Our friendly wildlife group has two important events lined up for July and August.

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 Thursday July 7th at 7.30 pm in the United Reformed Church in Somerton.

Wildlife on the Shores of Somerset ( yes we do have an extensive coastline!)

 An illustrated talk by Nigel Phillips.  

By way of introduction Nigel has written a book on the subject.  This is a stunning book which describes the huge diversity of landscapes and wildlife found along this wonderful coast. It is packed with photographs of coastal habitats and the wildlife that can be found. It has maps and appendices helping to point out what might be seen, and where and when things occur. It includes lists of all the plants, seaweeds, birds, marine creatures, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets and dragonflies you might find along the shore and on the cliffs and cliff tops.

This is a 120 - page softback flexibound book in full colour.
Move your mouse over the text "Look inside this book!" on the book image (left) to view the contents. For a more detailed look, one extract has been included here - click here to view!

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The price is £19.50 plus £3.50 post and packing (within the UK). Books can be picked up from Nether Stowey, Somerset by arrangement. Natural Time Out publications 37 Castle Street Nether Stowey, Somerset Somerset TA5 1LN.

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Saturday August 17 th at 8 pm,

 at Playses Orchard Farm , Hambridge, TA10 0AP

A Bat Walk and Talk led by the SWT Bat Group.

Somerset Bat Group was formed in 1985 to help protect bats in Somerset
We are affiliated to the Bat Conservation Trust (the national organisation for bat protection) and Somerset Wildlife Trust

Somerset has 15 of the 16 species of British Bats and we still haven’t given up on the 16th. Some species are more common than others and some are endangered. The Bat Group is actively engaged in varied activities to help preserve these fascinating creatures.

Several of our members run Bat Walks in the Summer. We give talks to local groups, install and check bat boxes and during the Winter hold workshops and courses in Bat Care, Analysing Bat Sound, and Bat Identification.

If you are interested in joining us the please contact secretary Adel Avery, 
phone 01749 840240, or send £5 subs to Adel at The Cottage, Nettlebridge, Oakhill, Bath BA3 5AA.

Bats in Somerset

Number four in the posts most frequently visited on this Blog is one I published way back on Sept 12th 2006 and it still attracts a steady number of visits. Its titled " Do Bats fly in the middle of the day?"
There have been 542 visits to the posting!

To follow up on my earlier post I think the answer to my question is that they may do when they are hungry or disturbed of course!

The Somerset Bat Group web site gives more information about their current programme  including their AGM to be held at the RSPCA Centre at West Hatch on April 27th. Incidental one of our local wildlife group works there as a volunteer and was recently helping in the cleaning of sea birds after the recent sea contamination and getting rather pecked by the unhappy  birds.

Here is a link to their web site:   http://www.somersetbatgroup.org.uk/index.html

I'm sure they would be pleased to hear from you.

The web site shows a series of photos of bats taken by Paul Kennedy. The Group claims that 15 of the 16 UK native bats have been identified in Somerset and hopes one day to find the 16th.

Bat enquiries, questions, conservation.

When I check the stats provided for my Blog the subject of Bats comes up as a top ten reason for visits,
Especially people searching with Google. I'm not well informed on the subject so a good way to help local residents in Somerset is to suggest they visit the specialist Group shown below.

Use this link to visit:   

I recommend anyone interested in Bats to join their Bat Group
Lou is also the Chair of the SWT Yeovil Area Group

Somerset Bat Group

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Somerset Bat Group was formed in 1985 to help protect bats in Somerset
We are affiliated to the Bat Conservation Trust (the national organisation for bat protection) and Somerset Wildlife Trust

Somerset has 15 of the 16 species of British Bats and we still haven’t given up on the 16th. Some species are more common than others and some are endangered. The Bat Group is actively engaged in varied activities to help preserve these fascinating creatures.

Several of our members run Bat Walks in the Summer. We give talks to local groups, install and check bat boxes and during the Winter hold workshops and courses in Bat Care, Analysing Bat Sound, and Bat Identification.

If you are interested in joining us the please contact secretary Lou Pickersgill, 
phone 01935 862468, or send £5 subs to Lou at 3 Odcombe Hollow, East Chinnock, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 9DW.

© Somerset Bat Group 2009: Bechstein's Bat photo © Paul Kennedy

Do Bats fly in the day time?

Did you see the BBC Spring Watch programme last night. They talked about comments from a viewer who had filmed a bat flying in daylight. You should be able to see the programme again on iPlayer.
Suggested explanations were given including bad weather and a cold previous night, lack of insects flying at night and a hungry bat.  It was not thought to be a good plan for a bat as they become an easy target for predatory birds.
I'll look at the web site for the programme which can be found at this link.   click here:
or use this web address   http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01js14q/Springwatch_2012_Episode_8/

On the recorded programme you need to move the time marker along to 13. 40 min and the item runs until 15.40 min

You can also go to my earlier post on 12th September  2006.  The label link should work to take you to it.
I've just checked the bat lable and was surprised how many posts I've made on the subject!

Bats

One of the posts on this Blog which attracts the most searches is any reference to bats.
Not being a bat expert I usually visit the Somerset Bat Group web site or contact its members.
We recently arranged to go on a walk to inspect bat boxes and attempt to identify the species found flying by using detectors.

As well as learning a little more about bats I was surprised to find out that bat detector devices are used to search for grass hoppers and crickets!

Their web site gives details of their walks and events and has a photo gallery.

Their home page is at this link. Click here. 

Their photo gallery is here. 

One of the items on my " to do " list is to arrange a bat survey around our meadow and hedges. I also need to organise a moth count as well.

Hope this helps.

This is one animal I don't get to photograph!

Bats

These photos from Kids Zone web site, link here.



The internet provides an amazing ability to link subjects together. Here is how I recently found myself reading about bats!


A few days ago I found a bright yellow flower, size about 10 or 15 mm growing on a grass trail round a local meadow. I tried to remember enough details about its size, petals, stamens and leaf arrangement to identify it at home with books such as Wild Flowers by Blamey and Keeble Martin. Bearing in mind that it is now mid Dec I decided that it must be either the Creeping or the Spring Cinquefoil. I asked a friend for an opinion and went back to check. Naturally the flower had disappeared and I had little luck trying to pin down where I had seen it. There were no other specimens around either.
I've been persuaded that it is the Creeping form and as a final check I searched the web for any further guidance.

I came across a new web site run by Natural England called, "Gardening with Wildlife in Mind" .

Their web site says: "Natural England's Gardening with wildlife in mind aims to help people choose plants likely to attract wildlife. It also shows what eats what in the garden." It seems to be a joint venture with a private company called, " The Plant Press", publishers of books and CD's on gardening.
So with the help of Plant Press you can search for a range of wild animals and find out what they eat and other data. This is where I found my way to Bats!

I tried it out with bats and that is the point of this post, here is an extract from the site. Read more at this link.



I find it interesting to read that:

The pipistrelle bat was thought to be a single species until around 1998, when it was found that there are two genetically distinct species, the larger common pipistrelle and the smaller Pipistrellus pymaeus or 'soprano pipistrelle', so-called because its echolocation call is at a frequency of 55kHz as opposed to the common pipistrelle, which echo locates at 45kHz. New research into these two species is showing that they also have different preferences for food and habitat. The 55kHz bat prefers wetland and lives up to its German common name of 'midge bat'.

In future I must remember to talk about 45 or 55kHz bats which sounds very much more interesting!

I had to follow up this article by clicking on the link to the Bat Conservation Trust which I recall visiting some time ago before posting an item on bats. This time their web site , as usual gives a lot about bats but here is an extract on bats and biodiversity, the latter subject I had posted about recently.
Read more at this link:

Protecting our Biodiversity

The United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 committed member states to conserve their biological diversity and set a global target 'to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss'. In Europe however the goal is that 'biodiversity decline should be halted with the aim of reaching the objective by 2010' known as the Countdown 2010 initiative. We are now less than 600 days away from the end of 2010 and there is still a lot of work to do.

Throughout the UK, BCT is working to maintain our bat biodiversity. We have 17 species of bat and we wish to see the populations of all these conserved and, where possible, enhanced.

All of our bats and their roosts are protected by law. Legislation is one way of maintaining bat biodiversity and shows that the Government thinks that conservation of bats is important.

BCT's Bat Biodiversity Project delivers a whole range of actions in conjunction with the Statutory Nature Conservation Organisations, volunteer bat workers, other environmental charities, sectors of trade and industry and government departments to help ensure that bat biodiversity is maintained. Further details of our work on policy and lobbying can be found on the consultation and lobbying pages.

The work of the Biodiversity Officer is supported by Natural England and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

A final interest in all this is that I have been trying to persuade our Group to purchase a bat detector for some time now. I might just have to buy one myself!
Out of this bit of research several outcomes might be generated:

• We organise another meeting about Bats or a bat walk to support the Countdown 2010 event.
  
• We write to all our local authorities : parish and town councils, to ask about their interest in the environment and what they are doing about their responsibilities in respect of biodiversity etc.
• We continue to promote wildlife gardening.

Bats in Somerset

A surprising number of visitors to this blog have been searching for information on bats.

Here is a link to the Somerset Bat Group who might be able to help. Link here.

Do bats fly in the middle of the day?

I have posted several photos taken by Steve Dyer. He has also had a letter published in the current edition of Natural World issued to all members and which local members should have received by now. ( see p6). With it is a photo taken by Steve It was taken on the 8th of April this year at around 2.00pm in Burtle. As Steve says in his letter it is very odd sighting indeed!It is clearly a pipistrelle bat flying in daylight on a sunny and cold day. It is a rare event.It shows the value of having your camera with you when out of doors!