One of the largest and most important S.S.S.I.'s in southern Britain is
the army training area near Thetford, often still called "The Battle Area"
or "STANTA", but more correctly known as the Stanford Army Training Area".
Its perhaps best known these days for its Stone Curlew and hundreds of acres
almost unsprayed breckland-style grassland, the bats here have been
reasonably studied, and indeed the largest Norfolk underground bat
hibernation site is situated within its secure boundaries. Little is know
about the breeding colonies of bats in the area, but at one site, on the
eastern edge, a Natterers bat colony was located several years ago
attempting to breed in a deserted house - deserted that is except when used
for troop training. On July 25th 1998, when checked, over 30 Natterers with
babies were tucked into a crevice behind a ceiling joist and the amount of
droppings below suggested they had been there for a while. A quick shine of
the torch over the group revealed a white individual - a pure white
individual with pink nose, pink eyes and pink wings. What a winner! Amongst
the many hundreds of Natterers I have seen over the past thirty odd years
there has never been an albino, though an all-over pearl-grey one was found
hibernating on the Sandringham Estate in 1994. Neither can I so far trace
any other records for albino Natterers in the U.K.
John Goldsmith