Holy hole, Batman
With the Bar B Q
season now perhaps a distant memory
of the warm summer days, the onset
of autumnal evenings provides perhaps one of the last opportunities to enjoy the
end of a busy day pottering in the garden in the open air. While the prospect of locally produced
sausages sizzling over the glowing embers may only appeal to the more hardened
BBQ fans at this time of year,
those still adventurous enough to cast an eye skywards may well be
treated with the chance of a last
glimpse of one of our more elusive creatures of the twilight hours, before the
long dark winter nights set in for good.
For flitting
around the roof tops and hedgerows, the humble bat trawls the nights sky
foraging for any unsuspecting moth and fly that finds itself victim to it’s
remarkable ‘echolocation’ detecting system. While the Kent Downs are fortunate in
providing a home for many of the 16
Yet the future
looks promising for some bat colonies of the Kent Downs thanks to the efforts of local farmers who have been keen to take advantage of
the wildlife friendly measures of
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA)
Countryside Stewardship Scheme .
Introduced in
1991 this nationwide scheme provides grants for farmers to protect and restore
traditional landscapes and wildlife habitats, combining sensitive farmland
management with programmes of
capital works such as hedge planting and pond restoration to benefit farmland
birds, insects and mammals. Within
the Kent Downs many farmers have established grassy field margins and restored
hedgerows, helping to provide the important insect rich habitats and corridors
that bats use for feeding and navigating.
For one
particular farmer the appearance of a mysterious hole in his field overnight
provided an opportunity to provide a new hibernating and roost site for bats in
the neighbourhood. This mysterious
hole was found to be a long forgotten ‘denehole’, once a commonplace feature of
the downs when the mining of chalk was an important part of the local economy
and when chalk was needed to spread on heavier soils to improve their
quality. Often reaching depths of
over 10m these ‘deneholes’ now provide perfect sites for bats where the deep
underground conditions provide the cool and stable temperatures that bats need
for hibernating.
By establishing
a flower rich field margin and
restoring the hedgerow between the new hole and a nearby known denehole roost
site, which is already home to Daubenton’s and Natterer’s bats, it is hoped that
this will provide an insect rich corridor along which bats can feed and discover
the new hole. Thanks to the
dedicated work of the Kent Bat Group in conjunction with the Kent Underground
Research Group, funding has been made available to cover the hole with a metal
grill to allow bat surveys to be undertaken by Kent Bat Group volunteers whilst
keeping the site safe and secure.
For information
on agri-environment schemes such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme contact
Defra 01233 813667
For more
information on bats in
For more
information on Kent Underground Research Group please contact KURG,
Photos credit: Kent Bat Group, Shirley
Thompson