Using bat boxes to monitor woodland bat populations

To those of you who didn't make it to the talk on Friday, you missed another great one. Hannah Bilston from North Bucks Bat Group had prepared an excellent presentation that had everyone wanting to know more. Questions were raised and well fielded throughout the talk and a lively debate followed at the end. Warwickshire members were agog (envious?) at the sheer number of bats the North Bucks group had got in their mist nets (including Natterers and Bechsteins). And apparently there are more results that she didn't have time to tell us about, and plans for further 'experiments' with the bat boxes, so maybe there will be a sequel...

This was the last of the planned Winter talks, so your newly elected committee will be planning some activities for the summer.

Using bat boxes to monitor woodland bat populations - A talk by Matt Dodds and Hannah Bilston

While it’s pretty obvious that bats use woods, there is currently no widely accepted approach to monitoring the populations of woodland bats which is practical, repeatable and accurate. But without accurate population monitoring, conservation decisions rely largely on guesstimates – albeit based on an understanding of bat ecology.

With this in mind, North Bucks Bat Group set out 10 years ago to try and develop a monitoring approach based on several bat box projects in North Bucks and Oxfordshire.

Over that time, they have gathered a wealth of knowledge and experience and in this talk Matt and Hannah will be sharing their fascinating and sometimes surprising findings about bats’ use of bat boxes in woods.

Date: Friday 19th April 2013
Time: 19:15

Place: The Barn, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Brandon Marsh CV3 3GW
Price: £3 for Warks Bats Group members, £4 for non-members

Please note, the talk will be preceded by the Group’s Annual General Meeting. Non-members will not be allowed to vote, but are welcome to listen.