Waterway Survey

Survey period

1st August - 30th August

How to take part 

Surveyors walk a route along a randomly allocated 1km stretch of river or canal on two evenings in August to record Daubenton's bat activity with a bat detector and torch.

It is preferable if you have some previous experience of listening to Daubenton's bats, but this is not essential if you follow the survey protocol carefully. You need access to a bat detector and a good torch.

For a step-by-step guide to carrying out this survey see the Waterway Survey online tutorial. 

Making audio recordings 

If you have a frequency division detector and recording device then please make recordings while carrying out your survey. Click here for instructions.

If recording to minidisc then it will be helpful if you can transfer your recordings to your computer and send them to us on CD. Click here for instructions on transferring your recordings using free Audacity software.

Other surveys

If you have good bat detector skills you might also like to consider taking part in the Field Survey. If you have access to a frequency division detector (such as the Duet) and a digital recording device, you can take part in the Woodland Survey which focuses on the rare barbastelle. If you know of any bat roosts in your area you could do a Colony Count or you might like to help find new roosts in your area by taking part in the Sunset/Sunrise Survey. But we particularly need more people to help with bat detector surveys, so please take part in the Field Survey and Waterway Survey if you are good at identifying bats in the field. If you would like to improve your skills we run bat detector workshops.