Section:GDN 1J PaGe:7 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 18:14 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Fr iday 30 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
7
It is 9pm and the evening rush hour
has begun in a small town on the
edge of Dartmoor. In the fading light,
bats are starting out on their daily
commute from a hidden roost site to
feeding grounds several kilometres
away. Standing in a tree-lined street
beside their regular route, I wait with
local bat expert Pam Barrett and her
husband, Phil Wilson, for the fi rst
to arrive. Her handheld detector
soon begins to emit strange warbling
noises as it picks up ultrasonic calls
nearby. “Here they come,” she
smiles. “Right on time.”
The ragged shape of a large
bat appears through a gap in the
hedgerow and fl ies past at speed,
banking into a river gully set deep
within the shadows of woodland
behind us. Then a second, its
pale furry body briefl y visible as
it crosses overhead, followed by
a third and a fourth. The trickle
becomes a fl ood, and Phil rapidly
clicks a small counting device as the
bats race by, all following the same
route across the street and into the
river channel, twisting and turning
downstream above the dark surface
of the water, beneath the arches of a
bridge and out of sight.
These are greater horseshoe bats
(Rhinolophus ferrumequinum),
named after the crescent-shaped
noses that they use in echolocation
to navigate and fi nd fl ying insect
prey. Communal living and habitual
fl ight paths make this scarce
species particularly vulnerable to
disturbance and habitat changes.
Over the past century they have
disappeared from much of Britain
and are now largely restricted to
southern Wales and the south-west
of England, numbering just a few
thousand individuals.
Within 20 minutes the air traffi c
begins to taper off and Phil reveals
the fi nal count: 1,092 greater
horseshoe s, the highest fi gure
recorded here at this time of year.
That is roughly half the total number
in the roost, says Pam. “The rest take
a diff erent route after emerging, and
they will all return just before dawn.
It is probably the largest regular
movement of mammals in Britain.”
As we head off I spot a couple
of stragglers weaving through the
blackness – late leavers in a hurry
to catch up with the rest of the
night shift.
Phil Wilson- The MP Philip Hammond was not
sacked from the cabinet, as an article
said. He resigned as chancellor in
July ( Outrage as Johnson suspends
parliament , 29 August, page 1). - A politics sketch (28 August, page
- lost some words when it ended:
“Possibly even”. For any readers left
wondering, it should have ended:
“Possibly even divinity. Westminster
politics is getting uglier by the day.”
Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
[email protected] or The readers’ editor,
Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU; alternatively
call 020 3353 4736 from 10am to 1pm Monday to Friday. The
Guardian’s policy is to correct signifi cant errors as soon as
possible. For more information , see gu.com/readers-editorThe government/BBC wrangle
continues ( Letters , 28 August). If there
are people over 75 who struggle to pay
the TV licence fee of £154.50 then as a
nation we should be ashamed. Their
ability to do so should not depend
on what amounts to welfare but on
a decent pension. So, increase their
pension. It really is “as simple as that”.
Dr Gerald Wallen
Exeter- Re the Pass notes about HELCH ( 28
August ), does anyone else remember
the graffi ti on a wall in Kentish Town,
north London, that read “My karma
has run over your dogma”?
Helen Keats
Shorwell, Isle of Wight - On the subject of regional pride
( Adrian Chiles , 29 August), I’m
reminded of the story of responses
to the question “Which is England’s
second city?” The Mancunian says,
“Manchester”, the Brummie says
“Birmingham”, whereas the Scouser
says “London”. Says it all, really.
Nick Broadhead
Liverpool - My grandma in Bloxwich – in
the Black Country – said there was
enough “blue sky to make a sailor’s
shirt”. I’d never thought where his
trousers would come from till now
( Letters , 28 August).
David Cockayne
Lymm, Cheshire - Seen on a roundabout in St Albans,
on the back of one of those big,
boxy mobility minibuses: “No old
ladies are left in this bus overnight”
( Letters , 26 August).
Peter Lowthian
Marlow, Buckinghamshire - Whether men bathed naked in Jane
Austen’s time is debatable ( Shortcuts ,
28 August), but we can be certain
that they didn’t swim the front crawl,
which had yet to be invented.
Michael Barber
London
The principle of restorative justice
( Glasgow University to pay £20m
in slavery reparations , 24 August)
also applies to the issue of climate
change. I am of a generation that has
profi ted hugely from the careless
use of fossil fuels. Reports on the
Amazon fi res just serve to emphasise
the urgent need to eliminate carbon
emissions and absorb carbon
already in the atmosphere.
Reparations are due to the
younger and future generations and
should start with us “silver rebels ”
sharply curtailing our emissions and
joining with Extinction Rebellion
in eff orts to eliminate emissions
in the next decade, through which
many of us elderly hope to live. The
“silver rebels” might have less to
lose if arrested in the cause. The
Guardian’s daily carbon counter
will show us how we are all doing.
Daniel Scharf
Abingdon, OxfordshireEstablished 1906Country diary
South Dartmoor,
Devon
English cricket still
faces its greatest test
Scousers have edge
on regional pride
It’s payback time on
climate change, too
There is one candidate for the
greatest Test that Matthew Engel
( 28 August ) fails to mention. Ahead
of the momentous Ashes series
of 1926, the Surrey and England
star batsman Jack Hobbs gave his
name to a prophetic novel, The
Test Match Surprise. As last week
at Head ingley, Australia bat fi rst
and lead by more than 100, then
set England a record 350-plus
to win ; this is achieved thanks
to Teddy Herrington (i e Hobbs)
playing the Ben Stokes role with a
spectacular not-out century. O ther
real-life players are thinly disguised:
Sutcliff e and Holmes become
Ratcliff e and Sherlock, and Arthur
Carr of Nottinghamshire becomes,
gratifyingly, the undersigned.
Charles Barr
Norwich
- Judged purely on Test match
averages, it is arguable that
England’s greatest all-rounder
( Sport , 27 August ) is a player Moeen
Ali doesn’t mention: Tony Greig. He
batted at 40.43 and bowled at 32.20,
compared with Stokes (35.86; 32.22),
Botham (33.54; 28.40) and Flintoff
(31.77; 32.78). Of course, Stokes has
plenty of cricket left in him.
Dr Howard Mason
Chorlton, Manchester- Further to the comments from
your reader Keith Flett ( Letters,
27 August), and Jeremy Corbyn’s
tweet bemoaning the lack of live
cricket o n free-to-air television,
it is interesting to note that twice
as many people watched the fi rst
episode of the new Peaky Blinders
series as watched the riveting third
Test , which, laughably, was themed
The Participation Test by the ECB.
Cricket participation has dropped
by a third over the past decade, and
will continue to do so as the ECB
has no plans for future Tests, or any
proper cricket , to be shown live on
free-to-air television.
Tom Rodwell
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
[email protected]
@guardianlettersTwitter: @gdncountrydiary
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