Lots of Batty Event reports – 31May24

This packed Bat Group newsletter is possibly the longest we have ever sent! Stuffed full of event reports and upcoming batty happenings:

• An update on the grey long-eared trapping and radio tracking project
• It’s been a VERY busy May, with lots of batty events to report on.
• Can you help with… requests for help with Somerset events.
• The group has new Radio Tracking Kit!
• Call for information on Barbastelle and Bechstein’s Bats.
• A reminder the BCT Sunset survey is currently underway, no experience needed.
• Come get involved in our other events.
• The latest BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes news that the National Bat Monitoring Programme’s Annual Report has just been published.
• It’s membership renewal time for our 2023 members.
• Welcome to our new lifetime members.

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Grey long-eared Project Update

A big thank you to everyone who offered to help with the grey long-eared trapping and radio tracking project. With over 25 people offering their time so far, the response is outstanding.

Trapping Session 1 – 17/18^th May

Our first weekend test trapping was at National Trust’s Montacute House. While bats were caught, there were no GLE, and no bats tagged. So obviously there was no radio tracking the following week. As our chair Paul said “this is a bit of an experiment”, so we will try for GLE again soon.

Montacute was chosen as the first site, as a GLE had been taken into care from there a few years ago, and Daniel radio tracked it on its release. Hence he had some familiarity with the GLE there.

The most experienced trappers, those with their own trapping kit, were invited, so Daniel could brief them on the project and trapping protocols.

At least six traps were deployed with a central processing station:

• On Friday Lesser Horseshoe, Serotine and Natterer’s were caught.
• On Saturday the same species along with several soprano pipistrelle

Next trapping sessions

Plans are still forming for the next trapping sessions, and landowner permissions are being chased. The current thoughts, which may well change, are:

• Fri 31^st May & Sat 1^st June – South Somerset National Trust properties. Steve Roe, BCT Trustee, is likely to be visiting on 1st June to record an episode of the podcast Bat Chat.
• Early August – two weekends on Exmoor National Trust properties.

Please see the Upcoming Events page on our website which is always updated with the latest plan: https://somersetbat.group/events/upcoming/

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

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Recent bat group event reports

GT.BREACH AND HAM WALL BAT BOX CHECKS – SUN 12^TH MAY

Josh reported: “Belated thank you to those that helped at Ham Wall and Great Breach recently. We had a lovely day in the sun with a good number of bats, which were even found using boxes we only installed this February.”

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Harridge Bat Box Checks – Sun 12^th May

A beautiful sunny Sunday for Bat Box checks in Harridge Woods. A crack team found two Soprano Pipistrelle in the boxes, along with several Hornets.
In the Keepers cottage bat house it was great to see a couple of Lesser and one Greater Horseshoe, along with a brown long-eared in its usual milk bottle.

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HIGHBRIDGE BIG BAT COUNT – FRI 17^TH MAy

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East Mendips Bat Box Checks – Sat 25th May

Josh led a small team first around Kings Castle Woods guided by reserve warden Tom. A couple of Soprano Pipistrelles were found in the existing boxes, and three more erected, making a total of 14 bat boxes on the site.

Then on to Withial Combe near Pilton to check on the 6 boxes there, and marvel at the surprise at the end of the combe.

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Can you help with…

The bat group receives far more requests for help than the committee can do. Hence please do let us know if you think you could help out with these recent requests:  somersetbatgroup@gmail.com

• The community in Kingsdon are running two big bat counts over the weekend of 30/31st Aug. One of them is for the National Trust at the nearby Lytes Cary. They would love it if a bat member could come along to help answer the 101 batty questions that come up.
• Frome Wild Bunch would like a talk about bats and what we can do in our gardens to support them, on Thursday 20th June at 13.30? Can anyone help?

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New radio tracking kit

To help with our grey long-eared project the group has just bought a Lotek Biotracker VHF receiver and Yagi.

This along with other group equipment is available for loan to verified members. See our website for details: https://somersetbat.group/about/info/kit/

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Info needed on Barbastelle and Bechstein’s

The BCT sent us the following request, please contact them if you can help:

The Bat Conservation Trust, in collaboration with partner organisations, are currently engaged in several projects focused on improving the knowledge and understanding of some our rarest woodland bats and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The National Barbastelle and Bechstein’s Survey (NBBS) has been set up in collaboration with Vincent Wildlife Trust to refine our understanding of the ecology of Barbastelle and Bechstein’s bats. This includes a number of objectives;

• refining our understanding on the edge of the species’ range,
• investigating occupancy within the known range (including any range shifts),
• and assessing how habitats and roost features can be assessed accurately for species suitability.

Within this national survey, we aim to:

• identify location and methodologies to improve,
• connect and expand habitats,
• look at the influence of woodland/habitat structure,
• importance of swarming sites within the landscape.

If you or your organisation has any information that you would be willing to share with us to inform this project, or the CPL project below, then please contact Jack Hooker at jhooker@bats.org.uk where we can discuss the possibilities further.

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In addition to the NBBS, a related project has begun its development phase: ‘Connecting People and Landscapes in a changing climate’ (CPL). It has some NBBS-associated methodologies looking to answer different research questions.

In the woodland strand of this project, we will be investigating the locations of Bechstein’s bats and whether their distribution could be impacted by climate change. One of the goals of this strand is the creation of a public-facing dashboard, to be hosted on the BCT website. It will display summarised and aggregated data such as distribution maps of Bechstein’s locations and several graphs related to Bechstein’s records (captures per year, captures per county) with the exact layout still being determined. It will be periodically updated from a centralised database of Bechstein’s records held within BCT. The current plan is that these records will be kept in perpetuity to enable long-term research into Bechstein’s populations.

Your existing data would act as a baseline for Bechstein populations providing a greater understanding of their ecology in the face of climate change. This baseline data could also aid future work such as radiotracking or habitat management for Bechstein’s bats as separately funded projects. Furthermore, if the database is successful, it also provides the opportunity for a similar approach to be performed for other rare bat species in future projects.

We are therefore calling for any unpublished data, research, confirmed records or other information in relation to the presence of either Barbastelle or Bechstein’s bats encountered on any surveys, particularly in woodland settings.

Please contact Simeon Johnson at sjohnson@bats.org.uk for further details about the CPL project specifically, including how the data will be used and landowner permissions for data sharing. Data sharing agreements will be similar to existing NBMP agreements.

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BCT Sunset survey

If you are keen to get involved in bat monitoring, this survey is ideal for you if you don’t have previous bat surveying experience.

• Go outside for an hour
• Note down what nocturnal wildlife you see/ hear
• Enter and share your results.

More details can be found here: https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/national-bat-monitoring-programme/surveys/sunset-sunrise-survey

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Our next bat group events

There are lots of things planned, so come along and get involved!

• Fri 31^st May & Sat 1^st June – Grey long-eared Trapping 2
  • Sat 1^st June to Mon 10^th June – Potential grey long eared radio tracking 2
• June – NBMP roost surveys
• July – NBMP field surveys
• August NBMP waterways surveys
• Sat 10^th Aug – Castle Cary Big Bat Count
• Fri 16^th Aug – Frome Big Bat Count 2
• new Sat 17^th Aug – Bridgwater Big Bat Count
• Tue 20^th Aug – Wells bat walk
• new W’end 30/31^st Aug – Kingsdon Big Bat Count
• new W’end 30/31^st Aug – Lytes Cary Big Bat Count

For details on how to join these events please see the Upcoming Events page on our website: https://somersetbat.group/events/upcoming/

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Bat Group Bulletin

Below is the latest BCT Bat Group Bulletin which includes news that the National Bat Monitoring Programme’s Annual Report has just been published.

• 30th May 2024 – #226

All past editions of the Bulletin can be found on this page of our website:

• The past years Bat Group Bulletins
• Archive of older Bat Group Bulletins 

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MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME

For our 2023 members, their membership of the bat group lapsed at the end of April. Hence there are now 43 people for who it is time to renew their membership.

Please pay your membership subs by BaCs or Paypal then complete our online membership form to update your information.  Full details are on our website: https://somersetbat.group/join/

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WELCOME TO OUR NEW LIFETIME MEMBERS

The group would like to warmly welcome the following members who took out lifetime membership in the last month:

• SBG0032 – Keith
• SBG0033 – Heather
• SBG0034 – Cath
• SBG0035 – Fraser

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