GLE update at the end of the summer season – 8Nov26

Welcome to the October 2026 Somerset Bat Group Newsletter. This time of year is when we traditionally look back at the summer batting season, and look forward to the coming hibernation surveys.

In this Newsletter:

• An update on our tagged grey long-eared bats.
• 2026 is a record year for the Bat Group!
• Our next Bat Group events
• The latest BCT Bat Group Bulletin includes an interesting annual update from the SNCO and BCT, with the news that the development of the online system for the Bat Advice Service (BAS) has been suspended, and the VBRV scheme continues in 2027.

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Grey long-eared update

Our chair Paul updates us on the 3 male grey long-eared bats that were tagged near Montecute with BlūBat tags in late September:

So far the tags on two of the bats have now stopped working, but Dan, the juvenile, appears to be still pinging away. As I write this he has been much less active, staying within the village of Stoke-sub-Hamden for the most part although he has been out to East Stoke about half a mile away. He was the lightest in weight of all the Greys tagged so it is not surprising to see him still active, and if the tag keeps functioning we may get a clue as to where he chooses to hibernate initially.

He regularly crosses to A303, sometimes visiting the services at Cartgate, presumably to pop in to the café there.

The last sighting of Christopher was at Chilthorne Domer on the 27th October, having spent a fair amount of time around RNAS Yeovilton and making several visits to Tintinhull.

Billy was last pinged on 13th October and was the furthest travelled, roosting in Merriott with a foray into Dorset east of Beaminster. His last known location was back in the village of Montacute.

As always, this project has raised so many questions – males seem to be widespread and appear to associate in some buildings, but where are the females? Why do they congregate at Montacute – are they swarming there?

Hopefully with the use of the new lures, which seemed to improve our catch rate of the target species, we may have some more answers next year (and a good deal more questions too!)

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A record year!

With the summer bat season coming to a close and plastic Halloween bats everywhere you look, its a great time to look back at what has been a record year for the bat group.

So far in 2026 we have run 42 published events, Far surpassing our previous record of 37 in 2025. Our thanks go out to all the organisers who worked hard to make these events happen.

Included in this number are:

• Six nights out trapping with our grey long-eared project, which tagged and radio tracked six male greys this year.
• There were a record number of 13 Big Bat Counts held, with many now being run and led by local organisers.
• Our usual Bat Box checks carried on across the Levels and Mendips,
• While it was also a big year for Bat Detector making workshops, the demand for these seems huge, with 13 run and long waiting lists, proving they are a great way to introduce new people to our batty passion!

A summary of the bat group events run over the years is shown in the graph:

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Our next events

Come along and get involved! The next events coming up are:

• Jan’27 – National Bat Monitoring Hibernation counts.
• 6/7 Feb – Bat Detector workshops at Somerset Earth Science Centre
• 3 April – Heal Bat Detector Workshop
• 17 April – 2027 Bat Group Annual meeting

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

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