Get ready for Bat Box Checks – 2Mar26

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

Welcome to this Somerset Bat Group Newsletter. In this issue:

Community Bat Detector Building

On a glorious afternoon on 28th Feb, we ran our second ever Bat Detector building workshop for a community group.

A group of seven people, mostly from the Norton and Chiselborough Nature Network, met in the lovely old Chiselborough Village Hall to build mini Pipistrelle detectors. It was a highly successful afternoon, and everyone left with a working bat detector.

If you know of any other community group that would like to get together to build mega cheap, and highly functional, bat detectors then please do get in touch! somersetbatgroup@gmail.com

Update on Bat Advice Service changes

Natural England (NE) has publicly announced plans to reform the Bat Advice Service (BAS), moving much of the service to a new digital system. 

For decades, the BAS has provided expert support to people who discover bats in their homes or places of worship. The service is currently delivered by the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) through the National Bat Helpline, under contract to NE. Under the proposed changes, most householders would access advice through an online decision-making system, rather than speaking directly to an advisor or receiving a site visit. 

You can read further details set out by NE in its recent blog here, and BCT has also published a news article on our website: https://www.bats.org.uk/news/2026/02/bat-advice-service-natural-england.

Bat Box checks coming up

It’s time to get ready to see bats up close at our Bat Box Checks. We have now published the full program for the spring, and spaces are limited, so please reserve your space early.

  • Sat 2nd May – Kings Castle bat box checks
  • Sun 10th May – Levels bat box checks
  • Sat 16th May – Ham Wall bat box checks
  • Sun 24th May – Great Breach Woods bat box checks

For details on how to join in these bat box checks please see the events page on our website: https://somersetbat.group/events

BAT GROUP Annual meeting

We will hold our 2026 annual meeting, in Othery Village Hall again, central Somerset. Please come along to have your say in the running of the group

We will not be doing a hybrid Zoom/live meeting this year, as we found in the past that this was not a good experience online. The agenda and pre-meeting notes will be published on our website in early April.

If you would like to:

  • raise any matter as AOB at the AGM,
  • stand for the committee of SBG, 
  • or send your apologies if you can’t attend

Then please email us ASAP:  somersetbatgroup@gmail.com

The next Bat group Events

There are lots of things planned, so come along and get involved! The next events, that are not bat box checks, are:

  • Sat 28th March – Bat Detector Building Workshops, Levels
  • Sat 11th April – Bat Detector / Ultrasound recorder Building Workshops, Taunton
  • BAT GROUP Annual meeting – Sat 18th APRIL 2PM (see above)
  • Sat 25th April – BCT South West Bat Conference (see below)
  • Fri 1st May – Frome Big Bat Count
  • Tues 12th May – Axevale Big Bat Count
  • Sat 16th May – Shepton Beauchamp Big Bat Count
  • Tues 19th May – Heal Rewilding Big Bat Count

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

BCT South West Bat Conference

Dan Bryant the BCT Bat Groups Officer, sent us the following:

The 2026 South West of England Bat Conference, being held on the 25th of April, is fast approaching!

We are currently building the programme for the event and still have some slots to fill. If there is anything your bat group has been involved in that you would like to present at the conference, or if you would like to run a workshop, please get in touch. We are also looking for volunteers to chair sessions, if anyone would like to put themselves forward for that role.

The venue and location is still being finalised but we should have an update very soon. I appreciate that you may wish to wait for this information before committing to a talk/workshop/chair, but I am happy to receive provisional offers subject to location.

Many thanks for your contributions to this.

CAN YOU HELP WITH …?

The bat group receives far more requests for help than the committee can do. Hence please get in touch if you think you could help out with this recent requests:

  • The Trees and Wildlife Group in South Petherton are hosting an Eco Fair on Saturday 16th May and they would like the bat group to come along and have a table and display about the bats they might find in Somerset and around their village.
  • The Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Taunton would like a talk to inspire interest in bat conservation amongst our members and volunteers. (We also have a Big Bat Count planned for them on 8th August)

Request from a member

Bat group member Alasdair asked us to send the following out to everyone. Please contact him directly if you can help him:

“I am getting in touch as a member of the Somerset Bat Group to enquire whether any licenced member of the Bat Group will be undertaking Preliminary Roost Appraisals.

I am currently on a Bat Licencing Course with Jim Mullholland, and I need to undertake 5 preliminary roost appraisals to gain my licence. I would be more than happy to assist with this roost assessments.

Regards, Alasdair”

Bat group bulletin

The latest BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes news on what’s next for planning and infrastructure policy.

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

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL time

It’s the time of the year to think about membership of the bat group. There are currently:

  • 80 members who last paid membership in 2025, and can renew now.
  • 41 ex.members who last paid membership in 2024, and we would welcome them to re-join.

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 April 2027 annual meeting, on 17/4/27.

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:

  • If your details have changed, then complete our online membership form to update your information. 
  • OR, if nothings changed, simply just drop us an email to let us know you have paid.

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

Welcome to our new Lifetime members

The group would like to warmly welcome the following members who have taken up lifetime membership in recent months:

  • SBG051 – Julia
  • SBG052 – Pam
  • SBG053 – Chris
  • SBG054 – Jessica
  • SBG055 – Sally
  • SBG056 – Dominic