Here on Shotover, bats are quite a common site during the summer months. Most evenings around dusk, pipistrelles are to be seen flitting backwards and forwards just above head-height in the garden feeding.

Just very occasionally however a bat will discover that there are rich pickings to be had, from the moths attracted to the outside of a lit bedroom window. Over the space of about 15 minutes, every moth will be neatly harvested. The bat may return several times during that evening but then will not be seen again on subsequent evenings.

As luck would have it, one appeared a few nights ago as I was testing a newly acquired digital camera. After many blank frames, this picture was the result.

I am not sufficient of a bat expert to identify the species, but wonder if it may be a lesser horseshoe. It seems to be operating further off the ground than pipistrelles normally do and if it were one of our pipistrelle "regulars" you would expect it to be there every evening.

If there are any bat experts reading this who can identify it from the picture and shed light on this opportunist behaviour, I would love to hear from you.