Diario del proyecto Somerset Big Bat Count

This big bat count for Stoke St Gregory environment group was organised by Bryony from SWT, with help from Bindy from the bat group.

Bryony reported the "Big Bat Count on Saturday was a lot of fun! We had 7 groups out, ideal weather and everyone came back on a really high, having recorded bats in various locations around the parish. Bindy was absolutely fantastic sharing lots of bat-facts and sorting out the tech for us".

The groups recorded 120 bat observations across 12 AutoIDed species. Common pipistrelle and noctule were the most frequent, both with approx a third of the sightings. Other AutoIDed records of rarer bats such as barbastelle, Brandt's and Bechstein's will undergo further analysis of the recordings.

Full results are in iNaturalist; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-09-02&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any

Our last Big Bat Count in 2023 was for Brompton Ralph wildlife group with support from residents of Tolland. On a somewhat overcast, windy and spotting rain night, eight enthusiastic teams recorded 130 bat sightings.

With just over half the sightings common pipistrelle was by far the most frequent species, soprano pipistrelle, noctule and serotine were also frequently seen.

The recordings of the rarer species, including an early sighting of greater horseshoe will be looked at more closely latter in the year.

Full results are in iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2023-09-12&place_id=any&project_id=all-bats-in-somerset&subview=map&verifiable=any