Bat walks for 2014

The IOS Bat Group has arranged the following bat walks for 2014 on St Mary's.

Date                             Meeting time

Monday 19 May             21.10

Tuesday 27 May             21.15

Wednesday 18 June      21.40

Tuesday 8 July             21.30

Wednesday 23 July    21.20

Thursday 14 August     20.45

Wednesday 27 August     20.20

Thursday 11 September   19.45

Cost £5, children under 16 free. All are welcome

Bring a torch.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Meeting place to be announced nearer the date.

At times when there may be a large uptake, a booking system will be used.

Bat group AGM

ISLES OF SCILLY BAT GROUP

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2013

THE METHODIST CHURCH HALL, CHURCH STREET

ST MARY’S

THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2013, 1.30pm

Tales of bats from (not in the) Skye!

Recently I was on the beautiful island of Skye in the Hebredies. It was
October and quite mild, with generally very quiet weather. Unfortunately
the bat detector had been left behind, but I quite fancied the chances
of seeing some bats at dusk.

The South of Skye, in marked contrast to the rest of the island, is
quite soft and wooded, providing lots of good habitat for insects, birds
and bats. So true to form, about half an hour after sunset I saw bats
flying around. What was also interesting was that, one sleepless night I
had a walk around in the middle of the night and saw bats (close to
house lights) again. They obviously kept feeding through the night and
hadn't even thought about hibernating yet.

But the funniest thing was sat in a folk concert in a local arts centre.
The band were in their third song of the night when most of the 100 or
so audience started looking up where a bat was flying around! The venue
was a converted old barn and it was obviously (temporarily or
permanently) home to bats. At half time the organiser said "oh don't
worry about the bat, it often comes out during performances, but it'll
find its way out through door." And it duly did.

That was certainly a first for me and, it has to be said, did give the
concert a very special atmosphere!

Jonathan Smith

Bat walks on St Mary's this summer

The IOS Bat Group will be running bat walks on these dates through the summer, on St Mary's:

June 25 (Tues)

July 15 (Mon)

July 30 (Tues)

Aug 14 (Wed)

Aug 27 (Tuesday)

Sept 18 (Wed)

All are welcome! Details on the start place and time will be announced near the event in local press, radio and posters.

Bat walks in 2013

This year the Group will be holding bat walks on St Mary's on the following dates:

April 17 (Wed)

May 28 (Tues)

June 26 (Wed)

July 15 (Mon)

July 30 (Tues)

Aug 14 (Wed)

Aug 28 (Wed)

Sept 18 (Wed)

All are very welcome; see local posters for details before each event

A year in the life of a bat

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/a_year_in_the_life_of_a_bat.html

Bat walk on Bryher 11th July

There will be a Bat Walk on Bryher on Wednesday 11th July. Meet at The Hell Bay Hotel bar at 9.15-9.30pm. (Sunset is at 9.30 and bats do not tend to come out until about 20min after that. This will give time for a brief discussion before the walk.)

 

We don't expect many members who are not living or staying on Bryher to be there but if you can come you will be most welcome. General circulation of such events also serves to indicate that the Bat Group is very much alive and active on the off-islands!

Bat walks in 2012

Some dates for your diary of bat walks on St Mary's this year, organised by the IOS Bat Group:

4th April Walk Scilly – leaders: Mike, Anne, Rebecca. Meet on Holgate’s Green at 20.00. All, including members, need to register at the TIC.
15th May Leaders: Rebecca & Jaclyn
6th June Leaders: Anne & Mike
5th July Leaders: Rebecca & Jaclyn
26th July Leaders: Anne, Mike & Rebecca
22nd August Leaders: Anne, Mike & Rebecca
12th September Rebecca & Jaclyn

Walks will be advertised at TIC and other locations in the previous week and will indicate time and place to meet. Bring torch, warm clothing and suitable  footwear. A charge of £5 is made for visitors but Bat Group Members are free.

New planning leaflet

In line with new laws that have come in to force, we have updated our Planning advice leaflet, which can be downloaded from our website free here: www.scillybatgroup.org.uk/about_us.html

If you're considering alterations to an existing building, please read the leaflet as you will be required to explain in the Planning process how you intend to deal with any bat presence.

If you need any further advice from us or would like  abut survey carried out, please get in contact.

St Martin's bats in April

I've just come back from a bat walk around Middle Town and Lower Town on St Martin's on a cool but dry evening. This was the first proper bat walk of the year for me and it yielded some positive results.

I would estimate there were4 or 5 individual Pipistrelles, but had several passes of each and they seemed to be very busy after insects.

Whilst we're still not sure where they're roosting, it's always good to find them active after another winter - the last being a cold one of course. On warmer evenings we'll find out what sort of levels the population is at for 2011.