Annual General Meeting followed by A Talk on Caring for Bats – roost visits, batty churches and grounded bats by Penny Angold

A light-hearted look at the origins a

nd purpose of bat groups, exploring experiences in voluntary bat care such as roost visits, bat rescue and the rewards and challenges involved.

Penny has many years’ experience as an ecological consultant.

Preceded by a short AGM. 

When: 

Tuesday, 24 February 2015 19:30 - 21:30

Where: 

Committee Room Brandon Marsh (in main building of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust HQ)

Everyone Welcome!

£3 for Warwickshire Bat Group members or £4 for non members

Waterways' bats & their conservation - a talk by Paul Wilkinson

Paul will be speaking about his recent research project on woodland ponds and their importance to the conservation status of bats. He will be comparing urban, suburban and rural canals with lots of areas for potential research to take forward.
He will also introduce some roosts in bridges that members of Warwickshire Bat Group will be able to participate in monitoring. 

Paul has been with the Canal & River Trust for 12 years and in that time has been able to study many canals, tunnels and buildings with some interesting insights into how they all differ. He says of himself: "I was born an ecologist with an interest in everything and have always had a fascination for water and the wildlife that is attracted to it."

When: 7.30 p.m. Wednesday 29th January 

Where: The Barn, Brandon Marsh (Warwickshire Wildlife Trust HQ)

£3 for Warwickshire Bat Group members or £4 for non members

Includes tea/coffee & biscuits.

Burton & Swift* Present Ecological Explorations in Construction - a Christmas Bat Group talk

A Christmas talk about the practicalities, perils and pitfalls of ecological work.

• Cringe at Chiropterans with an inverted sense of humour!
• Boggle at bolshy Badgers!
• Gasp at Greatcrestednewts!!

Can the audience recount even more extraordinary experiences??

ABOUT BURTON & SWIFT

George Burton has innumerable years’ experience in architecture.

Anna Swift has been working in ecology-related roles for longer than she cares to remember.

*Burton & Speke are unable to attend due to a misunderstanding with a hippopotamus during an ecological consultancy on developing the Nile.

When: 7.30 p.m. Wednesday 17th December

Where: The Barn, Brandon Marsh (Warwickshire Wildlife Trust HQ)

£3 for Warwickshire Bat Group members or £4 for non members

Includes mince pies as well as the usual tea/coffee & biscuits.

An Introduction to the Wytham Bat Project (2006 - 2014) a talk by Danielle Linton

Wytham Wood

Since 2006 Danielle Linton has been coordinating groups of volunteers to check the EGI bird boxes in Wytham Woods looking for bat roosts. Over 21,000 box checks of the 1265 Schwegler boxes have resulted in over 1000 roosts (>80% boxes used to date) being recorded. Three species regularly form maternity colonies in the boxes: Myotis daubentonii, Myotis nattereri and Plecotus auritus, and seven species have been found in boxes at Wytham so far...

Over 3000 individual bats have been ringed in nine years and this study has revealed much valuable information on bat social networks, colony home roost ranges and population dynamics at this site. Following individual life histories and monitoring juvenile health (size and survivorship) per annum also provides some fascinating insights...

come along to find out more!

Introducing Dani Linton

When:
7.30 p.m. Wednesday 19th November

Where:
The Barn, Brandon Marsh
(Warwickshire Wildlife Trust HQ)

£3 for Warwickshire Bat Group members or £4 for non members

Bat Group Talk on Nathusius bats by our very own Jon Russ

When: 7.30 p.m. Wednesday 22nd October
Where: The Barn, Brandon Marsh
(Warwickshire Wildlife Trust HQ)

Nathusius' pipistrelle is one of Britain's rarest bats with only a handful of maternity colonies known, although records of individuals are widespread. Jon will discuss what records of Nathusius' pipistrelle can tell us about the status of the species in Britain and how recent research is adding to our knowledge of the species migratory behaviour. Topics include species identification, migration, range expansion, habitat associations and threats.

Jon presenting his data at the talk.

About Jon: Jon obtained a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from The University of Aberdeen, followed by a PhD at Queen's University Belfast on the distribution, species composition and vocalisations of Northern Ireland's bats. Jon is currently owner of Ridgeway Ecology, an ecological consultancy specialising in bats.

Counting Lesser Horseshoes

This year's Lesser Horseshoe counts have got off to a good start with 42 bats at the roost near Snitterfield and 69 near Ettington.

New distribution maps!

Pages for bats in Warwickshire now show distribution maps, based on the records that we share with the Warwickshire Biological Records Centre.

Thank you to the WBRC for helping to provide these.