In this Somerset Bat Group Newsletter we have:
- The annual review of this year’s Big Bat Counts, and details of how you can get involved!
- Can you help with …? Requests that come into the group.
- The latest BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes a update on 2024’s EBLV cases.
- Last chance for our 2023 members to renew their membership.
Big Bat Count 2024 review
It has been another highly successful year for our community engagement event, the Big Bat Count. Click here for full details of every count on our website.
- Over 300 people took part in 9 Bat Counts across Somerset in 2024.
- Over 525 verifiable bat records were added to iNaturalist across 11 species
- Many of these bat records have been validated as “Research Grade”
- However some still “needsID” and are awaiting validation
The results FAQ aims to answer many common questions about the processed results, including an explanation of why the numbers of “on the night” observations, and verified records, differ.
How you can take part in our Big Bat Count!
It’s not too late, as members of the group, there are several ways you can get involved in our Big Bat Count.
Help organise a 2025 Community group Big Bat Count
Any group of adults can ask for a Big Bat Count of their area. So if you are part of, or know about, a community group (wildlife, gardening, church …etc), or just a group of friends or neighbours, in Somerset who would like to do a Big Bat Count on their patch next year, then please do get in touch – somersetbatgroup@gmail.com
Take part in the Big Bat Count as an individual
Everyone can take part! The bat group would like to encourage all members to upload verifiable flight records of bats to the iNaturalist database. We have a very easy way to do this, even in batches! Once verified, we will work to get these added automatically to the database of the Somerset Environmental Records Centre. Full details on the links below:
Improve our records by helping validate them
We are hoping to build up a strong network of members, a community of people in Somerset who enjoy looking at and identifying bat records.
iNaturalist allows for the verification of others’ records based on the evidence uploaded. Hence if you have experience with bat call sound analysis, you can review and validate bat records uploaded by others.
You can also look at all the bat records in Somerset that have already been verified as “research grade”, to see if you agree.
Records have to have 2/3rds of the suggested IDs to match, for the record to become “Research Grade”, and hence be usable by SERC. Hence if you do disagree, your alternate suggestion carries double the weight of supporting suggestions.
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 this recent request: somersetbatgroup@gmail.com
- Vallis regenerative farm near Frome, would like the Bat Group to have a stand at their ‘Biodiversity Festival/Bioblitz’ family event on Saturday 14th June 2025.
Bat Group Bulletin
This month’s BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes an update on this year’s EBLV cases.
This year there were seven EBLV-1 cases in serotine bats (3 in Dorset, 2 in Somerset, 2 in Devon) and two EBLV-2 cases in Daubenton’s bats (1 in Lancashire, 1 in Somerset).
You can see all past bulletins on our website:
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME
For our 2023 members, their membership of the bat group lapsed at the end of April 2024 So for these 36 people this newsletter will be the last reminder to renew their membership.
We would love everyone to re-join! So 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/