Bat Group Blog
The Bat Group Blog provides an insight into some of the things going on around the UK. If your group has some news you'd like to share, perhaps a big event that's coming up or an unusual find, please contact the Bat Group's Officer.
East Yorkshire Bat Group
Over the past three years, the long established bat box project at Tophill Low Nature Reserve (Yorkshire Water treatment plant) initiated by the East Yorkshire Bat Group (EYBG) has yielded specimens of Pipistrellus nathusii (nathusius' pipistrelle). Usually, two males and a female have been found providing clear evidence for residency in the area which is close to Driffield.
Tophill Low is a flagship nature reserve for Yorkshire Water and is highly regarded for its birdlife but other endangered animal and plant species are adapting to the variety of habitat at the site which is located alongside the River Hull. As a result of the bat box findings Nathusius' pipistrelle has been adopted as a site flagship species. Other records of the species have been obtained over the 20 years of the EYBG existence from either North Sea or Humber locations, but generally regarded as vagrants. More recently verified audiograms of nathusius' pipistrelle have been obtained at Gransmoor gravel pits near Bridlington, not far from Tophill Low (David Hughes, personal communication).
Befordshire Bat Group
Follow the progress of the baby noctule bat in our care on our new bat group blog - he flew for the first time yesterday!
http://bedfordshirebatgroup.blogspot.com/
23rd June 2010
Durham Bat Group and North Yorkshire Bat Group
The Cleveland Bat Programme
During 2009, a partnership between Durham and North Yorkshire bat groups and Tees Valley Wildlife Trust ran a programme of activities to try and involve more people in the former county of Cleveland in bat work. The activities were spread across the Cleveland area and included a variety of NBMP surveys as well as public bat walks and talks to give people a chance to find the types and levels of bat work that might suit them.
Around 30 people, few of whom had any previous contact with the bat groups, came to the first meeting or contacted us shortly afterwards and registered an interest in getting more involved in some form of bat work. Most of these were completely new to bat work but a small number had significant experience and 2 were licensed.
Over the year the three organisations ran 19 bat walks and talks in Cleveland that were open to the public and these attracted almost 450 participants. Also sample NBMP surveys were run at eleven different venues and covering five different types of survey. Some of these were reapprisals of NBMP sites that hadn't been surveyed for several years and it is hoped that many of them will now be continued on an annual basis.
While only a handful of the new people got thoroughly involved and attended most of the activities everyone has been kept in contact with through an e-mailing list and newsletter and a number of others are keen to do some bat work in 2010 even if circumstances prevented them last year. A programme of activities will be put together for 2010 and anyone who is interested in getting involved, at whatever their level of experience or time commitment, would be very welcome. For further details please contact Ian Bond on bondian@hotmail.co.uk.
Brumbats
Mock roost visit day 2009
Mike, a member of Brumbats, lives in a house with a few bats and fairly easy access to the loft space, so we decided to have a go at offering training roost visits to members of the group who wanted the experience.
We arranged for friends who knew little about bats but were keen to learn more to act as householders. We paired up bat group members and briefed them, then gave them an hour to carry out the visit, including looking in the loft for evidence of bats if they wanted to do so. The visit also included filling in paper work 
to "return" to Natural England. Simon Phipps, who originally trained me, kindly came along to help give feedback to the participants.
Roger and Julia, who played the householders, worked really hard to give an authentic experience to our four pairs of bat workers. The bat workers and the householders looked at the roost entrance from the outside and discussed all the issues and negotiated to agree a way forward to put to Natural England through the paper work.
It was a beautiful day and everyone really entered into the spirit of the experience. We had cake, biscuits and tea ready for everyone thanks to Ray, Sue and Juliette.
The feedback from participants was good. Some members are, after hard work on their part in lots of other situations, now ready to take the final steps to their roost visitor's licence. Some have a good way to go yet but have gained valuable experience and shown real potential to be great advocates for bats. My thanks to all who took part and worked so hard to make the day a lot of fun and full of opportunities to learn for us all.
www.brumbats.org.uk
South Notts Bat Group
A cold winter........good for bats?
In South Notts, it would seem that the answer to that question is yes, as bats were found during hibernation surveys by the group at two sites this year.
Few hibernation sites have been found in Nottinghamshire compared to other counties but there must be places waiting to be discovered. There are just ten sites in our database which have recorded roosting bats during the months of November to February. These include the Thoresby Estate when two Natterer's bats were found in the structure known as the Ice House on 27 January, the first bats found here since 2001. Also, the Rushcliffe Country Park Hibernacula where a single brown-longed bat was found tightly squeezed into one of the gaps in a Bat-zzz-brick on both of the survey dates (23/01/10 and 03/02/10). This was the first bat found here since February 2007.
The Rushcliffe Hibernacula is a purpose built structure completed in 1992 from a design by Dr Robert Stebbings. It is a tunnel constructed from 38, 1.2m long sections of 2m diameter concrete pipe. There is an end chamber which is approximately 4m wide x 5.5m long x 3m high. The original plan showed an air vent in the ceiling of the end chamber which was omitted when the hibernacula was built. Its absence often means that the tunnel is too warm in all but the coldest winters. Roosting spaces are created with bat bricks, timber battens and five brick walls which have been built with lots of gaps and a rubble infill. Maintenance is now required as many of the bat bricks have now fallen off the walls, especially in the end chamber. I also noticed in February how dry the air seems to be in the end chamber. Hibernating bats require a high humidity and I fear that unless we can improve this then one or two bats are all we are likely to find. Although only a few bats have been found in the winter, droppings show that it is used frequently by brown long-eared bats.
www.southnottsbatgroup.org.uk
Kent Bat Group
God's Acre pilot project 
The Kent bat Group is one of a number of organisations giving support to the development of the God's Acre Project in Kent.
Churchyards often contain a rich diversity of plants and animals, and as natural habitats become increasingly reduced, churchyards become more important wild spaces. Caring for God's Acre aims to inspire and support local communities to care for churchyards and burial grounds in a way that benefits both people and wildlife. The organisations involved seek to combine their skills to offer assistance to the local communities in managing their churchyards and burial grounds . The project is led by Revd. Caroline Pinchbeck, Rural Life and Environment Adviser for the Dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester. The group is pleased to be involved in this initiative. The relationship between bats and churches goes back a long way. As Britain was gradually deforested over thousands of years to make way for settlements, roads and crops, bats adapted to the use of the opportunities presented to them by buildings. Parish churches have been some of the most enduring features of the landscape, providing valuable roosting sites for many generations of bats. When sympathetically managed, the churchyard can increase the importance of the building by supplying good foraging close to roosts.
We want to ensure that bats are around for future generations to enjoy and that churches will continue to be the secure and welcome sanctuaries that bats have enjoyed for centuries.
www.kentbatgroup.org.uk
Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group
Why local groups should use Anabat
The Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group (DBCG) has been using two Anabat units since 2008 for a number of projects. In the south of the county they have helped to establish which species are present on two National Trust estates. In the summer of 2008 one unit was installed at South Wood, part of the Calke Abbey Park National Trust estate and the second unit was located at the Kedleston Park NT estate. The results have given us some very interesting insights into the activity patterns and species balance of the estates. The units have also been used to undertake driving transects in the few remaining 1km squares in the county where there are no bat records.
The Staffordshire Bat Group has been using their Anabats in the Manifold valley at the disused Bincliffe mine workings near Ilam to establish the use of the adits as swarming sites. The data indicate that one of the adits is used as an autumn swarming site. Future plans include undertaking similar remote Anabat studies but with bat group members undertaking visits to get an idea of bat numbers present.
This winter 2009/2010 the DBCG has placed its two Anabats in cave systems in the Derbyshire Peak District as part of our winter surveys; one at Eldon Hole in the Peak Forest and the other within the show cave at Peak Cavern, Castleton. Both data sets show that bats have been active throughout the winter months with more data still to be collected. Whilst the units are relatively expensive, the records generated give invaluable insights into the bat activity in an area and make a significant contribution to a group's records database.
www.derbyshirebats.org.uk