Serotine Roost

Last night fourteen of us headed over to visit the serotine roost. The house owners warned us that they had only seen one bat the night before, so we were resigned not to see many bats.

Photo Jude Hirstwood

We used two long handled nets ( serotines are well known for liking roofs with a high apex) and the team took it in turns to get aching arms.

Photo Jude HIrstwood

Serotines are sneaky beasts and are very skilled at eluding capture. After we caught the first bat, we had to swap nets and they took this split second opportunity to sneak a couple of bats out. They did this every time and after an hour we had caught six bats but nine had escaped and flew victory circuits round the garden before swooping off along a nearby hedgerow.

This roost has been part of a Ph.D. project ( See 2011-10-serotine ringing) and any bats we caught were ringed and had DNA samples taken.We returned to the roost in order to check whether any of the ringed bats had returned. Three of them had. We also took the opportunity to check the rings had not caused any wing damage. There was no sign of any, nor of any scarring left from the wing punches.

Aidan checking wing length Photo Jude Hirstwood

In all nine bats escaped and we caught six.
They were all female and three of them had been ringed previously. One was ringed as a juvenile last year. All the bats were in fine condition, though we did notice that they were lighter than last year , suggesting that this bad weather has had an effect. We also checked wing length. We could detect no sign of pregnancy in any of the bats. In difficult conditions bats can slow down fetal development and this may be what happened.

A delighted Aidan Photo Jude Hirstwood

For many of those present, this was the first time they had seen serotines in the hand, and as a result there were a lot of very happy faces to be seen

Photo Jude Hirstwood

We also took the opportunity of taking some photos. This was not always easy as some of the bats were very squirmy,  but we did get some good photos eventually

Photo Jude Hirstwood

This bat on the other hand was more media friendly and sat still while her photo was taken.

Photo Jude Hirstwood

Looking for Bechsteins

Photo of Bechstein's bat by Derek Smith, Surrrey Bat Group

The Bat Conservation Trust has been running a project to look for Bechstein’s bat. Our neighbour the North Bucks Bat Group found a number of Bechstein’s when they were part of the project. They have since carried on their research into Bechstein’s.

We don’t get them in Bedfordshire.

Now Lia Gilmour is doing an MSc to see whether the data collected by this project can be used too predict Bechstein distribution.

We will be working with her to see if we can find them in some woods in Bedfordshire. We get a loan of a harp trap and an Autobat so we can follow the protocol devised by The Bat Conservation Trust.

We are lucky that some members of the North Bucks group are going to help us out.
We are hoping to do surveys in June. So keep your fingers crossed that the weather will improve, It is unlikely that we will find Bechstein’s but we may find other interesting species and it is well worth the try.

Bat Box Checks

The second of the box checks were undertaken yesterday.

 We found nothing in March and were not expecting much today as it is still quite early in the season for bats to be using boxes. And we were right. The team checked all fifty boxes and no bats were in – though a number of boxes did have bird’s nests in them, and some had bat droppings. This is not unusual and we hope the bats will move in once the birds have raised their broods. Some bat box projects put up bird boxes as well to leave the bat boxes free for bats. In Wytham Wood in Oxford, the reverse happens and bats move into the bird boxes, When we used to check boxes at Whipsnade they were always occupied by blue tits never by bats

1st Woodland Survey of the year

Morning all,

I will be undertaking the first of the woodland surveys tomorrow evening (assuming the rains stops). We will be looking at a small number of woodlands in Luton were no records are currently held.

Most of these run in a line from Round Green to the Hertfordshire border, at teh moment I have permission to mist net and look at at least three woods. I am hoping to gain access to other woods running along the boundary.

Martin

National Planning Policy Framework and BCT's new guidelines

Hi all,

National Planning Policy Framework:

On the 27th of March 2012 the Government released the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This document has streamlined the planning policies that were implemented by the local authorities in a planning context.

Planning Policy Statement 9 (Biodiversity) is no longer valid, however circular 06/05 is to be used in conjunction with NPPF.

There were concerns from the nature conservation movement when the draft of the NPPF was published, the focus was on sustainable development, however there was no definition of what this was!!

In the NPPF which is now in force this has been revised somewhat compared with the draft, to include a definition of sustainable development.

So why was there so much concern?

Put simply the EU habitats directive and bird directive had been mostly ignored. After a lot of lobbing from the major nature organisations such as BCT, the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust amendments were made.

Most importantly were EU protected species are concerned there is no presumption in favour of sustainable development. As in the previous planning polices, full and up to date information concerning the species should be available.

What this means in practise we are yet to find out, but the interpretation should be that full surveys for protected species should have been undertaken before planning is granted.

New BCT Survey Guidelines:

At roughly the same time the new 2nd edition of the BCT survey guidelines have been released. These are now much more focused on the commercial ecology industry.

Clarification of some of the minor issues from the previous 1st edition have been made clearer e.g. the consultant is to use expert judgement and the guidelines to make decisions.

Another issue was the de-facto two dusk and one dawn survey, the guidance now says that if a dusk/dawn is undertaken in the same 24hr period that is classed as one survey.

I hazard a guess that this will cause further issues as no definition of a 24hr period is given, common sense would say that this should be a 24hr rotation of the clock, however I can see that certain people will interpret this differently.

Overall the guidance should clear up minor issues from the 1st edition and make the consultants job easier.

Martin

East of England Bat Conference

Hi all,

Saturday saw the second East of England regional bat conference.

There were some very good talks and the chance for some networking.

Season Begins

Morning all

The bat season offically starts today, with the first survey kicking off tomorrow evening at Stockgrove CP.

Athough bats have and will be about the temperatures are not looking to good, usually a temperture of 5oC or above means there will be plenty of bat activity, however the days of late have been great but night-time temperatures have been low, with tonights low expected to be 1oC.

This means that the invertebrates that bats prey on are unlikely to be about and therefore bat activity will be low.

Hopefully we will hear the usual species, and it gives us a chance to 'get our ear' back in.

Martin

The Midlands Conference

Hi all,

I went to the midlands conference yesterday to run a bats and trees workshop. Having arrived on site at about 10.50am I sat in on the main talks until the workshop went ahead at 2pm.

Having never been to the site before I was a little concerned that there wouldn't be any good 'bat trees' but after walking around for an hour, there was plenty to choose from.

Hopefully the walk and talk wasn't to bad and everyone learnt something!!!

Martin

Yesterday, A small number of the BBG and a colleague were doing a badger training day, we were in Kings Wood (Houghton Conquest) and we happened apon an oak tree with a hole in it.

Polly had her endoscope on her so we had a look, where were a minimum of two brown long eared bats and a possible third in the cavity.

Martin

Dawn Swarming

This short clip taken by Angie Cornwell in the summer shows dawn swarming at the largest soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmeaus roost in Bedfordshire.

The roost consists at its peak in excess of 1500 bats, being a maternity roost. It has been monitored for several years now and numbers have been growing year on year. The main concern was that the space they use to roost would be to small for much more expansion, however several licenced members gained access into the roost over winter and it would seem that there is still plenty of space for growth yet.

The above clip is a snap shot of the dawn swarming process, which can last for up to and beyond an hour, this is were lots of bats fly around the entrances to their roosts (swarm) before entering the roost for the day. There are two types of swarming the dawn as above and autumn swarming which is quite different.

Autumn swarming is a prolonged process happening over several hours and late into the night, involving far fewer bats. It occurs at hibernation sites, and several thoeries have been suggested as to why bats do this.

One of these is that the mothers are showing that years young the hibernation sites, another is that its has something to do with mating ensuring that genetic diversity is maintained in a population. Most bat groups are now undertaking work at autumn swarming sites to learn more about this behaviour.

Martin