park was the last bit of the course, I looked back to find my dad but couldn’t spot him. I looked at my watch and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had only been running for 1hr 45mins and only had a little further to go. I felt like I still had plenty of energy (probably something to do with jelly babies I’d scoffed before and during the race) so I upped my pace and started taking over a few people while going uphill. When I got to the top of the hill I’d passed a good 15-20 people and there was only the home straight in front of me. Still having plenty of energy I decided to sprint the last few hundred meters and finished in 1hr 51 minutes. I stood stretching out on the better side of the finish line for my dad to cross. He was only 2 minutes behind me, finishing in 1hr 53 minutes. He achieved his goal of completing it under 2hrs and I completely smashed my target of 2hrs 15mins! Looking at the official finishing positions online it turns out I finished 657^th and my dad 742^nd out of over 2500 runners! To get into the top 100 I need to shave 20 minutes off my time… a challenge for next year maybe.?.?.?

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far. I have now raised £385 through sponsorship for the Half Marathon and have been promised at least £830 from local Bat Groups and Wildlife Trusts, totalling £1215 towards the cost of DNA analysis of my bat poo. I am only £785 short of my of £2000 target. If you would still like to sponsor me you can do. Please visit http://doodle.com/3gdu7dfy3phrsrkgmhf96vdk/admin?#table include your name and how I know you and click how much you would like to donate.

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

I'm running for bat poo!

A lovely woodland on a beautiful evening
(Photo: Philip Brown)

Tonight, (Saturday 28^th September) I will be surveying at woodland number 45, my last site. It will be the end of a very long but very very enjoyable summer. I’ve met lots of interesting people, visited some lovely woodlands, seen nearly the full range of UK bat species and caught well over 250 bats!

The previous blog takes us up to August Bank Holiday, but don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about the sites I’ve surveyed since then, I’ll be posting about my activities between the end of August and now over the coming weeks.

I have collected droppings from Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcathoe bats from up and down the country and various people have been kind enough to send me poo from bats that they have caught. I now need to get all of that poo analysed to work out exactly which species I have caught. Unfortunately I have been unable to secure funding to cover these costs which will be in the region of £2000-£2500 (I’m still waiting for some droppings to be sent to me and a couple of quotes to come back before I can work out an exact figure). Some bat groups have very kindly offered to pay for records from their counties and some individuals have agreed to pay for the analysis of droppings that they have sent to me, but this still leaves me a long way short of my total!

Is it a Brandt's, Whiskered or Alcathoe?
(Photo: Andy Shurbourne)

To try and cover at least some of the remaining costs I am going to be raising money by getting sponsorship for running the Leicester Half Marathon on Sunday 13^th October. If you would like to sponsor me I would be really grateful. Any amount is welcome and if you want to sponsor me through a company or organisation you would be mentioned in presentations and publications where appropriate.

In terms of where your money goes, in a "£5 will feed a family of six for a week", or
"£15 will buy exercise books for a whole school", kind of way, around £30 will cover the cost of analysis of one dropping.

If you are unaware as to why I am analysing bat poo and what this is all about have a look at the earlier blogs: The stage is set – August 16^th, and Poo Tastic – August 18^th. If you’ve not got time to read them, here are my research aims in a very small nutshell:

I am looking to describe the distribution of a new bat species to the UK and need to analyse the poo to check which species I have as this new bat species looks very very very similar to two other bat species.

If you would like to sponsor me please visit http://doodle.com/3gdu7dfy3phrsrkg click how much you would like to sponsor and enter your name and how I know you (e.g. Family, *** Bat Group, Friend, Volunteer at *** Wood) so I can contact you once I have completed the half marathon to collect sponsorship. If I do not know you, or am not likely to have your email address please send an email to philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk so I can get in contact with you to collect sponsorship. If you are wondering why I am not doing this through Just Giving or a similar donations page it is because “Phil’s Bat Poo Fund” is not a registered charity!

Bungeeing a tree out of the way to make
space for the harp trap
(Photo: Nicola Powell)

The half marathon is two weeks away now. Up until this point my training has been:

a) Walking multiple miles around woodlands every night,

b) Carrying heavy bat catching equipment to and from my car multiple times a day,

c) Occasionally wrestling with a tree to bend it out of the way to create the ideal space for my trap.

d) One six mile run with my dad last Tuesday before a survey, after which my calves were so tight they felt like they were going to snap!

I’m not quite sure how I am going to cope with 13 miles! I’d better get busy training over these next two weeks!

Keep checking back to see how my training is going (and how I did, once complete), how my surveys in September went and to see what sort of results I am getting from my data!

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

A record number of bats...

Cheeking the breeding status by looking for the size of
the nipples
(Photo:Graham Warnes)

I was off to Northamptonshire at the start of the week to survey two woodlands, one close to a water body and one site away from water. The away from water site was full of old wild cherry trees and lots of badger droppings with cherry seeds in! At this site, amongst other things, we caught 10 Natterers, which is a record for the number of one species I’ve caught on any night this summer. At the other site in Northamptonshire we got a good diversity of species and caught no more than two of any species. We also caught a potential Brandt’s, Whiskered or Alcathoe bat.

Is it a Brandt's, Whiskered or Alcathoe?
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

I then surveyed my first site in Warwickshire. If the cherry tree woodland was the home of Natterers bats, this woodland was the home of Noctules. We caught three Noctules in addition to five other species (see the post "Getting on well in Wytham and Wiltshire" from August 23^rd for more information about Noctules).

Spread Eagle
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

After three reasonably successful nights trapping, I then had by far, my worst night. A storm was threatening all evening, the woodland was on a steep hillside and we only caught one bat. This, as if to follow the theme of the previous night was also a Noctule. This was my first site in Nottinghamshire, let hope the other Notts sites are more successful.

Saturday 24^th August was International Bat Night, but after rain threatening all of the previous night and never materialising, it looked almost certain to rain so I had to cancel the survey. So far I have been very lucky with the weather and only had to cancel this one so far. I have only been properly rained on twice and on both of these occasions it was right at the end of the survey (there has been the odd light shower during other surveys but nothing to halt proceedings). Fingers crossed there are plenty more dry nights between now and the end of September.

Processing a bat with members of the Leicestershire
and Rutland Bat Group
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

Sunday 25^th August has been one of my best nights trapping so far, we caught 18 bats (my previous record was 17) of 8 or 9 species (I say 8 or 9 as we caught two Brandt’s/Whiskered/Alcathoe bats which may turn out to be the same or different species after DNA analysis). This woodland has a good structure with a variety of tree species, a small reservoir in the middle and is surrounded by acid and heath grassland which is managed by grazing long horn cattle.

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

Nice food, not so nice weather and a real mixed bag in terms of bat catching success

A brief description of my time in Herefordshire would go something along the lines of: as the food got better, the bat catching got better! Monday afternoon I got to my site, had a look around, decided where to put my traps and then went for dinner at a nearby Wetherspoons pub, they didn’t have the fish and chips I ordered so I had a burger, which was ok but nothing great. That evening we only caught five bats which is one of my lowest haul of bats I’ve had so far this summer.

Our visitor for the evening, a Smooth Newt
(Photo: Denise Foster)

Monday night I stayed in the spare room of my main contact for the area. She lives in a lovely cottage and the room I was staying in had beautiful views of the countryside and Welsh mountains in the distance. On Tuesday morning she made bacon and egg for breakfast, then for lunch she gave me what was essentially a huge ploughman’s. My tank was full and I certainly needed the energy that evening from the food consumed during the day. The first bat we caught was a Lesser Horseshoe. This was the first one of these bats I’ve seen and handled so I was pretty excited. It flew into the trap before we had switched the lure on, so it was a good start to the survey which continued in the same vein. We caught 12 bats in total and also had an unexpected visitor. A Smooth Newt strolled into the middle of our processing point to say hello!

On Wednesday I made my way to my parents’ house in Leicester and surveyed a woodland on the edge of Rutland Water, a massive reservoir created in the 70’s in the middle of the smallest county in the country. Unfortunately there was a strong wind blowing across the water and there were not many insects about or many bats in the traps or even on the detectors.

Just one of the 17 bats caught on
Derbyshire/Leicestershire border:
A Noctule just before release
(Photo:Steven Roe)

Thursday was far more successful, this time on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border. We caught a record 17 bats three of which were my target species. I was privileged enough to be driven around the site on a little buggy by the estate manager which made transporting the equipment and getting around the site a lot quicker and easier. Just as we were about to start packing away at the end of the survey the heavens opened and everyone got soaked. With the buggy we managed to keep most of the equipment dry as well as the bats that threw themselves into the traps at the end of the survey.

One of the three bats that we took droppings from for
DNA analysis to confirm if it is Brandt's, Whiskered
or Alcathoe bat
(Photo: Steven Roe)

On Friday I certainly could have done with the buggy from Thursday night. There were only two of us to carry the equipment and we had a long walk across two fields, then into and through the woodland to where I wanted to set up the traps. During the survey we didn’t catch much and the walk back to the car with the equipment was made even harder, as this time it was all up hill.

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

Getting on well in Wytham and Wiltshire

After a good first few nights of bat catching it was time to increase the survey effort and do a full week of surveying.

Bechsteins bat (Photo: Paul Kennedy)

On Monday I was with Avon Bat Group at a site overlooking Bath just on the Bristol and Avon side of the Wiltshire border. Choosing the trap location is one of the most important parts of the evening as if you don’t have you trap set up properly in a good location you reduce your chances of catching. At this site not only did I have to consider the density of the undergrowth, the tree species in the area and the distance from paths, I also had to make sure my traps were far enough away from the group of kids that were messing around. I needn’t have worried however, as the rain shower that passed over before we were due to start the survey got rid of them. Our captures at this site were top draw; we caught three of my target species as well as a Bechstein’s bat which is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List has requires special measures for conservation under European legislation.

Tuesday I was at a well studied woodland called Wytham in Oxfordshire. We caught five different species including Leislers and Noctule. The Noctule is the UK’s biggest bat with a wing span approaching half a meter. Leislers are a slightly smaller, but none the less impressive relative, both in the Nyctalus genus.

Noctule on the left, Leislers on the right
(Photo: Dani Linton)

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust sites. All sites produced some good captures and at one reserve they were so impressed with our capture of a Barbastelle bat they put out a press release. Off the back of this I did an interview with local radio station Spire FM and the Western Daily Press wrote an article: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Bat-man-uncovers-mystery-resident-oldest-nature/story-19680756-detail/story.html.

Leislers left, Noctule right. Next to the Noctule this Leislers
looks tiny, but it is still one of the UK's largest bats!
(Photo: Dani Linton)

I’ll also be on BBC Radio Wiltshire this coming Sunday (25^th August 2013) at around 11:30am doing an interview with Marie Lennon as part of her nature programme “Wild About Wiltshire”!

After a week of catching a good number of bats and diversity species in the South, including some really rare species, it was time to head up the M5 to Herefordshire and then the Midlands to see what woodland slightly further north had to offer. Check back soon and all will be revealed!

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

The first six surveys of the season

I am well under way with my data collection carrying out surveys five or six nights a week. At the end of July I gently eased myself into my field season by surveying two sites near Bristol, two in Bedfordshire and two and Cambridgeshire over two weeks.

The very first site I surveyed was on a steep hill which was made even trickier to negotiate when carrying the heavy equipment into the woods to set up the traps. This first night went reasonably well, we caught eight bats of three species, unfortunately none of my target species (Brandt’s Whiskered or Alcathoe). At this site there were no previous bat records, so everything we caught was new information for the site.

Barbastelle caught in Bedfordshire
(Photo: Bob Cornes)

The next night was also spent walking up and down hills, this time close to the River Avon. The Avon bat group monitor the bat boxes on the site, but have never had a Daubentons in a box. We caught two of them in addition to a couple of other species.

Then it was off to Cambridgeshire for my least successful night so far. We caught one Brown Long Eared bat and then got rained on, so had to pack up early and go home. The less said about that survey the better!

Just over the border into Bedfordshire was more successful. In addition to a few other bats we caught a Barbastelle bat. This was the first of this species I’d seen and handled. I was certainly very privileged as this bat is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN red list http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/2553/0 and is that rare that it is not only protected by UK law (all bats in the UK are protected by law) but also by European legislation.

Serotine, notice the use of heavy duty gloves for this big old bat
(Photo: Philip Gould)

Another night in Bedfordshire saw us catch a Serotine, this was a first for me too (Bedfordshire is obviously the place to be)! The Serotine is a large bat which has broad wings and flys quite slowly.

Then it was back to Cambridgeshire. To finish the week and my first few surveys off nicely we caught my first Whiskered, Brandt’s or Alcathoe bat. We got a couple of droppings from the bat which will undergo DNA analysis to give a positive species identification. We recorded as many morphological features as possible and I’ve got a good idea as to what species I think it is. I won’t be able to find out if I am right until October when I do the DNA analysis. Watch this space!

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

Poo Tastic!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been collecting as much bat poo as possible…

“Why?” you may ask… well – Analysing the DNA of a poo from a bat, is one of the best, least invasive ways to get a positive identification of a bat’s species.

“Why is this important?” you may ask… well – When trying to identify bats that look very similar and echolocate at almost the same frequencies, it is almost impossible to tell them apart.

“So what are you getting at?” you may ask… well – Without a knowledge of the requirements of an individual species, it is very hard to try and conserve that species or make any informed decisions about things that may affect that species such as habitat management.

Weighing a bat in a bag while waiting for it to poo!
(Photo: Steven Roe)

And let me clarify that first sentence; I won’t just be collecting any old poo. I’m specifically looking to collect poo from as many Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcthaoe bats as possible as these three species are morphologically very similar (I just wanted to get your attention earlier).

So after all of that science talk, now let’s get to the bit you are most interested in:

How do you collect poo from a bat?

First of all you have to catch a bat. There are various methods, I will be using a type of trap called a harp trap (check back soon, I’ll be posting a blog about trapping in the near future). Next you put the bat into a cloth bag and hang it up on a branch for around 10 minutes. Nine times out of ten within this time period the bat will have done a poo. Once you have taken the bat out of the bag, carefully move the poo from the bag into a little tube where the poo will be stored until it is time for DNA analysis. I’ll be storing my bat poo filled tubes in a freezer. At university we have a designated bat poo freezer, but when I am elsewhere in the country they’ll have to be stored in between the peas and ice cream!

Multiple boxes of tubes containing bat poo at
the University of Bristol collected by others researchers
for other studies
(Photo: Philip Brown)

Bat poo looks similar to mouse poo but is very different in texture. Mice eat all sorts of things, a lot of which are moist or contain water. This means that their poo would squidge if you squeezed it between your fingers. UK bats only eat insects. Insect have dry bodies which are made out of something called chitin. This results in bat poo being dry, which if you were to squidge between your fingers, would crumble.

So, to further expand on that inaccurate first sentence, I will be collecting crumbly bat poo from any Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcthoe bats that I catch so I can analyse the DNA to work out exactly which species I have caught as these three species look almost identical and it is hard to tell them apart.

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk