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