On Thursday, June 29, 2023, Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group hosted a community bat walk at Ashburnham Memorial Park (Armour Hill). Nine participants came out to learn from Ecologist Sarah Robbins, of Birks Natural Heritage Consultants, about Ontario’s eight bat species, and observe bats accessing the park using handheld bat detectors. We observed some live bats using the park, predominantly big brown bats. We also held a raffle for a bat house that one participant took home to install on their own property.
Prior to the event and with the permission of the City of Peterborough, Ms. Robbins had set up two bat call detectors for ten days within the park. This data identified that four species of bats access Ashburnham Memorial Park: big brown bats, hoary bats, eastern red bats, and silver haired bats. None of these four species of bats are considered at risk of extinction currently in Ontario. Yet, the remaining four species of bats in Ontario, which were not observed using the park, are endangered provincially, due to an invasive species of fungus that negatively affects their winter hibernation.
We are grateful to the United Way Neighbourhood Fund for supporting this event and the installation of the bat detectors prior to the event.
