Almost forgot to tell you....
Back in August some CTT volunteers took part in the (citizen science) All-Ireland Daubenton’s Bat Waterways Survey. The survey involved going along the Royal Canal at twilight to track Daubenton's bat activity (passes) using the bat detector (a little sound monitor which was tuned to this variety of bat's sound frequency) plus a torchlight at ten spots along the river. We headed off westwards from the bridge at the Castleknock train station to the 10 pre-selected points along a one kilometre stretch.
It was strange to be there in the falling darkness with all of the evening sounds around. We managed to hear and see a few Daubenton Bat passes, which was very exciting. And there certainly were plenty of Pippestrelle bats swooping around overhead on our journey down along the canal. Well worth doing to experience the rich biodiversity around Castleknock.
Thanks to Billy Linehan (and Mylo the dog, who we met earlier in the day) for inviting us to be part of this survey.
To learn more about this, check out: