Newsletter December 2012 Our Beacon for Bats News Please come along and help out at our tree-planting days on the 9th & 12th of January 2013. Contact Jane Sedgeley for further details. Pg. 2 2012 and beyond 2Pg. 4 Another record year Pg. 5 Bats at Brecon Prom Pg. 6 The BBC comes to the Usk Valley Pg.7 Reaching out to schools Pg. 8 c Frank Greenaway ‘The Chaps’ Welcome to the second e-newsletter of the Our Beacon for Bats Project. Pg. 10 Bats v Moths The Our Beacon for Bats Project is Happy Christmas 2012 to all who a three year project, funded by the have been involved and taken an Pg. 11 Brecon Beacons Trust and the interest in the project. We wouldn’t A year in the life Heritage Lottery Fund. The project have achieved so much without of the lesser builds on conservation work carried you. It’s been a busy bat season. We horseshoe bat out by The Vincent Wildlife Trust in were involved with 16 events which the upper Usk Valley over many years. included public talks, a training Pg. 12 workshop, roost visits, surveys, The project takes the conservation agricultural shows and bat walks. A EAW Funding of the bats one step further, total of 673 volunteer hours were beyond the roost and into the wider clocked up between May and Pg. 13 landscape, working with local people September. A huge thank you to all to achieve a sustainable bat-friendly involved, with a special mention of Winter environment, and engaging the Margaret, Charlotte and Peter hibernation counts community and visitors to the area who put in an inspirational 391 in learning about the bats on their hours on their lesser horseshoe doorstep. bat and hedgerows project. Jane Sedgeley Project Officer, Our Beacon for Bats 2012 and beyond! By Jane Sedgeley, Project Officer Our Beacon for Bats We began in earnest in May with a Bat Detector Workshop and training day aimed at re-enthusing existing volunteers and recruiting new ones. The VWT’s Conservation Programme Manager and long-time lesser horseshoe bat expert, Dr Henry Schofield, led the day assisted by OB4B Project Officer Jane Sedgeley. The workshop started with indoor presentations on lesser horseshoe bat ecology, a fascinating introduction to bat echolocation from Henry and a session on how to survey for bats using various types of bat Fig.1: Henry Schofield with attendees at our bat detector workshop in detectors. This was followed May 2012 by an outdoor practical session. Despite the chilly weather we successfully recorded a number of bat species along the canal at Talybont-on-Usk and a lesser horseshoe bat on some We also surveyed around adjacent land. 22 km of the Brecon and c Frank Greenaway Monmouthshire canal between To follow on from the bat Llanfrynach and Llangattock. detector day, we ran a series of survey events aimed at Lesser horseshoe bats, along discovering how lesser horseshoe with good numbers of more bats are using the landscape common bat species, such as between two of the largest Daubenton’s bat, common and maternity roost sites the Trust soprano pipistrelles, and manages. Surveys on the A40 Natterer’s bats, were found identified eight new crossing throughout. Information from points where bats brave the these surveys is already being highway to move to favoured used to inform roadside and foraging areas to the north towpath management helping and east of the road. Lyndon to ensure green corridors are and Colin saw 14 lesser maintained and so enable the horseshoe bats cross the road bats to move between their roost at head-height using an sites and foraging areas. overgrown hedge on one side and a tree line on the other to partially bridge the gap. Fig.2: Lesser horseshoe bat Our Beacon for Bats News December 2012 Page 2 Fig.3: Jane Sedgeley and Dai Jermyn with volunteers at the end of the 2012 bat survey season We rounded off the bat moves into its next stage. These are planned for detector surveys for the 2012 The winter months are ideal January 9th and 12th 2013. summer season with an for tree planting. We will be If time permits, we are also invitation to volunteers to planting new hedgerows on hoping to search a range of WWII watch an evening bat emergence several farms over the next few pill boxes, ice houses, and at our lesser horseshoe bat months including one large unheated cellars to see if any reserve at Pencelli. All bat project we are undertaking in are used by lesser horseshoe bats records collected this summer collaboration with Environment for night roosting, non-breeding will be submitted to the The Agency Wales and Brecon sites and possibly hibernation Biodiversity Information Beacons National Park. sites. It may be possible for a Service for Powys and Brecon limited number of volunteers to Beacons National Park. We’ll be running volunteer assist with these surveys, but it days with some of the BBNP will be site dependent. regular midweek and weekend Bats are largely inactive during volunteers to go and plant up winter, but we plan to have a two large woodland blocks on a busy winter as the OB4B project farm near Talybont-on-Usk. Fig.4: Roosting lesser horseshoe bats c Frank Greenaway Please get in touch if you would like to join in with either our tree planting scheme at Talybont-on Usk or our assessment of WWII pill boxes. Both present good opportunities to get outside into the fresh air and work off some of the Christmas over-indulgences! Our Beacon for Bats News December 2012 Page 3 Another record year By David Jermyn, Reserves Officer Summer 2012 was the wettest in 100 years, with some parts Fig.5: Members of the U3A of the country in June receiving Strollers Group enjoying a bat a month’s rain in a single day emergence at our premier lesser - weather more favourable for horseshoe bat maternity roost animals with webbed feet you might think. However, the effects of the dreadful weather this past Despite these soggy conditions, summer may have resulted our lesser horseshoe bat colonies in poor birth rates along with faired particularly well, with poor juvenile survival rates around 60% of the roosts The within the lesser horseshoe VWT manages throughout Wales bat colonies. These effects and The Marches having may only become apparent record emergence counts. in the future. Only time will tell! All four of the maternity roost sites we manage within the OB4B Project area showed an increase, Fig.6: Graph showing increase with our premier roost in the in numbers of bats since the upper Usk Valley notching up a VWT restored and managed huge 936 bats in residence. the roost site Our Beacon for Bats News December 2012 Page 4 Bats at Brecon Prom By Jane Sedgeley, Project Officer Our Beacon for Bats On 1st August 2012, the OB4B very kindly brought along everyone had a good chance to Project, Brecon Beacons two pipistrelle bats she was see and hear bats. We National Park and rehabilitating to give an encountered noctule bats Brecknockshire Wildlife Trust opportunity for people to see flying high above the river, ran a family friendly bat walk live bats at close hand. Daubenton’s and Natterer’s bats at Brecon Promenade along the feeding low over the water, River Usk. Around 30 people The talks were timed to common and soprano pipistrelles attended the event which perfection so that as we around the trees and houses, started off with an introductory wandered down to the river and most excitingly; a talk on bat ecology and a bank we were immediately serotine bat. The serotine is a description of the species we greeted by a cacophony of bat very under-recorded species in were likely to encounter from calls on the detector and the this area, so we’re very keen to mammal expert Rob Strachan. sight of flying bats silhouetted go back and make some detailed Rob was ably assisted by local against the darkening sky. sound recordings when the bat carer Eleanor Jones who With 15 bat detectors to share, weather warms up next year. It was certainly a special c Sam Dyer evening, and one we would like to repeat next year. Thank you to everyone that helped to organise the event and to those who participated on the night - especially Rob and Eleanor. Fig.7: Serotine bat - one of the less common bat species we heard on our bat walk This is an extract of some feedback we received from a participant: “Thank you very much for the Brecon bat walk last night. I thought it was one of the best outdoor family natural history presentations I have attended. The surprise factor was superb. Dreading rain, not enough bat detectors to go round and that [my 14 year old daughter and her three friends] might be bored it was fantastic to be greeted with lots of help and bat detectors, live bats, box-bat, the star Rob Strachan, information that’s not in books, rich bat habitat and an unexpected bat species!....... Thank you again for a memorable evening we all enjoyed, Vicky”. Our Beacon for Bats News December 2012 Page 5 The BBC comes to the Usk Valley By Hilary Macmillan, Communications Manager We’ve had some good publicity for the OB4B Project thanks to two BBC Programmes: Radio Four’s The Living World and BBC One’s Countryfile. Both pieces were recorded at one of the VWT’s lesser horseshoe bat roosts in the upper Usk Valley, where Henry Schofield and Jane Sedgeley discussed the Trust’s conservation work with the species.