Diario del proyecto Somerset Big Bat Count

On Sat 8th July did our first repeat Big Bat Count in Castle Cary. Twelve people met in the Methodist rooms and set off in 5 groups to find bats.

A colder and clear night meant the bats were late to show, with Common Pip and Noctule making up the majority of the records.

Full results can be seen in iNaturalist. - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-07-08&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

It was nice to see so many lovely people in Kingsdon, return for our second Big Bat Count there. Approx 35 people split up into 10 groups surveying some new as well as last years sites. Unfortunately the rain really started to come down after 1/2 an hour, and so the total number of bats recorded was down at 65.

The most common species recorded were:

• Soprano pipistrelle
• Noctule
• Serotine
• Common pipistrelle

Three recordings of greater horseshoe will have further verification as these were new to last year.

Full results are in iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-08-13&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

Despite changing the date at the last moment due to the weather, there was a great turnout for the first successful Big Bat Count across Yeovil. Organised by Helen from the Wildlife Trust, around 35 people in 10 teams surveyed across Yeovil, and recorded 92 bat records.

The most frequent species was the common pipistrelle with over a third of the records. this was followed by soprano pipistrelle, serotine and noctule. Other AutiIDed records of rarer bats such as barbastelle and Bechstein's will undergo further analysis of the recordings.

Full results are in iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-08-19&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

Our thanks to Frome Town Council, and Jo in particular, for hosting our largest Big Bat Count to date. Over 50 people in 10 teams recorded 169 bats, again a Big Bat Count nightly record.

As we found in our May count, Soprano and Common Pipistrelle were again the most commonly recorded. However, this time nearly as many Noctule were seen, and there was also a good number of records of Serotine, the other larger bat.

An unrecorded flyby a Greater Horseshoe, as well as several records of the rarer species, will be checked when the recordings are analysed later this year.

With our sincere thanks to everyone who came out, to make it such a successful night

Full results are in iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-08-23&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

Around twenty people met in Charlton Mackrell Reading Rooms, for a successful night of bat counting. The six teams recorded 73 bats across 11 AutoIDed species.

With about half the records Common Pipistrelle were the most commonly recorded, with Soprano Pipistrelle next. There also were a handful of records each of Noctule and Serotine.

The other species had few sightings, and those recordings AutoIDede as Barbastelle, Natterer’s, Nathusius’s, Leisler’s and Myotis species will need further analysis over the winter.

Full results are in iNaturalist. https://uk.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-08-24&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

As we are in our second year of running Big bat Counts, it is nice to see the bat maps for neighbouring villages start to join up, as in this case with Kingston and the Charltons.

Our thanks to everyone who turned out to make it such a successful event

This report and photos from the night are on our website: https://somersetbat.group/bats/count/big2023/