A fascinating account of the Bats to be found in Britain, their main habitats, their contributions to our biodiversity, and how to increase their numbers
Last updated
00:00 - 32:12 Presentation
32:12 - 51:39 (end) Q & A
Daisy also had some other suggestions for attendees:
Apr 16, 2025 11:53 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap
The meeting focused on bat conservation, beginning with a presentation by Daisy, a climate and nature officer, who provided information on bat biology, behavior, and ecological importance. Participants discussed various ways to support bat populations, including habitat management, community initiatives, and the use of bat boxes. The group also addressed misconceptions about bats, explored biodiversity net gain requirements, and shared experiences with local conservation efforts.
Next steps
Daisy to share more information about volunteer recruitment strategies with Stuart.
Daisy to look into implementing a bat box building project with local Alzheimer's groups or care homes.
Daisy to explore starting a repair cafe for building bat boxes.
Daisy to consider using the Batman theme song or pun in future bat presentations.
Gary to share more details about Corsham's bat scape strategy with other attendees.
Graham to organize next week's meeting about an education Nature Park.
Summary
Casual Chat About Bats
Daisy shared her interest in bats, which she developed after a bat walk in 2017. She studied bats for her master's dissertation, focusing on the impact of music festivals on bat populations. Graham and Daisy expressed their hope that others would become more interested in bats after the conversation.
Geographical Diversity of Meeting Participants
The group discusses the geographical diversity of meeting participants, with members joining from various parts of the UK. Daisy, the climate and nature officer at Frampton Cotchell Parish Council, prepares to give a presentation. The conversation briefly touches on bat species in different areas, with Andrew mentioning that Martock has nine species, making it a bat hotspot. Daisy and Garry reveal that they hold similar environmental roles in their respective parish councils, which is relatively uncommon but becoming more prevalent.
Bats: Biology, Behavior, and Ecological Importance
Daisy provides an informative presentation about bats, covering various aspects of their biology, behavior, and ecological importance. She debunks common misconceptions about bats, such as vampire bats being bloodthirsty and bats being blind. Daisy highlights the diversity of bat species worldwide, their unique adaptations, and their crucial roles in pollination and pest control. She also discusses the threats facing bats, including habitat loss, urbanization, light pollution, and climate change. The presentation focuses on British bats, mentioning that there are 17 breeding species in the UK, and explains how bats use echolocation to navigate and hunt for insects.
Echolocation Video Sharing Issues
Daisy and Graham experienced technical difficulties with their Zoom screen sharing, including a block on the screen and sound issues. Daisy managed to resolve these problems and shared a video about echolocation, which she planned to follow up with a link. The video demonstrated the process of echolocation. Daisy also mentioned showing some bat calls, but the details were not provided in the transcript.
Bat Conservation in the UK
Daisy gives a presentation on different bat species in the UK and ways to help protect them. She describes four species: the noctual bat (the largest), the pipistrel bat (the smallest), the serotine bat, and the Daubenton's bat. Daisy then outlines several ways to support bat populations, including planting wildflowers, reducing pesticide use, installing bat boxes, creating water sources, and maintaining dark corridors. She also discusses various projects implemented by Frampton Parish Council to promote bat conservation, such as accessible bat workshops and a bat detector loan program.
Volunteer Engagement and Biodiversity Discussion
Daisy discussed the importance of generating enthusiasm and creating opportunities for volunteers to participate in nature events. She shared her strategy of signing up volunteers during events and keeping them updated on upcoming opportunities. Daisy also addressed the misconception that bats are responsible for spreading diseases, emphasizing that it's often a result of human encroachment on their habitat. Andrew Maliphant then discussed the concept of biodiversity net gain, mentioning the use of bat boxes for smaller animals.
Bat Boxes Limit Biodiversity Net Gain
The group discusses the limitations of bat boxes in biodiversity net gain calculations for developers. Andrew explains that while bat boxes can be recommended, they don't count towards the required 10% biodiversity increase. Daisy shares her experience with this issue in a recent planning application. Garry then describes a successful community initiative where a local woodworking group, including an Alzheimer's group, produces bat and bird boxes for placement around the parish. Daisy expresses enthusiasm for this inclusive approach to wildlife conservation.
Bat Conservation and Habitat Management
The group discusses bat conservation efforts and habitat management. Daisy explains that bat towers and tiles on buildings can provide roosting spaces for bats that tolerate urban environments, while maintaining natural habitats is also important. She advises on hedgerow management, suggesting a mix of thick, dense hedges and laid hedges to benefit bats and other wildlife. Andrew Maliphant shares that planning authorities have increased requirements for checking bat feeding areas in new housing developments. The group also discusses what to do if a bat enters a home, with Daisy recommending opening a window to let it out if it's healthy.
From Ian Dibben: Somerset Bat Group. Somerset Bat Group somersetbatgroup@gmail.com
00:53:19 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: We have successfully persuaded developers to put in bat tiles. Not quite sure how these work.
00:59:21 Lucy Dibben: Kingsdon wildlife awareness group borrowing Somerset Bat Conservation’s bat detectors again at end of August for residents to get involved :)
01:04:16 Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: Thank you
01:04:36 Lucy Dibben: Thank you
WEBVTT
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: So why are you fascinated by bats?
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Daisy Finniear: I love bats, I think. Well, the 1st time I went on a bat walk wasn't
until 2017, and I'd never really thought about forks. I studied wildlife conservation at Uni, and
then I went on this bat walk. I was like, I've never thought to look. I would never
thought to look at the species very much, and then we went that bat walk. I was like,
that's it. I love them. I need, because when we had the detectors out, you could hear
them. This is such a unique experience. And then I ended up doing them for my
dissertation. My master's dissertation, studying bats, looking at how
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Daisy Finniear: festivals might impact bat populations.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Right.
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Daisy Finniear: Music festivals. So I had to study before, during and after and survey
to see the impact it might have, and like the light pollution and the noise from the
festivals and see
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Daisy Finniear: how that impacted them. And then that was kind of used as a way to study
urbanization in bats, because festivals are like a kind of pop-up urbanization that then
goes away. So you can actually study after to see if they come back. So that was quite
a fun project, and I've been a bit obsessed ever since, which you'll see in a minute
when I start talking about them. But hopefully, after this you are just as obsessed as me.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: We'll end up that way. That's right.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah. Everyone here, I hope, ends up a little bit obsessed after people.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: People are pitching in as the time flies by. So good
afternoon, Stuart. Good afternoon, Gary. Jackie and Andrew.
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Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: Hello!
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Always love that hand of yours shooting out of the
top of your head, Jackie.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: It's a.
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Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: It's Wales.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes, exactly, which is good.
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Daisy Finniear: So do people from all over join these meetings. Then.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes, Stewart's in Essex. Gary's in Corsham, Wiltshire
actually
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And Andrew is in Somerset and Jackie, and be sorry
I've forgotten where you are.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: In fact, you have upset her now.
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Daisy Finniear: Not talking to you now.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: I think maybe she is in the Forest of Dean, but I'm
not sure.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh!
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: My dad lives in the forest of Dean.
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Daisy Finniear: It's very nice up there.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Right. Indeed it is.
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Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: It's Napton.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Oh, I'm so sorry!
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Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: In Warwickshire.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And thanks.
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Daisy Finniear: Funds not far.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: So one from the far north. Yet.
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Daisy Finniear: So that's the next target. Then.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes. Well.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: I must confess I'm a refugee from the
North
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Daisy Finniear: There we go.
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Daisy Finniear: That's close enough. We'll take that.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Born in Liverpool.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Oh, right good should I had all these years! I had
no idea.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Born in hull.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: All right. Gary.
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Daisy Finniear: Think, keep the accent, then.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: But.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: And for.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Treatment.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: No.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Gary, I used to work with a company that had a help
desk in Hull, and we were able to represent them to everybody all the clients, as you no
longer had to talk to India
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: to find out whether anyone could help you, because
you could talk to Hull. But they were just as indecipherable as Indians.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: but they were friendly. Hi, Andrew!
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Daisy Finniear: Hi.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: You're on mute today.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: So we are expecting another 3 or 4 people. Daisy, and
I
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: usually give them up to 5Â min, just to make sure
that the ones who are trapped on phone calls can get to us.
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Daisy Finniear: Okay. Do you want me to get my presentation shared and ready to go.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: By all means. Yes, please do.
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Daisy Finniear: Yep.
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Daisy Finniear: before we start having any technical issues all of a sudden, which I
already am starting to. It's already starting to play up for me.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, right?
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Daisy Finniear: Let's try again.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: 9 species of bat in martok, right.
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Daisy Finniear: That beats us. In Frampton we found 7. So far.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: It was counted as a result of a survey
for building.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: It's very helpful to have 9. It's very
helpful to have 9 species, because we become a bat hotspot, and it discourages builders
who don't want to spend too much on surveys.
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Daisy Finniear: Alright. So we're because they know they're already there.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: How many species are there? Altogether? There's about 12 or 13 or something in the country.
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Daisy Finniear: In the Uk. There's 17 breeding, and then 18.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Oh, that's more than I thought, yeah.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, it's quite few. Yeah, 17, but that some of them are very rare.
So tend to get
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Daisy Finniear: 7 ish in an area. And you've got 9. So that's amazing.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah, we've got. We've got those that
that species is a pair of flying ears.
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Daisy Finniear: Have a what the big.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Well.
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Daisy Finniear: Brown on it.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah, I love those.
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Daisy Finniear: Very good, isn't it?
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Daisy Finniear: They're brilliant. Yeah, that is an absolutely massive, very
characteristic.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah.
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Daisy Finniear: They live up to the name brown, long eared bat.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, they're they're lovely. They're very, quite, very rare as well. So
it's great that you have them in the area.
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Daisy Finniear: It's exciting.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Daisy, do you find that there are very few parish
councils that have a climate and nature officer? I mean, you're a bit of a 1-off, aren't
you?
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, so there's not many. We're hopefully starting a little trend. So
this role started back in.
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Daisy Finniear: I think it's 2022 now or 2021. And then, 2 years later, Thornbury Town
Council started the same role.
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Daisy Finniear: and then a few other councils are starting to look at having an
environment officer. Banwell's got an environment and biodiversity officer now as well.
So it's starting to take off a bit. Yeah, it's not common. I hope it becomes common.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Smart.
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Daisy Finniear: There's a lot done.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Sorry. It's my role as well, of course, in Corsham.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh, amazing! So what is your role? Title in Corsham?
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Climate and biodiversity officer.
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Daisy Finniear: Amazing. That's really good to know that there's there's 1 out in Corsham
as well. How long have you been in post.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: About
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: 18 months now my predecessor was in place for about a
year or 2, so we've had this role for about 3 or 4 years, but I think.
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Daisy Finniear: Much worse.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Now.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, similar to Austin. That's really good to know. I have to. We have
to do some sort of questionnaire and see how many parishes actually have some sort of
environment biodiversity role. Maybe there's more than I think. So I didn't know that
there was one in Corsham. So
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Daisy Finniear: that's great. And I'd like to hear what sort of projects you've been
doing.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: I'm sure we can discuss that later.
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Daisy Finniear: Yes.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Now that Lucy's arrived, let me just say hello to
Lucy and Colin, and thank you for joining us, and
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: it's time for us to get going, Daisy. So if you'd
like to introduce yourself and and go ahead, please feel free.
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Daisy Finniear: So my name is Daisy. I'm the Climate and Nature officer at Frampton
Cottrell Parish Council, which is in South Gloucestershire.
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Daisy Finniear: and we're really lucky to have a very climate and nature focused council.
So we've got this post. We've got a climate and nature committee. We've got working
groups and lots of volunteers as well. So with that team we've been able to do lots of
projects on bats as well. I'm ready to go. I'm in my bat t-shirt, and I've got my bat
ready to get going. So I'll start talking to you now about
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Daisy Finniear: different types of bats.
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Daisy Finniear: I just want to start off with some bat facts. So
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Daisy Finniear: 1st of all, vampire bats, they have such a bad rep. They're known as
this image here has been really scary blood sucking creatures who just want to go and
suck the life out of anything they can find. But I see that as the Instagram version of
the bat, the reality is this cute little guy? Look how cute they're so funny looking and
adorable, so vampire bats
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Daisy Finniear: are not what they're made out to be in the media. There's actually only 3
species of vampire bat. And they're in Central America. So they're not in Transylvania
like they're made out to be either.
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Daisy Finniear: And they're actually quite considerate species. So even though they're
made out to just drink loads and loads of blood and suck the life out of things and
people, they don't really go for people. What they tend to do is go for cattle, and they
make a little nick in the rump, and they've got an anticoagulant in their saliva. So
then it just gently trickles out and they just lap it up. And they're actually quite
considerate and very cute little things. So
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Daisy Finniear: bit of debunking around the vampire bat there.
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Daisy Finniear: The next one is.
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Daisy Finniear: many bats have sparkly poop. That's the reason for this big image here, I
mean, don't go out looking for a rainbow glit poop like that in the woods, thinking you
found a bat, because maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But 70% of species around the
world, and all of the species in the Uk eat insects. So the reason they have a slight
iridescent sheen to their poop is because of the wings of all the insects that they've
been eating. So they have this iridescent feature to it. So that's the one way you can
tell Bat Poop from rodent Poop.
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Daisy Finniear: So baby bats are called pups.
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Daisy Finniear: and the crazy thing about baby bats is their size. So they're born at
about a 3rd of the weight of the mom. That's like a human giving birth to a teenager
which must suck, because not only do they have to give birth to that size of bat. They
then have to carry it around until it's big enough to fend for itself. So
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Daisy Finniear: mama bats have a rough time of it.
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Daisy Finniear: They can also do this really cool thing where they delay pregnancy. So
the breeding season for bats isn't till the autumn, but they don't actually get pregnant
until they wake up from hibernation, so they can actually delay the sperm hitting the
egg until they're ready to be pregnant in the spring, which is such a cool feature that
saves their energy over the hibernation period.
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Daisy Finniear: Have you heard the term blind as a bat?
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Daisy Finniear: Not actually true? Most all bats can see. They have pretty good eyesights
kind of similar to ours. Actually, they just don't rely on it. A lot of bats, especially
the ones that eat insects rely on echolocation, so, which I'll go into in a bit more
detail, but they don't actually use their eyes so much to find food, but what they use
them for is to find roost and to get away from predators. So they actually have pretty
decent eyesight.
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Daisy Finniear: They've also been described as mice with wings. But this just isn't an
accurate way to describe them at all, because there's recent studies have found that bats
are more closely related to humans than they are to rodents. So not mice with wings at all.
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Daisy Finniear: They're also the only mammal that's evolved for proper flight. So there
are things like this, the sugar gliders or the flying squirrels, but they don't actually
fly, they only glide. So
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Daisy Finniear: bats have uniquely adapted the ability to fly. It's the only mammal that's
able to do that.
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Daisy Finniear: They also have some crazy immune system, which means they can live for a
very long time if they're not predated on, or if other things don't get them like climate
change or habitat loss.
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Daisy Finniear: There was a bat species in this country called the Brant's Bat, which was
found to be 40 years old. I mean? That's not the norm. That's a very old bat, but it just
shows how long they can live. Given the right conditions, the rough lifespan is probably
more like 8 years old, but they can live a very long time.
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Daisy Finniear: I'm going to talk a little bit about bats around the world. We'll look
more at British bats in a minute. But I just wanted to show you how vast the diversity is
of bat species.
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Daisy Finniear: So there's over 1,300 species worldwide, which is a huge amount, and they
just vary so much in how they look. Their specialities, their diets, their size.
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Daisy Finniear: You've got something as small as the bumblebee bat, which is tiny, it's
about 2 grams, and then something as big as the flying fox, which has like a 5 foot
wingspan. So the variation in bats is absolutely massive. Their diets vary so much so.
The majority eat insects. But there's bats that eat nectar. There's bats that eat fruit.
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Daisy Finniear: so it's very, very varied. I just wanted to show these pictures as well
of how different they can look as well. This tiny little hooteron bat from Central America
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Daisy Finniear: so cute white and fluffy. And then you've got huge fruit bats. You've got
this little pipistrel on the bottom left, which is in the Uk. And then this really funny
looking guy, the Jamaican fruit bat, which has a very unique nose. They're just so varied
in every way. And I just think it's so so cool.
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Daisy Finniear: So why do bats even matter globally?
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Daisy Finniear: Firstly, they're an indicator species. So bats give a great indication of
the overall health of the ecosystem. So if bats are doing badly, it's probably because
the environment in general is not doing very well.
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Daisy Finniear: So if bats are doing well, it suggests that there's good habitat. There's
good sources of food, and other species are doing well, because it's this chain reaction
like bats, need healthy insect population in order to thrive. And then the insects need
healthy plant biodiversity in order to thrive. So you can use bats as an indicator of what
your general environment is looking like.
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Daisy Finniear: They're also really good for pollination in certain areas, not so much in
the Uk, but the fruit eater eating and nectar eating bats
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Daisy Finniear: a really important pollination.
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Daisy Finniear: So without bats there'd be no tequila, for example, because they pollinate
the agave plant.
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Daisy Finniear: I don't care about that so much because I think Tequila is disgusting.
It's horrible. But what I do care about is chocolate without bats. Chocolate would be
doing very badly. So they're really important in seed dispersal for the cacao plantations. So that's the one I'm worried about
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Daisy Finniear: tequila. I'm not so worried about. They're also really important for
pollination for mangoes and bananas and different types of fruits around the world. So we
need them as an important pollination and seed dispersal method.
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Daisy Finniear: Bats are also amazing at pest control. Like I said, 70% of bats are insect
ivorous. So they eat insects, and we could reduce the amount of pesticides if we just
increase the number of bats because they can control unwanted pests. We don't need the
pesticides. We need more bats, but with more pesticides, less bats. So
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Daisy Finniear: yeah, we need to focus on that.
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Daisy Finniear: There's all sorts of threats to bats. The biggest one probably is going
to be habitat loss and urbanization, and so
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Daisy Finniear: bats are really sensitive to loss of habitat at the moment. So they
lose out on. For example, in this country, areas of trees, areas of water sources.
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Daisy Finniear: then the increase of urbanization is also increasing. Light pollution.
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Daisy Finniear: Light pollution is a really difficult one for bats, because the
majority of species in this country, at least.
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Daisy Finniear: are very light, averse. They do not like it. They can't focus when
there's lots of light around.
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Daisy Finniear: and they just can't seem to adapt to it, so they will move out when
there's light polluting the area.
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Daisy Finniear: There's a couple of species that have adapted quite well to light
pollution.
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Daisy Finniear: It's very uncommon, though, so the common Pipistrell and the Seratine
have been known to use streetlights as all you can eat buffets. So there's lots of
insects going under the streetlights. So then they've actually adapted to go under them
and eat them, ate the insects from the streetlights. That's not common, though, and the
majority of bats, especially in this country, will not go near street lighting with a
bargepole.
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Daisy Finniear: One that's a bit contentious is cats. I don't want to tell everyone.
Get rid of your cats. I love cats. They're great, but they are the biggest predator for
bats in this country.
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Daisy Finniear: What we kind of suggest to people is if you can try and keep
cats in when it's dawn and dusk
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Daisy Finniear: easier said than done, or put a bell on same for birds to try and
reduce the amount of the chance of them
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Daisy Finniear: catching the bats. Some cats have learned where roosts are, and they'll
wait outside, and they'll swipe the bats as they're coming out. So that's a real
problem for bats here.
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Daisy Finniear: Climate change is another really big one. So take bats in this country
example that will hibernate.
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Daisy Finniear: They are icing bats this year, coming out in January, which is crazy
early. It's meant to be around April time that is so so early. And it's because we get
these warm nights. And then oh, they think it's spring, and they're like, Oh, let's
wake up! And they use all this energy to then wake up out of their torpor state.
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Daisy Finniear: and then they don't have enough insects to eat when they wake up. And
oh, I can't replenish this energy, and then they die. So climate change is a big one
for bats, and also the effect climate change is having on moths and insects is really
having a knock on effect on bats as well. It's just this kind of chain reaction. The
climate change is a really bad one for bats.
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Daisy Finniear: Not so much in this country but for bats around the world. There's
certain diseases that are killing them, somethiing to do with diseases on their nose.
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Daisy Finniear: So that's another another impacting factor.
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Daisy Finniear: So I really want to talk about more British bats, which is my favorite
area. So we've got 17 species in the Uk that are breeding in the Uk. And then 18. If
you count one bat which is not breeding here.
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Daisy Finniear: and they are amazing listeners. I think one of you it was Andrew
mentioned about the brown, long-eared one of you mentioned brown, long-eared earlier.
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Daisy Finniear: They're the best listeners. So they've got these massive ears, and they
can hear a ladybird walking along a leaf. So their hearing is amazing. So they have all
sorts of different foraging sites. They forage near rivers, gardens, lakes, and
hedgerows.
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Daisy Finniear: and will roost in trees, and build as caves and rock crevices, so
different bats will favor different areas to forage and to roost in.
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Daisy Finniear: So I briefly mentioned before that bats in this country and insectivus
batch use echolocation to find their prey, so they'll send out a bat call which you can
hear on a bat detector. So one of these.
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Daisy Finniear: for example, a bit blurry.
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Daisy Finniear: You can hear their calls on that, and that's them painting a picture of
the world around them, so they'll send out a call. It'll bounce back, and they'll hear
where the insect is. And when they found an insect you'll hear this feeding burst. It
goes, and that means they've caught the insect. I have a very, very scientific and
video to show you about location. That will sum it up for you. Now, hopefully, you can
all see this.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Easy. Do you have some sort of block on your screen
because you.
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Daisy Finniear: So? Can you not see.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Right. Well, half of it is chopped out because
you've got.
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Daisy Finniear: No, okay, let me have a look.
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Daisy Finniear: Let's have a look.
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Daisy Finniear: Was it on every slide, or just this one?
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, it's not. All of them.
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Daisy Finniear: Was it.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: One at the top of the screen and one at the side.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh, that's.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Not sure what's causing it.
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Daisy Finniear: And.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: I'm wondering whether it's not something from Zoom.
This is popping in like the.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh, yeah.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Photographs of people.
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Daisy Finniear: Maybe let me reshare a minute.
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Daisy Finniear: Let's try again.
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Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: And if the video has sound I can't hear any sound
from it.
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Daisy Finniear: Okay, let's try again.
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Daisy Finniear: Let's see.
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Daisy Finniear: Try this.
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Daisy Finniear: Is that any better.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Waiting for it to come up.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes, you got rid of the one on the side. It's still
the one at the top. Oh, switch to the other side. Well, that's good for watching your
video, and.
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Daisy Finniear: Is that good sir?
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes, yes, much better.
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Daisy Finniear: Okay.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And you. There's probably a button or sorry a radio
cell. Yeah, that's bad.
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Daisy Finniear: That's bad. Is that worse?
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: That's good. No, that's much better.
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Daisy Finniear: That's good.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And there's probably a radio button you need to
fill in for the sound to come through.
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Daisy Finniear: Okay, bear with me a few bitty.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: It's when you go into the share screen.
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Daisy Finniear: And let's see.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And then usually is, there's a button down the
bottom for share, sound.
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Daisy Finniear: And.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And whatever you did then, it's just blocked out
the whole screen.
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Daisy Finniear: That's okay. I'll be going in a minute.
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Daisy Finniear: Can't see the one for sound.
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Daisy Finniear: Not had that problem before. Very annoying.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: I think when you when you go, click the green share
button. Then up comes the presentation of all the windows. You have. Open open. The top
left one, which the top left is your desktop. I think you can let the sound through on
that one.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay, and then you go from there to your
presentation.
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Daisy Finniear: Okay, let's see if that works
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Daisy Finniear: right. Can you see the presentation? Okay.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Should we see if sound works? Stop this.
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Daisy Finniear: Working.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Nope, no, you just have to imitate. You just have
to imitate what they're saying, Daisy.
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Daisy Finniear: I'm not going to annotate that.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Sorry.
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Daisy Finniear: Out into the shopping center looking for something in a specific aisle.
I will send it. I'll send the link to the little video afterwards.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay. Thank you.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh, actually, I've got a lot of things with sound on that. I wanted to
show you.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Oh! And.
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Daisy Finniear: Because I want to show you some bay calls. We just pause for a second.
I will try and get it to work.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay.
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Daisy Finniear: It would be really good if I could get the sound on to show you the bat
calls.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes.
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Daisy Finniear: And then, okay, let's have a look.
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Daisy Finniear: Sorry.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Oh, in my screen. If I go into
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: the second share screen, it says the sounds on the
right. There's a bullet point under options that share.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, got it?
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay.
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Daisy Finniear: Got it. Yay, okay, so we should be able to do it. Now, right?
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Daisy Finniear: Let's start again.
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Daisy Finniear: How's that looking.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: It looks good.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah. Can you see everything?
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Well, yes.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: it's it's a changing feast. You seem to have blocks
on the top of the screen that keep changing size. But never mind.
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Daisy Finniear: I think I know why that is
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Daisy Finniear: never had this happen on here before. Where's my computer blowing up in
one? Sec.
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Daisy Finniear: Beth, is that good.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: That's much better. Yes.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, okay, let's see if the sound works. Stop me straight away. If it
doesn't.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yes, excuse me, where can I find acorns? Let me see.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yeah, that's gonna be all 4, all right. Do you mind
checking if those are organic.
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Daisy Finniear: They know that
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Daisy Finniear: I was trying to show you very scientific, just a video showing a little
cartoon of echolocation which I like.
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Daisy Finniear: Alright, here we go.
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Daisy Finniear: We're going to talk about a couple of the different species of bat in
the Uk. I won't go into all 18, because I'll just talk at you forever, but I'll do a
couple of different ones that we have. So the 1st one I'm going to talk about is the
biggest species we have in the Uk called the noctual bat. So I refer to this as a big,
loud one. So it's the biggest bat of 40 grams which isn't really that big, but it's
compared to the other species. I have a model here might not be able to see very
clearly, but
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Daisy Finniear: it's the biggest one we have.
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Daisy Finniear: It's 1 of the 1st one that comes out at night. So if you see one flying
really high, it's sort of the time that birds are coming out, and it's flying quite
smooth. It's probably a noctual bat.
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Daisy Finniear: They are heard around 40 kilohertz on a bat detector. 20 kilohertz.
Sorry, so they've got a very low call. It's very low and loud. So even though it might
not sound loud to us, we can actually just about hear it as humans. And usually we
can't hear that call. So that's how loud they are in their own world.
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Daisy Finniear: so loud. In fact, they have a special skill where they can switch off
sound in their ear to give themselves temporary deafness, basically to stop them
permanently deafening themselves with how loud their call is. I'll show you what the
call sounds like on a bat detector
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Daisy Finniear: noctual by
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Daisy Finniear: it was kind of a slow, chip, choppy kind of sound that you would hear
on a bat detector. If you ever wanted to take one out and go look for an optial
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Daisy Finniear: on the other end of the scale. We have a pipistrel back, which is this
tiny little one here.
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Daisy Finniear: and they're only about 5 grams. So they're the smallest bat that we
have in the Uk. But I called it the small but mighty one, because, even though it's
tiny, they can eat 3,000 insects in one night, which is a huge amount that's equivalent
to me eating about 100 roast dinners in one go, or 120 big Macs in one go, which I don't
think I would get very far with, so they can eat a huge amount again, great pest
controllers.
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Daisy Finniear: So the image on the bottom is of a visual image of the call, so you can
either listen to back calls, or you can see a visual call on a spectrogram. So a
picture looks like this tick shape.
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Daisy Finniear: and this is what they sound like. They're found around 45 kilohertz on
a bat detector at the loudest peak frequency.
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Daisy Finniear: Pipistrell bat.
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Daisy Finniear: It doesn't sound hugely different to the Noctua. It's a bit faster. I
think it sounds a bit wetter, but a lot of people say it doesn't. It sounds someone
said it sounded like marbles going downstairs, so you can make up your own mind of what
you think the calls sound like
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Daisy Finniear: no picture for the 13. I am limited to the confines of canva for
royalty free images. So we don't have a picture of 13 back for this one, but
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Daisy Finniear: looks quite similar to the noctual. They are second biggest bat.
They're quite big, and I know this one as the jazzy one. This is for 2 reasons, one,
because they kind of dance around. So they get quite close to head level, and they'll
be quite swoopy and bird like. But secondly, they sound like a bad jazz drummer, so
their core is very janky and jazzy, and they can be heard the loudest around 27
kilohertz. Again, the bigger bats are found on a lower frequency. So see if you agree
with me with the jazzy sound.
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Daisy Finniear: seroutine bat
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Daisy Finniear: kind of hear that rhythm changing, doing its own sort of thing.
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Daisy Finniear: and then we've got the last one I'm going to mention is a door bent on
spat. The reason I have this picture is because to me the call sounds like a machine
gun going off. So that's the way I remember it when I'm trying to. Id. But in order to
really know if you've got a door bent on, spat
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Daisy Finniear: is to do with water, so I also refer to it as the water. One Delbentons
almost exclusively feed off water sources, so rivers, lakes, and ponds, and they will
skim the surface of the water and grab insects off the very surface, their coolest,
loudest around 45 kilohertz. But the cool length is very, very varied. It's very long
range. So the best way to id them is actually see them on the water skimming the
surface. I'll show you a video of what that looks like.
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Daisy Finniear: It's a little blurry. But hopefully you could see there that they're
actually skimming right off the surface and grab an insect. So it's just so cool.
That's the best way to idea them. I don't recommend shining a big white light at them
because they're one of the bats that are really sensitive to light. They're a bit more
tolerant to red lights again. You won't want to expose them too long to it, but if you
could shine. A more of a red based led at them. They're not as worried.
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Daisy Finniear: There's different ways. You can help bats and try and get your local
community groups, your local residents to help bats.
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Daisy Finniear: firstly, wildflowers, wildflowers, attract insects. The bats here all
eat insects, so we eat more wildflowers even better. If you can get sort of night
scented flowers. So things like honeysuckle or different types of campion, because then
they attract the the night insects like moss, which bats do eat.
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Daisy Finniear: So that's a great way. Even if people just put a little pot out in
their garden, it would help
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Daisy Finniear: again. I've mentioned a few times, but going pesticide, free
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Daisy Finniear: pesticides get rid of all the insects at the backseat so they won't
have anything to eat, and if you can stop using them you might get more bats in your
garden, anyway, and then they can eat the pests for you and just create this more
natural cycle. So we really need to stop using pesticides and reduce it wherever we
can. At Frampton Cochoprah Council we actually have a pesticide policy where we almost
eliminated pesticides.
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Daisy Finniear: where
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Daisy Finniear: eliminate it everywhere, apart from very, very, very rare occasional
use on sports pitches which we're now working on, totally removing that as well. So
that's 1 of the best ways. You can help bats, too.
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Daisy Finniear: putting up habitat, so bat boxes are a great one. They might not use it
every time. Sometimes they're quite stubborn, and they don't go where you want them to
go. They'll find somewhere else, but that gives them the opportunity to have more
spaces. So, putting up a bat box around 20 feet or above somewhere. A bit sunny will
encourage bats into your area.
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Daisy Finniear: Putting any size sort of water source is amazing as well. So people
could even put in a little tiny tub of water, or you could have a big lake. Whatever
landed space you have, it will help bats. So the bigger spaces of water would maybe
encourage. Do Benton's bats to come in that water bat that we looked at just now, but
even smaller ones will encourage insects. So if we've got more insects again, more bats,
it's all about getting more food sources for the bats
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Daisy Finniear: having more native hedgerow is a massive one. Our hedgerows are really
on decline, and we need more native hedging.
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Daisy Finniear: Bats. Use hedging in a number of ways. So they tend to forage near
hedgerows.
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Daisy Finniear: Bats basically tend to prefer having a linear feature that they can
bounce their calls off of, because it gives them a shape of the world around them. So,
having more native hedgerow is a great way. So if you can identify anywhere in your
parish or town where you can add more native hedgerows that could really help bats and
a number of other species as well. That's the great thing about bats. If you do things
to help bats, you're going to be by knock on effect, helping all sorts of other species,
too.
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Daisy Finniear: Turn off the lights. This is a big one, so
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Daisy Finniear: bats need dark corridors, and we have to balance this with health and
safety for humans as well. So certain areas need to be let out for the reduced risk for
humans walking in dark areas, but there's different ways. We can manage it so you could
recommend to residents that they turn the lights off in their gardens, or we'll have
them on an automatic motion sensor
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Daisy Finniear: just to reduce the amount of constant light going out. You can also,
for street lights. You can have shade, spill reduction on the top. It's also that have
warm light. Red's the best, but I know people may not like having red lights, but
they've tried it in certain countries, and that's do prefer the the warmer or the redder.
Lighting but warm led is better than the big, bright, white overspill street lighting
that you can have.
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Daisy Finniear: because bats need these dark corridors, because, as I said before, most
of the species here are just really light, averse.
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Daisy Finniear: Another way is encouraging. Residents, community groups yourself to
sign up to the Bat Conservation Trust Service. So they've got all sorts of surveys. You
don't have to be an expert by any means. You don't have to even know anything about bats.
They will show you what to do. There's simple ones. There's more experienced ones you
can do. There's ones. You can do without a bat detector. There's ones you can do with a
detector. But they basically will take all this recording and put it on a big map, and
it will help them see where the populations are across the country.
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Daisy Finniear: There's lots of places you can borrow bat detectors as well, so I don't
know about other places around. I only know South gloss in this area, but in South Gloucs
, maybe in your area it's worth asking. Lots of libraries will loan out bat detectors.
Our Parish Council owns our bat detectors, so if they don't, it might be worth giving
them a push to get that resource available to you in your area
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Daisy Finniear: again, cats just encouraging people to
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Daisy Finniear: keep cats away from roost during dawn and dusk, if they can. Easier
said than done, or putting a bell on like I said before, cats are cats are a tricky one.
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Daisy Finniear: This is a really good resource. You might want to share with people in
your area of how easy it can be to make a wildlife pond to encourage insects which will
then provide food source for bats. This one's from Wildlife watch. We've put a few of
these in ourselves at Frampton, and they're really easy. Dig a little hole, put wash nut
bowl in, put some stones and rocks in, and then nature does the rest. It's really easy.
So I recommend the wildlife. Watch Mini Wildlife Pond.
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Daisy Finniear: Same with the wildlife. Watch how to make a bat box. Hopefully, you can
find a less blurry version. I've just realized. This is a little blurry, but I've made
this one myself, and I'm not the best with woodwork, and I managed it. So residents love
making this one. We've done some workshops making these with local groups, and it's
really popular. So this is a nice, easy, fun way to engage the community in in the
world of bats.
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Daisy Finniear: The bit about the projects we've done at Frampton Cultural. We've got
quite into it. And we've done a lot of trial things that we're happy for anyone to
replicate. We'd love for people to replicate some of these projects. So one of the
projects we got funding for was for an accessible bat project. So from the National
lottery awards, for all we got funding to run workshops and walks about bats that were
inclusive for deaf people, blind people, and had wheelchair access. So we started off
with a workshop, which is what this picture is. Here.
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Daisy Finniear: That's me and the sign language interpreter. Up at the front. We got
funding to 1st sign language interpreters, and then we got funding for visual bat
detectors. So the ones I showed you earlier with the with the shape we got funding for
those visual detectors so deaf people could see the back calls instead of hear them,
and then we worked with the rnib to work on creating
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Daisy Finniear: Braille information
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Daisy Finniear: about bats, and we also got an Mp. 3, recording of all the different
calls, and translated some of the local leaflets into audible for people who were deaf,
blind, and for anyone. Really anyone can use this. It's not just, for this is for oh,
being as inclusive as we could. So it was just a trial of a project to see how inclusive
we could be. We went out with a volunteer who did loads of the work. On this she was
fantastic.
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Daisy Finniear: She found some areas that were wheelchair accessible and had that. So
we were able to take people around and not
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Daisy Finniear: get stuck by kissing gates or mud or that sort of stuff. That was a
really popular project, and we've got a little bit of funding left to do another one in
the summer.
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Daisy Finniear: So we worked with the center for the Deaf Rnib and the Bat Conservation
Trust on that project, and we're hoping that other people would like to roll out, too.
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Daisy Finniear: And as part of that funding we were able to purchase loads of bat
detectors. So 13 of these audio bat detectors, and then also 4 of the visual echometer
bat detectors which plug into a tablet.
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Daisy Finniear: We created a policy for these. So anyone can loan these out. We want as
many people as possible to come and borrow wildlife equipment from us. So we've got a
policy which we're happy for people to replicate where people can just borrow this
stuff for free. And it's been really popular and worked really well. We've touched.
We've not had any lost or stolen, and it's worked really, really well.
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Daisy Finniear: We've also done surveys at things like Frampton Festival, where they've
gone on our sites as a parish council, and we've just made sure that the events are not
impacting bat populations too much and tweaking things where we can if we found any sort
of sort of impact. So it's just kind of monitoring. As part of this, as well
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Daisy Finniear: already mentioned. We did some batbox making and installing with a local
group. We got bat boxes all over the parish. Now we're going to put more up as well. We
need to monitor them and get a licensed back college in to check them, because you can't
check boxes unless you've got a bat license.
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Daisy Finniear: I don't know if anyone has already heard about the community Nature
Reserve Project as well. It's really taking off around Bristol and South Gloss area.
It's basically getting people to sign up their garden as a space for nature and
creating this map of all the different areas for nature, this helps bats and beyond.
So we're working with local front and cultural Nature group. And David, who works with
us, who's done a fantastic job on this project.
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Daisy Finniear: We've got about 60 odd gardens signed up now. So that's helping bats,
hedgehogs, all sorts of species, basically just doing something for nature in your
garden. So I really recommend the community nature project for
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Daisy Finniear: your parish of town.
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Daisy Finniear: We've also put a bunch of policies in again. You can steal these if you
want. We're happy for you to copy and paste bits from our policies. We've got a
biodiversity policy. We've got a bird policy, a bat policy environment policy.
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Daisy Finniear: We've got quite a lot of things to do with nature and environment. And
we're always happy to share that information with people. We've also got a policy for
the wildlife equipment loan, so that we're kind of covering ourselves a bit for that.
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Daisy Finniear: So we've done a lot of work on these. We've also got a local climate
and nature action plan. I think you had Matthew on here a while back, talking about the
local climate and nature action plans
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Daisy Finniear: which is starting to spread, which is really exciting. So we've got one
of those, and we follow that template. So I recommend the self gloss guidance on local
climate nature action plans. If you're interested in starting something like this
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Daisy Finniear: as part of that. We also got the information from the surveys and
people loaning up the detectors to create a bat map. So we're kind of. We've added more
since this picture. We're trying to paint a picture of where different bats are on the
parish.
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Daisy Finniear: and we got a Ue student. So a university student to come in and help us
with this. So they mapped the data for me. I love collecting data. I'm not so good at
disciplining myself to process the data. So whenever I get someone who's willing to
help me do that, I'm very grateful. So the Ue student very kindly processed the data
for me into a map because it was sitting in a pub for so long. Because I'm
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Daisy Finniear: I'm more of a collector than a yeah, we're building the bat map really?
Well, now, so that's exciting.
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Daisy Finniear: I just want to end with a few useful links for you. If you want to look
into this anymore. So the Bat Conservation Trust surveys link link to the wildlife,
watch ponds and bat boxes.
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Daisy Finniear: There's a link to different flowers for bats like the night, the night
scented ones, and a link to 7 wildlife rescue. So 7 wildlife rescue have done amazing
things for bats. They kind of specialize in bats, and they've got a bat flight cage in
Chepstow, where they rehabilitate and release.
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Daisy Finniear: which is brilliant. There's a link to the policies that we have at Frumpton culture as well. If you want to have a look and feel free to pinch any of them
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Daisy Finniear: and also a show recommendation, it's not scientific. It's not
educational, but there's bats in it, and I really like it. It's called what we do in
the shadows. And it's a it's a fun fun show to watch, so I'll leave that link in there
as well. But thank you for listening, and if you have any questions or anything, then
yeah, feel free to ask me.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Lucy. Sorry, Daisy. Well done! That was fascinating
and full of all sorts of facts of which I had no idea. So
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: thank you very much much for stepping in and
helping us out.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: and Stuart has already got his hand up. So where
you go, Stuart?
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: You're on mute, Stuart.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: I keep doing that. Sorry. I'll just say
thank you for a very interesting and very enthusiastically delivered little talk.
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Daisy Finniear: And.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: 2 2 things really struck me. At the
start. You you said you had lots of volunteers.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: I was just wondering how you generated
such enthusiasm. I think you answered the question already, but I'd like to hear it.
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Daisy Finniear: Yes, so we're really lucky. We have got lots of volunteers now. We
started off with none. A few years back we hardly had any. And then we had a couple of
volunteers come forward which really generated this. So
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Daisy Finniear: we only started like with 3 or 4 really enthusiastic volunteers, and it
spread from there. So. But what we did to generate more volunteers was run, more events.
And when we ran more nature events, not necessarily all bat events, we've done lots of
bat walks and workshops, but general nature events is where I've signed people up. So,
for example, the one that we signed the most people up in the beginning. When we 1st
started we did a wildflower planting day.
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Daisy Finniear: and on that day, when everyone came along, we had about 35 people come
along, and I grabbed every
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Daisy Finniear: one of those people
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Daisy Finniear: and said, Do you want to be a volunteer and got them signed up so that
started things off, and then anytime we do any sort of event. I ask people if they will
sign up to be a volunteer, and then they're on a mailing list, and once they're on that,
I can keep them updated on what's going on, what volunteer events coming forward, what
opportunities there are, and it kind of grows from there also giving volunteers
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Daisy Finniear: some autonomy and some projects that they can lead on seems to help and
just doing call outs in your parish so you could say, is anyone interested in bats? Is
anyone interested in running this sort of project trying to at the moment we're trying
to get more people to lead, which is harder we've got about. I think we've got about 9
99 0 volunteers at the moment signed up.
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Daisy Finniear: But it's more difficult getting people to lead on projects. That's what
we're working on now. We've got a few key volunteers that are working on that. But yeah,
what I would say is, just run some events that you think people be interested in, and
then grab with them when they're there and sign them up. So you've got their email, get
their permission, and then you can keep telling them what's happening. And then you get
more people coming back. And then you get a core group. Usually, I mean, we have 90
volunteers. We don't get all 90 volunteers turning up to stuff. We get a handful of core
core people coming along usually, but
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Daisy Finniear: it's just grabbing people when you have them at these sorts of events,
I think, is good and using social media and doing call outs and just asking people for
their advice. And input is usually a good way in as well. But yeah, I'm happy to show
you anything we've done. And if you want to have my email at the end, and I'm happy to
share more info with about that with you, if you like.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you. That's great. Another
question. You. You mentioned the bat's immune system? It seems to be quite well known
that they do have.
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Daisy Finniear: An incredible immune system lead you to the natural environment they
live in.
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Daisy Finniear: but they were also implicated in the Coronavirus.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: implicated in many other human diseases.
I was wondering if you could add a bit of truth to that.
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Daisy Finniear: Yes, I feel very sorry for bats about this, because all sorts of animals
carry diseases, but bats are able to carry diseases and not spread them because they
have such a good immune system and high body temperature, so they can carry certain
diseases
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Daisy Finniear: without actually getting sick themselves.
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Daisy Finniear: Things like Coronavirus. I blame humans because we are encroaching on
their area, and we're spreading into their habitat. And we're taking over their space.
And then they get villainized as a result for spreading diseases to us. So
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Daisy Finniear: a lot of the times. It's not the bat's fault that these diseases get
spread. They do carry these diseases, and it is possible for them to pass them on to
humans. It's actually quite rare for them to pass on the diseases to humans. But as
we've seen it can happen. But, for example, in the case of Coronavirus, that was humans
fault. The bat was brought into humans environment, and it had carried that disease. So
I think we need to look at our relationship
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Daisy Finniear: with wildlife and the conflicts that we're creating with them rather
than villainizing the species for carrying something.
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Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Okay. Thanks.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: What's the mode of transmission? In that case,
Daisy, how how do they pass disease to a human.
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Daisy Finniear: It would depend on what the disease is, whether it was airborne or
whether it was, that would be a more common one. But then, because bats don't tend to
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Daisy Finniear: bite people unless we actually go and catch them and grab them and do
stupid things with them, they wouldn't come along and attack the person. It just doesn't
really happen like that. So I mean, if they were carrying something like rabies, for
example, rabies is carried by certain bat species here. It's very, very, very rare. I
think there's only been one or 2 recorded cases cases of rabies and bats in this country,
but you still have to get rabies vaccinated. If you were somehow
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Daisy Finniear: bitten by a bat in this country, if you were handling it, even though
it's very rare. So something like rabies would be through a bite.
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Daisy Finniear: But then there's certain things that could be airborne that would
depend on the disease year.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Okay, thank you. Welcome, Andrew, and your turn
next. Please.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Hi, thank you very much for that, Daisy, I must
admit, for as a as aficionado of the old television series back in the day which some
of us older people may remember. I just have this voice, Adam West's voice saying,
Quick, quick, Robin! To the bat map, anyway. Never mind.
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Daisy Finniear: Oh, I need. I missed that opportunity for a pun about.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: That's a free gift to you for your next
presentation, and I've got a soundtrack as well. Of course, there we go. Meanwhile,
back at the ranch biodiversity net gain I've been getting. We've been getting some
advice from Defra about this, and let me just put a picture on what I was wanting to
talk about the
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: there are such things as bat boxes. This is
available from the Rspb, that's what they look like. Looks a bit weird, obviously, for
the smaller animals. But there we go. I don't understand the science of it, but
apparently, if you're a planning developer encroaching on wildlife habitats, having
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: bat boxes as as is not at the moment not
accepted as something which is about biodiversity net gain. But it's something o
bviously that's that's to be thought about so apparently you can, you can you can. You
can. You can mention it. But we can't necessarily expect developers to put up bat boxes.
So so that's a slightly negative bit of information.
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah, I recently came across this ourselves because we're putting in A,
we were putting in a planning application for a pathway, and we were looking at net
gain for that, and as part of it we were going to put in bat boxes and all these
different habitats they're like, oh, no, it doesn't count, and you can't necessarily
make it happen, and
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Daisy Finniear: it doesn't count towards the net gain necessarily. So, yeah, so yeah,
no, I think it should be, and it should be considered, and it'd be great if developers
could put in back boxes. Or you can even have them in built into buildings as well.
It'd be great if that could become a requirement for new bills, and I think it should
be as well as like swift boxes, that sort of thing and hedgepod holes, so that I agree
with you, it should be made.
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Daisy Finniear: That's right.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Just to clarify for those that are not already
aware. The planning rules in this country now require in England. Anyway, if you, if
you're going to develop a site that you have to end up with 10% more biodiversity and
one habitats on it than it started with. There's ways of dealing with that. But you can
add in bat boxes, by all means. But it doesn't count towards your 10%. So we can. We
can recommend to developers that they think about it, but it won't help them with their
10%. Yeah.
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Daisy Finniear: Yes, definitely still put them in, though, even if it counts very
beneficial.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Da da da da sorry. There we go.
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Daisy Finniear: I've missed so many opportunities with that I'm going to take that one
as well. Maybe I should start every presentation with that song.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Right.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Gary, you've been waiting patiently. Could you? Ask
your question? Please.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah. It wasn't actually a question, Graham. It was.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Sure.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I just want to share something that we were doing
ourselves when it comes to bats, because we have a batscape strategy which I've
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I've added in the chat a link to.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: because we've got quite a few endangered species
around here. So about a year ago, what I did was, I approached the local kind of like
it's called the Brunel Shed, which is this woodworking group which is tend to be
generally known as a men's shed, but they get funny when you call it that because they
invite everybody along. So I invited them, and I took that actual plan, Daisy, that you
just showed up to make a bat box.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: and they've got an outside Alzheimer's group, and
they thought it was great for them
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: to work on them. So they've been producing bat boxes
for me, and they produced about 30 bat and bird boxes last year, and we've been spending
the last couple of months sticking them up all around the around the parish. So it's a
really good resource that we can go to and say like, Can you build us loads of these
bat boxes, and if you do, then we can put them up all around the parish. We've been
doing that.
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Daisy Finniear: That's fantastic. And what a great way to be inclusive as well by going
to the Alzheimer's group that's bringing in an element of society that might not have
been involved in anything to do with nature beforehand. So that's a great, great way in
so many ways for bats and for the community. I am going to look into that myself. That's
a great idea. And did you just use the wildlife watch guidance as well the ones that we
had on screen earlier.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think that's what I
used. There are a few, I mean, if I could share. I'd share a photo of the
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Daisy Finniear: Yeah.
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Of the group with that bat and bird boxes, all
looking very proud at the Town Hall
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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: as they handed them over. So oh, they loved it,
because it's because it's a very nice job for them to just get on with when they when
they're looking for something to do. So.
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Daisy Finniear: Fantastic. I'm gonna have to look at doing that in Brompton.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Hey? Well, I was just checking my notes to see if I
could make an announcement about next week. But I'll do that later. Let me just check
if anyone else has any questions for you, Daisy.
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Daisy Finniear: Something in the chat, Andrew said, that they've successfully persuaded
developers to put in bat tiles. Oh, that's brilliant! The bats love roosting under
certain types of tiles. So I'm assuming it's those sort of tiles that bats can can use
to roost in which is really great that you've managed to get that through.
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Daisy Finniear: because that's something we really need to consider about, because they
are all protected in this country. Every single species of bat is protected by law. So
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00:55:56.220 --> 00:56:02.299
Daisy Finniear: as town and parish councils and communities, we have a lot to think
about when we do any sort of project or development and record, and
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00:56:02.470 --> 00:56:10.660
Daisy Finniear: recommended developments for approval. Stuff like that. Charles, is a
great way to to support that populations.
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00:56:11.090 --> 00:56:24.450
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: So it would seem. If you've got bat tiles, or
you've got a bat box on your house. Is that the preferable place for them, rather than
say, out in the woods, or something where they can be away from light and away from
noise.
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Daisy Finniear: I mean, it's good to have a mix because we've got so much urbanization
going on. If we can provide spaces for the bats that can tolerate slightly more
urbanized environments like the common Pipishaws, for example, it's great to have it on
the house as well. You would want both, because there's some species that will solely
only live out in the woods, and may only live in tree crevices and won't use a box
anyway. But there's different species that may use a box. They're all quite fussy, and
they all like different things. So my advice would be, do both. Just so you flee them
all.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Got it.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Well, if we go with Andrew, then.
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00:56:59.051 --> 00:57:02.358
Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah. One question. We've got
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: a nature area, which which is quite
near a very busy road.
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00:57:09.510 --> 00:57:14.550
Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Is that a problem to try and
encourage bats around there, or.
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00:57:15.010 --> 00:57:42.189
Daisy Finniear: No, not a problem. So they tend to go over the line of the cars,
anyway, and I found I've done surveys all over, and I found bats using the hedgerows
along roads, because that's a nice linear feature. A lot of times. Roads will have the
hedgerows along the side, and bats will still use areas that have roads and cars. I mean
some bats won't. As I said before, some are fussier than others, and some species won't
go near that, but you will get bats foraging near roadsides. So there's no problem
encouraging them
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00:57:42.190 --> 00:58:05.260
Daisy Finniear: to those areas and just improving those sites because you can see it as
stepping stone as well. Bats have a various different species have different foraging
distances that they travel. So even if it's part of their foraging route, even if it's
not that they're stuck there. But if you can enhance that area for bats, even if it's a
stepping stone, if you see what I mean, it's good for them. So yeah, do. By all means
encouraging them. Yeah.
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00:58:05.260 --> 00:58:24.180
Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Yeah. Another follow-up one. What
about hedgerow management to encourage bats? Our hedgerow of red hedgerows around here
are flailed out of existence in the in the autumn, and I'm wondering what is that, good
or bad, or what should we do to hedge? What should we encourage for hedgerows.
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00:58:24.540 --> 00:58:35.050
Daisy Finniear: So you want to get a mix is good, really. So flailing is not great
because it encourages a very skinny lollipop style of hedge, and it's what everyone
seems to do, because it's the easiest way.
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00:58:35.050 --> 00:58:57.640
Daisy Finniear: if it's possible, and it's not right on a row to leave it to get nice
and thick and dense, is really good for bats, but if you need that management and need
to thicken it up or make it a bit more dense. It's already gone like a lollipop, and
it's not getting any thicker. What you can do is you can lay it laying. It is quite good.
We've got community groups in to lay some of our hedges because it thickens it up, and
then it's denser as it grows.
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00:58:57.640 --> 00:59:14.760
Daisy Finniear: but that will create a smaller hedge. So that's good in terms of
attracting more biodiversity. But bats would also like a mix of some of the thicker,
denser thick hedgerows that you can get as well. But that's not always practical when
you've got pathways, and you've got roadsides so hedge layings, and a really good one
for not just bats, but
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00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:38.490
Daisy Finniear: the species in general is good for, because it just really thickens up
the hedge, and birds like using hedges that have been laid too. So you can get community
groups in and volunteers, and they love doing hedge laying. And it's very fun. I like
it as well. So that's a good activity for people and to get volunteers on board, but
otherwise, yeah, you can thicken it up by planting. You don't want to do hedge laying.
You could thicken up the flailed hedges by putting some more planting in there on the
edge
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00:59:38.770 --> 00:59:40.760
Daisy Finniear: and just getting it a bit more dense.
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Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset. 9 species of bat: Thank you.
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: On to Andrew Marifen. Please.
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Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Yes, just slightly bit more feedback on the
planning. We had a
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00:59:50.680 --> 01:00:02.630
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: it's all good news for bats, really. I think the
authorities have increased the requirements for people to check out the bat feeding
areas when you're planning new housing developments. That's happened. I think a couple
of years ago.
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01:00:02.944 --> 01:00:28.120
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: we're doing a community Land trust development.
And the people put the application in were slightly missed. The deadline for doing the
more up to date survey, so that we had to wait a bit longer for the plane to go through,
but basically sort of good news for bats. My own little anecdote is, we did have a
which I suspect was amazing pair of bats on their honeymoon, and they investigated
being in one of our out houses.
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01:00:28.140 --> 01:00:44.790
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: and they were flying in and out for a bit. But
we're obviously obviously it was just for the honeymoon, only because we decided not to
settle probably we were too close. I didn't know but unfortunately I didn't get to see
them close enough to find out what kind of bat they were, but one of the one of the
British sources, presumably. Yeah.
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01:00:45.350 --> 01:00:51.549
Daisy Finniear: Oh, brilliant bats do. Bats do tend to move roofs, so they have
different roofs different times of year. So that's.
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01:00:51.550 --> 01:00:58.240
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: I can't even remember now what time of year it
was. But it was definitely 2 of them. Yeah, they were talking to each other.
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01:00:58.240 --> 01:01:00.230
Daisy Finniear: Oh! Could you hear them.
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01:01:00.230 --> 01:01:02.109
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Oh, they were! They were chattering away. Yes,
yes.
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01:01:02.110 --> 01:01:08.030
Daisy Finniear: Okay, brilliant. The social social calls tend to be a lower frequency,
and we can hear it. So they probably were chatting to each other.
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01:01:08.030 --> 01:01:10.039
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Well that they have that overturned, I mean.
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01:01:10.530 --> 01:01:13.760
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: I don't know if that's gone honeymoon, but
that's what it sounded like to me.
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01:01:14.100 --> 01:01:15.022
Daisy Finniear: Sounds like it.
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01:01:15.330 --> 01:01:16.280
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Okay, excellent.
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01:01:16.280 --> 01:01:17.720
Daisy Finniear: Great. Thank you.
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01:01:18.010 --> 01:01:23.139
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: And I'm just looking at Gary's picture of all the
people holding bat boxes in the set. That's.
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01:01:23.140 --> 01:01:23.980
Daisy Finniear: Oh!
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01:01:23.980 --> 01:01:25.780
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Which group is that Gary.
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01:01:27.995 --> 01:01:30.974
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: That's the local Alzheimer's
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01:01:31.570 --> 01:01:32.860
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: That is then, okay.
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01:01:32.860 --> 01:01:34.249
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: A woodshop group. Yeah.
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01:01:34.560 --> 01:01:35.340
Daisy Finniear: Oh! Brilliant.
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01:01:35.340 --> 01:01:36.130
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Yeah, that is.
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01:01:36.130 --> 01:01:39.060
Daisy Finniear: Fantastic. I'm going to be stealing that idea shamelessly.
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01:01:39.060 --> 01:01:39.820
Daisy Finniear: I'm gonna.
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01:01:39.820 --> 01:01:45.840
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Well, that's why I'm telling you people. I want to
spread the word because it's been fantastic job like you say they get so involved. And
it's great.
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01:01:46.320 --> 01:01:53.380
Daisy Finniear: Brilliant. Well, we'll definitely look into doing that because we've
already got back. We're making habitat boxes at different sessions at the moment, but
I'm going to see if we can do it
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01:01:53.540 --> 01:01:54.789
Daisy Finniear: one with the
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01:01:54.940 --> 01:02:03.219
Daisy Finniear: I don't think we have a lot. We do have a local Alzheimer's group, and
we have a few different types of care, homes and stuff. So I'm going to look into those.
So you've given me some ideas. Thank you.
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01:02:03.450 --> 01:02:06.450
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Do you have, like a local like men's shed kind of
group.
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01:02:06.930 --> 01:02:23.650
Daisy Finniear: Yeah, we do have. Well, we have one outside of our parish, and we have
a men's chat group which have been building some boxes for us in Frampton. We're hoping
to start a repair cafe as well. So there's all sorts of places we could go to to build
some which will be exciting. Yeah, thank you for that idea.
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01:02:24.030 --> 01:02:25.310
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Stuart, please.
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01:02:25.690 --> 01:02:33.749
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Hi, thank you. I was just wondering
what would be your recommended course of action if you wake up in the night and find a
bat in your bedroom.
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01:02:34.911 --> 01:02:48.280
Daisy Finniear: So ideally. It's not. You're meant to have a license to handle them and
rabies vaccination. But if you can, there's some really good guidance on the 7 Wildlife
Trust and Bat Conservation Trust website. If they're injured.
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01:02:48.770 --> 01:03:11.700
Daisy Finniear: usually you can put gloves on and scoop them into a little box with a
towel and take them to a wildlife rescue. But if they're flying around like crazy,
that's a bit more difficult. And there's a helpline on Black Conservation Trust, which
you can call, and they give you advice where the most local wildlife rescue is, and
they might come out and get it for you. If you can get if it's healthy and looks okay,
and it's flying around. Just open a window.
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01:03:11.700 --> 01:03:16.049
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: It was perfectly healthy, and did open
the window and.
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01:03:16.050 --> 01:03:16.370
Daisy Finniear: Go out!
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01:03:16.370 --> 01:03:18.599
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Eventually eventually he found his way
out again.
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01:03:18.600 --> 01:03:27.760
Daisy Finniear: There you go. That's the ideal. You did the right. That's the ideal
outcome. If you just open a window and eventually they go out. It's when they're injured.
It gets a bit more complicated, and you've got to try and get them to
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01:03:28.020 --> 01:03:33.239
Daisy Finniear: be rehabilitated. But yeah, you did the right thing. Just open the
window and hope for the best is what the 1st point of call.
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01:03:33.760 --> 01:03:34.530
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Hey! Thanks!
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01:03:36.850 --> 01:03:37.429
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Well, I think.
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01:03:37.430 --> 01:03:39.639
Daisy Finniear: Had a bat in my house before, so
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01:03:40.215 --> 01:03:45.370
Daisy Finniear: hopefully. It's good luck. I don't know you will, Cinderella. Yes.
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01:03:45.370 --> 01:03:49.039
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: Next birds and bats. Let them all in.
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01:03:51.820 --> 01:03:52.550
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Well.
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01:03:52.670 --> 01:04:02.010
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Daisy, thank you again. So much for a very lively
presentation. It was fascinating, educational, and very interesting, and.
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01:04:02.010 --> 01:04:02.479
Daisy Finniear: Thank you.
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01:04:02.480 --> 01:04:07.699
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: Again. You've saved our life from coming in a very
short notice. So thank you.
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01:04:07.700 --> 01:04:09.662
Daisy Finniear: Always have to talk about that.
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01:04:09.990 --> 01:04:20.949
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: So let me just to make an announcement about next
week. We've got an education, Nature Park. So do please all come along and find out
what's happening there.
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01:04:21.080 --> 01:04:30.609
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Bembridge: and thank you all for your time. And this this week
and again another. Thank you to Daisy, and see you all next time.
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01:04:30.960 --> 01:04:32.099
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, thanks very much.
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01:04:32.440 --> 01:04:33.370
Cllr Stuart Withington, Great Dunmow TC, Essex: That was great.
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01:04:33.370 --> 01:04:34.739
Daisy Finniear: Good to see you all. Bye, bye.
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01:04:34.740 --> 01:04:36.179
Daisy Finniear: thanks, everyone. Thanks for having me.
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01:04:36.560 --> 01:04:37.640
Andrew Maliphant, Great Collaboration: All the very best.
Daisy Finniear – Climate & Nature Officer
Vampire bats
Sparkly poop
Baby bats
Delayed pregnancy
“Blind as a bat”
“Mice with wings?”
Only flying mammal
Long life expectancy
Over 1300 species worldwide
Varied specialities and diets
Weight: From 2g to 1.5kg
Wingspan: Up to 5 feet
Notable species:
Tiny Honduran bat
Giant flying fox
Pipistrelle
Jamaican fruit bat
Habitat loss and urbanisation
Light pollution
Cats
Climate change
Disease
17 species – all insectivores
Exceptional listeners
Forage: near rivers, gardens, lakes, hedgerows, trees
Roost: in trees, buildings, caves, mines, rock crevices
Video credit: Nature Habitat Shorts
Largest UK bat (~40g)
Flies high, first to emerge
Can cause temporary deafness
Distinctive call: Noctule call
Smallest UK bat (~5g)
Eats up to 3000 insects/night
Distinctive call: Pipistrelle call
Machine gun-like sound
Skims water (rivers, lakes, ponds)
Frequency: 45kHz, long-range
Bat walks and workshops – accessible to deaf, blind, wheelchair users
Partner orgs: Centre for Deaf, RNIB, BCT
Bat detectors for loan – policy in place
Community surveys
Frampton Festival
Bat box making & installing
Community Nature Reserve – bats and beyond
Local policies
Show recommendation: What We Do in the Shadows
About Bats and Disease:
About hedgerow management (hedgerows give bats biodiversity, and lines with which to navigate): This suggests limiting cutting hedges where possible to every 3 years or more. But where it is not possible to leave a hedge to grow wide and tall, hedge laying is also good for bats as it encourages greater insect populations = more food. There is also some great info on hedges here
00:46:58 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: