PLANNING YOUR SURVEY

Your Survey Site

You will be given a 1km square to survey. All squares are assigned randomly from our database. However you will only ever be asked to travel within a 10km radius from the address that you give to us (either your home or work address).

The random allocation of sites allows us to obtain more reliable results in order to formulate population trends.

To get a true picture of the population across the UK it is important not to deliberately choose sites where bats are known to be abundant.

If surveyors chose their own sites where they knew they would find bats it would appear as if they were present in large numbers in every square in the UK, and we would not be able to detect population changes.

Sign up for the survey

Your survey pack will contain the resources that you will need for the field survey including:

• survey instructions
• survey form
• spot description & landowner form
• landowner letter
• sunset timetable
• notes for separating species
• health & safety guidelines
• field card

Please note that the Bat Conservation Trust is unable to provide bat detectors.

You will also receive a map reference or map in your pack.

If you are assigned a NEW SITE that has not been surveyed before you will receive a four figure map reference.

If you are assigned a REPEAT SITE that has been surveyed before by another volunteer, you will receive a map with a route already marked on it and information to help you find your way around that route.