Counting Bats
It was lovely to see so many people at our Bat Information Evening in April and wonderful that lots of people said they were interested in joining us for the Bat Count in June.
Setting a date for the counts isn’t quite as straight forward as we thought! Roger, our bat expert writes:
The count is made twice. The first is in the first two weeks of June and the second in the second two weeks, with a minimum number of days between the counts.
Bats emerge only when they feel it is safe to do so. Light levels have to be low, so it’s not permissible to use torches or any other source of visible light. Noise is another factor. When we do the survey, the bats will be females with babies, or near to giving birth. Therefore they must come out to feed, so it is imperative that we don’t do anything to affect their emergence.
Emergence is also affected by the prevailing weather conditions. This means that we can’t set definite dates for advertising on the village social media; we can only seek volunteers within the periods set by BCT for the counts. Final, mutually convenient, dates could be agreed only when we have a good weather forecast nearer the time…
If you are interested in taking part in the count and related activities, please complete the form below so we can keep you informed (and so we have an idea of how many people are coming).
You are welcome to attend the bat counts even if you did not attend the bat talk!
There is some useful information in the video below (produced by the Bat Conservation Trust).
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