As part of the Great Somerset Wildlife Count, the bat group can help groups of people to find and count the bats of their local area with our innovative community mapping project.
So if you are an adult community group (wildlife, gardening, church, conservation ..etc), or just a group of friends or neighbours, in Somerset who would like help to do a Big Bat Count on your patch then please do get in touch – somersetbatgroup@gmail.com
How many people do we need?
Between 6 to 66 adults.
The bat count works best with small teams, who know each other, each hunting for bats in a defined area. Three 3 adults per team are ideal, but the count works well with between 2 to 6 adults per team. Children over 5 are welcome if each is accompanied by an adult.
The Bat Group has eleven sets of kit, so a successful bat count can be run with between 3 teams of 2, right up to 11 teams of 6 adults.
When should we do our Big Bat Count?
Bats hibernate overwinter, hence even in mid-April, on a cold night, they may not come out. Hence good dates for a count are:
- Last week of April and the first three weeks of May – sunset varies from 8:15 to 9:00PM
- Late May, June and July are the best for bat counting, however, sunset can be very late from 9:00 to 9:30PM, which will make it a late night.
- August through to mid-September – sunset varies from 9:00 back to 7:30PM
We always plan to met everyone for the briefing three quarters of an hour before sunset.
It is worth noting that Big Bat Counts are weather dependent and may have to be postponed in case of rain, strong wind, or temperature below 6°C. We tend to leave the day after free as a backup date, but sometimes we have to defer for longer.
How does it work?
A bat group member will bring the kit along at the start of the count, and give a quick briefing on bats, and the count process to the teams.
Teams of people cover different parts of a local area, with bat detectors that allow them to, listen to, and automatically identify the species of bat making their echolocation calls.
The teams record their bat observations on their phones in the iNaturalist app. The count lasts for an hour after sunset. And at the end we meet again for a debrief, where everyone gets to see the “Bat Map” of their local area they just made.
As the count organiser, what preparation do I need to do?
To run a successful Big Bat Count there are several areas of preparation for you to cover:
1/ Pick your date
Our upcoming events page on the website is always up to date, so have a look and suggest a free date: https://somersetbat.group/events/upcoming/
2/ Recruit your teams!
This might be within your community group, or perhaps by posting to a local area FaceBook group. There of lots of ways, but the key is to have a list of groups of people who want to help.
3/ Make arrangements for the count night
Organise a central place to meet, ideally under cover and near parking, and from where the kit can be handed out and collected. A well-lit place for the briefing and summary talk is useful. If WiFi or mobile signal is available we might be able to present the new Bat map, at the end of the night.
4/ Define your teams survey areas
You know your local area! Where will your teams be looking? Define areas for each team that are easy to walk around in an hour. This could be as simple as marker pen circles on a map, or a named area (for instance a district in a town). So long as every team has an area, and knows where to go, that is fine.
5/ Prepare your teams
Before the count you need to brief your teams:
- At least one member (hopefully more) from each team should install the iNaturalist app on their android phone, or “iNaturalist classic” on iPhone, and then create an iNaturalist account.
- Let your teams know which area they will be counting in, or let them choose an area.
- Make sure everyone is aware that Big Bat Counts are weather dependent and may have to be postponed in case of rain, strong wind, or temperature below 6°C.
- If you are likely to have large teams (3 to 4+) then people can also use our Ultrasound Microphones attached to their own phones to detect bats. In this case also ask people to download another app to their phone:
- iOS (Apple). Search “Bat Detector” in Apple app. store.
- Android app. (Samsung etc). Search “Batgizmo” in Google Play store
Full details of the above pre-event actions are on our “How to take part in a Big Bat Count” page. Please ensure all teams have seen this before the event, by sending out a link to our website:
6/ Safety Aspects
Familiarise yourself with the safety aspects of the Big Bat Count, including the SBG Risk Assessment for Big Bat Counts and the standard safety briefing.
Please make sure all participants have seen the safety briefing, by sending out a link to our website:
Ensure your local policing team are aware of the count in advance, this can be done online.
7/ Communications
It helps with both pre-event communications, and on the night, if you sign everyone up to a email list or WhatsApp/Facebook group for use on the night’s count. This can also help in case you need the cancel the event at short notice due to weather, or other unforeseen circumstances.
Anything else?
That’s it really. With the preparations in place hopefully, the count should run itself on the night.
A bat group member will bring the equipment to the count, and brief the teams. Then later in the night, everyone can see all the results in real-time on the iNaturalist map.
Thanks!
The Somerset Bat Group is grateful to:
- Somerset Environmental Records Centre (SERC) for funding the ultrasonic microphones and safety equipment used in the Big Bat Counts.
- Hinkley Point C Community Fund for a grant awarded via the Somerset Community Foundation, to fund the tablets and bat call analysis software.
