Grey long-eared and Planning reforms – 3Feb25

Posted on by somersetbatgroup in Bat News, SBG Events, SBG News, SBG Newsletter

It seems that bats have been all over the news recently, and in this packed Somerset Bat Group Newsletter we have:

Grey long-eared trapping and radio tracking

Following on our success last year, we are again planning two periods of trapping for Grey long-eared (GLE) this year, and radio tracking any we catch.

  • Late Spring and
  • Late June/early August

The focus for 2025 will be on sites with mid-summer, or juvenile records, looking for breeding roosts.

This will be great experience at bat ID and handling, especially for those planning to apply for licences. Last year it proved VERY popular and was vastly oversubscribed. Once again, this year preference will be given to those best able to help; i.e. those local members who can do some trapping and radio tracking. 

The nature of trapping is last minute, as it is very dependent on weather, moon, permissions etc. Hence we will again be using a WhatsApp group to communicate again. If you would like to volunteer this year, please email, and we’ll add you to the 2025 WhatsApp group:  somersetbatgroup@gmail.com.

More details about the GLE project on our website: https://somersetbat.group/bats/gle/

Planning Reform, time to act!

It seems impossible to turn on the news without hearing about bat tunnels or newt counters at the moment. A personal “favourite” was the Radio 4 News Quiz on 29thJan (from 8:40m), bats are even comedy fodder now…

“I’d like to see more bat tunnels … cost £300,000 per bat … the fundamental flaw with it is that it’s a tunnel for the trains, not for bats. But the thing that Bats really like is, tunnels … if you leave the trains running free, then cover the rest of Britain in bat tunnels. Problem solved.”

The BCT have responded to the government’s planning reform document, and are encouraging everyone to also comment. The BCT sent us this email for distribution to members:

“Dear bat group member,

In December, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published a document called Planning Reform: Development and Nature Recovery Working Paper. We are contacting you due to the major impacts that the proposals in this document could have on bat conservation if they are pursued.

If the proposals are applied to bat species, as application to protected species is discussed in the Paper, they could result in unknown levels of roost destruction, with no impact avoidance or mitigation, and with no meaningful compensation. We published a BCT news article which shares more information.

We have responded directly to the accompanying survey. You can find our response on our website. We encourage bat groups and members that have the time/capacity to also respond to the survey to share how these proposals would affect your organisation. You are welcome to look to our response to help form your own, though it is worth noting that consultation responses are generally more effective when they are not identical.

There is no deadline on responding as this is not a formal consultation, but considering the policy context, we suggest responses should be submitted soon to have the maximum chance of effectiveness.

If you would like future updates on our campaigns work, please do consider joining our campaigns email list via this link.

If you have any questions on our Working Paper response or would like to discuss this further, please get in contact with Lil McDermaid, our Species Advocacy and Policy Officer, on lmcdermaid@bats.org.uk.

Kind regards, Abby Packham (she/her), Bat Groups Officer”

2025 Bat group Events

Our program of events for the coming year has been filling up over the January, do have a look at what’s on. The next events coming up are:

  • Feb – Part 2 of NBMP hibernation counts
  • 27Feb – Online talk – Disco bats and glittery poo.
  • 12April – SBG annual meeting
  • 4May – Edford Wood Bat Box Checks
  • 10May – Great Breach and Ham Wall Bat Box Checks
  • 10May – Shepton Beauchamp Big Bat Count
  • 11May – Harridge Wood Bat Box Checks
  • 16May – Highbridge Big Bat Count
  • 17May – East Mendips Bat Box Checks
  • 17May – Bridgwater Big Bat Count
  • Late Spring – First GLE Trapping and radio tracking

Details of how to get involved for all events are on the website: https://somersetbat.group/events/

Online soprano pipistrelle Talk

A reminder of this exciting Bat Group talk coming up soon.

7PM Thu 27 Feb ’25 – Disco Bats and Glittery Poo

James Shipman will be talking about monitoring the populations of soprano pipistrelles over the last 10+ years in West Berkshire using UV powder.
He may also mention his newly released book – “Identifying bats of Britain and Ireland“

Bat Group Bulletin

This month’s BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes news that the National Ringed Bat Database is now live (finally!).

You can see all past bulletins on our website:

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL time

The majority of bat group members last paid their membership in the first part of 2024, hence it is now time for most to renew your membership. We will send an email to each member detailing your current membership status, so please check your inbox (and spam).

It costs just £5 per household to rejoin the bat group (free for students/unwaged), and your renewed membership would then run until our 2026 AGM, on 18th April 2026.

For regular members, you might like to consider taking out lifetime membership, which is just £50 per household.

Please pay your membership subs by BaCs or Paypal. Then:

Full details on our website: https://somersetbat.group/join/