Stewartby roost this evening

Another poor gull roost for Neil Wright, Bob Hook and me with a good number of gulls giving the roost a miss altogether and heading over eastward.160+ L B Backs, 3 fw G B Backs, 25+ Herring Gulls, 53 B H Gulls and only a dozen Common Gulls were the peak counts.

A Kingfisher flew low across the centre of the lake and Neil spied a Sand Martin flying west along the treeline above us.

"Bird of the evening" must definitely go to the excellent (presumed) Daubenton's Bat flying less than a metre above the lake surface and dipping occasionally, and keeping about 25m off shore. Perhaps a tiddly bit bigger than a Pipistrelle, it's presence low over the water would inidicate this species I believe. Much smaller than the large presumed Noctule Bat seen from the gull watchpoint earlier this week - MJP