Volunteer bat researchers needed
Take part in a unique opportunity to be part of your local natural history!
Volunteer to help rewrite our understanding of bats in the county. WWT Welney Wetland Centre and The Norfolk Bat Survey would like to give anyone in West Norfolk a unique opportunity to find out which bat species are in their local area. This can only be achieved through recent advances in technology for automating the capture and analysis of acoustic data for bats.
To get a thorough picture of Norfolk’s bat species, Norfolk Bat Survey has set up a number of 'Bat Monitoring Centres' across the county. From these centres, volunteers can borrow equipment for a few days and help collect valuable data which will form an important part of the survey. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Welney is one such site and this corner of the county, where there are far fewer people than in other areas of Norfolk, is in particular need of your help!
To carry out this survey on a local patch, volunteers will require three different points, ideally at least 200-metres apart, to be surveyed on consecutive nights within a 1-km square.
Leigh Marshall, Centre Manager for WWT Welney Wetland Centre, says:
‘This is an exciting and easy way to identify the species of bat that share your local area with you
‘We are particularly looking forward to seeing what people manage to discover in this area as the Fens provides a fantastic habitat for a diverse range of species.
’We put on events throughout the year to show people how amazing wildlife can be and use bat detectors with visitors at events like our Evening safari and Bats & barn owls evenings.’
Dr Stuart Newson, BTO Senior Research Ecologist (and project manager for Norwich Bat Group) commented:
‘It is really exciting to have an opportunity to work in partnership with local bat groups, local and national organisations and local libraries, to improve our understanding of bats in the county
‘This is a real opportunity for local communities, landowners, reserve managers and individuals who are interested to take part and find out what bats are present in their area.’
So far this year, West Norfolk has had two recordings of what are suspected to be the rare Alcathoe’s bat near King’s Lynn as well as recordings of the scarce, but probably under-recorded species, such as Nathusius’ Pipistrelle and Serotine bats from around the county.
Whilst Norfolk Bat Survey hopes to build on this project in following years, they are limited by the number of detectors in this first pilot year. So if you are interested in taking part, you need to be quick in expressing interest, and reserving your 1-km square to survey at the online survey map http://www.batsurvey.org/bnbp/welney.html. After selecting a 1-km square (or squares if interested in covering a larger area), you will be given a web link to a site where you can reserve a detector to use from WWT Welney Wetland Centre.
If you’d like to have a try before volunteering for the Norfolk Bat Survey, the following events at WWT Welney Wetland Centre will help you get to grips with the equipment before it starts:
Evening safari, 6-8pm on Fri 17 May
Bats & barn owls, 9.30pm – midnight on Sat 6 July
