![\"sketch](\"http:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/gulls_bat2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Monday, 4 October, 2021, 10.52 am, Newmillerdam near main car park, sunny slight breeze:<\/em> There\u2019s a commotion amongst the black-headed gulls and a boisterous flock of 20 or 30 of them swoop and tumble over towards me from the outlet corner of the lake. At first I think that someone must be feeding the ducks and they\u2019re falling out, as they do, over a snatched crust.<\/p>\n Then I notice that the pale brown \u2018crust\u2019 is moving about on its own account. My first thought is that for some reason the gulls have ganged up on a sparrow, but the manoeuvrability is un-sparrowlike and I wonder for a moment if it could be a late swallow or martin.<\/p>\n One of the gulls briefly captures it and it\u2019s not until it escapes that I can see that it\u2019s a small bat. It dodges around then escapes into the lakeside willows where the gulls can\u2019t follow it and the gulls head off back towards the outlet.<\/p>\n Monday, 4 October, 2021, 10.52 am, Newmillerdam near main car park, sunny slight breeze: There\u2019s a commotion amongst the black-headed gulls and a boisterous flock of 20 or 30 of them swoop and tumble over towards me from the outlet … Continue reading <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"