PLANNING YOUR SURVEY

Your Survey Site

You will be assigned a 6 figure grid reference on a stream/river/canal near your home. The majority of sites are assigned from a list of sites that have been surveyed as part of the Environment Agency's River Habitat Survey and therefore have useful habitat data that can be analysed in relation to the bat activity data. You will normally only be asked to travel within a 10km radius from the address that you give to us (either your home or work address).

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 Waterway Survey including:

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

Please note that the Bat Conservation Trust is able to loan bat detectors but we have a very limited supply and can only loan them to volunteers taking part in NBMP surveys.

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 two or more six figure map references to choose from.

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.