January 10, 2024 • 33 mins
S5E51 Join Steve in early summer on the Island of Jersey as he sits down with a trio from the bat group. In this interview we hear about the historic work of the group and the sort of survey work being done at the moment on the Island. With 18 bat species recorded on this 46 square miles of land just off the French coast, we hear there's still plenty more to be discovered.
- Discover more about Jersey Bat Group and follow them on twitter, facebook and Instagram
- Watch the Jersey Bat Project video. Hugh the Bat is the face of the campaign. He is named after the late Hugh Forshaw, who was a long standing member of Jersey Bat Group
- Discover your local bat group
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve Roe (00:07):
Hello and you're listening to BatChat, the
podcast from the BatConservation Trust, where we
take you out into the field todiscover the world of bat
conservation.
Yes, welcome back, folks. Thispodcast is for anyone with a
fascination in the amazingnocturnal mammals that fill our
(00:28):
skies at night. I'm Steve Roeprofessionally, I'm an ecologist
and in my spare time, I'm atrustee for the Bat Conservation
Trust. Now if you thought myvoice sounded a bit odd last
time, I was struggling with thedreaded winter lurgi. But I'm
glad to say my voice is back tocontinue with the second half of
series five. If this is thefirst time you're listening to
us episodes are released everyother Wednesday from now through
(00:50):
to the spring. Having just hadthe festive period last summer
seems that little bit furtherback in time. But this week,
we're transporting you acrossthe channel once again, to the
island of Jersey. It's thebeginning of May, dusk has
fallen, and the evening chorusof woodland birds is all around
(01:12):
me. I'm stood on a wooded laneon the eastern side of the
island of Jersey, there aregreen banks on either side of
the lane covered in firms andIvy. And the lane slopes down
towards a tiny car park wheremembers of that group are
getting set up for a night abouttrapping. Sounds like there's a
squeaky gate that keeps beingopened. But it's the call of a
(01:35):
long-eared owl chick, which issomewhere in the trees in front
of me. We did catch a glimpse ofit earlier. But now that the
light has started to go, it'simpossible to say the interview
you're about to hear is withthree members of the back group
after we'd all had a line fromseveral nights are dropping here
on jersey.
(01:58):
And I'm with Liz Walsh, HenryGlynn, and Dave tipping. And
they're going to chat to usabout the jersey back projects
and how it all started in whatwe're doing. So do you want to
introduce yourselves and howyou're going to better start?
Liz Walsh (02:11):
So yeah, I'm Liz. I got into bats through the jazz
back group, probably about 2016When Anni Biney was chair, and
she was looking for volunteersto help out with hibernation,
survey scoping sites and things.
And then I found myself sittingin woodlands all night, every
(02:32):
night pretty much throughout thesummer. And yeah, it's all kind
of stemmed from there and slowlygathering the similar kind of
skill set. But I observed Annie,Annie using to catch bats in
Jersey a few years ago.
Henry Glynn (02:52):
It was actually David who started me off on
bats. I was doing an internshipat the Department of Environment
at the time. And David said, Oh,we're going out with the back
group to survey at St. Martin'sChurch you want to come along.
So I did. And we did a bit of anemergent survey outside, which
is just really cool. And I'venever seen anything like it
before. And then went and satinside and the bats were flying
(03:14):
around in there, you could hearthem had the bat detectors going
and it was just a really likemagical experience. And from
then I was hooked.
David Tipping (03:23):
Hi, I'm David Tipping. I inherited a bat
survey a kind of static batsurvey, working for the
Department for the environmentthat basically didn't work. So
um, you know, we put loads ofeffort into it and it didn't
work. I think this happens witha lot of surveys. So we then
kind of were looking for a newapproach to things. So we picked
(03:46):
up and on the iPads monitorMonitoring Survey, which which
was kind of running at the time,and I adopted it and ran that
for 11 years. And when did thatstart? We actually started in
2011. But I think the ibatsurvey probably started a couple
(04:06):
of years before that. It's it's,it's the Zoological Society of
London. And BCT collaborationtype survey. It was Canvas as a
kind of continental wide batsurvey, I think was a bit
optimistic, but it had all theelements in it, you know, it had
(04:26):
a kind of pipeline for uploadingit had designs on an automated
analysis at the end of it allthat it kind of fell to pieces
after a couple of years. wasunfortunate. I think it worked
well for us it it kind of didwhat we needed to at the time.
Steve Roe (04:44):
And was that the first sort of major recording
scheme for bats on the islandthen
David Tipping (04:49):
we had had an initial Island bat survey back
in about 2002 done by LouiseMarcus, which was actually it
was fantastic. piece of work, itwas great. She did all sorts of
things. She did walking surveys,and amount of carbon surveys,
exit surveys, all sorts ofthings that she put together. It
(05:10):
was only about it, it was abouttwo years work, I think she did.
And it kind of started thingsoff. And the outcome of that was
it was we were looking for anongoing solutions about
monitoring in the islands. Andit was a fixed point, fixed
point monitoring that we came upwith. It didn't really work in
(05:33):
that the analysis, we weredepending on volunteers to do
the analysis. And it was just,it was just too variable. It was
just too big an expectation fora series of volunteers really.
So we needed we needed to pickkind of pin it down and do
something that was that was moreset, you know, have more options
for coming up with somethingthat was a bit more robust.
Steve Roe (05:58):
So then, Liz, where's that evolved in? And where's
this project we've got, you'vegot me and Dave, over here for
the last three, four days to dosome trapping, we have to send
target species. So what's thepurpose of the current project
then.
Liz Walsh (06:12):
So again, it comes back to this data. Acoustics is
being able to do somethinguseful with the data. We're
quite good at collecting lots ofrecordings and records, but it's
how we process that data, andhow you get reliable information
from that. So when we finishedthe 10 years worth of data on
(06:33):
iPads, we commissioned a reviewof all of that data and BCT won
the contract for that. And aspart of their report, they they
looked at trend analysis. And wecould only really get a trend
for the common pipistrellebecause the common pipistrelle
is very, very common in Jerseycompared to the other species of
(06:54):
bat. So we just didn't reallyhave the numbers of calls of the
other species. And that's partlydue to the fact it was driven
transit. So perhaps, you know,it's that more likely to be
encountered there than and it'smore difficult to drive a car,
you know, within a clutteredwoodland and sort of
environment. But, so we neededto find a way to sort of improve
(07:18):
these automatic classifiers totry and get, you know, a better
and more specific call analysisfor some of the other species.
So, one of the recommendationsin the BCTs report was for
Jersey to develop its own calllibrary. But to do that, you
obviously want a variety ofdifferent calls, you don't just
(07:41):
want release calls from thehand, because they're not always
that characteristic of whatyou're going to find on an
acoustic survey. So we want tosort of identify a few more
roosts in the island. And thatalso feeds into some of the
other, you know, usefulinformation is we've got a
number of good reefs recordsacross the island. But most of
(08:05):
those common pipistrelle roostsor, and the grey long haired
Bruce was quite a few knownquite sizable grey long haired
roosts. But other than a fewsporadic records of hibernating
bats in a few places. Thisthere's not really any strong
(08:28):
data for a lot of the otherspecies of bats that we've
encountered on jersey. So wekind of want to increase our
knowledge of the roostingfeatures that are being used in
Jersey and find out the breedingstatus of some of the species
that we don't have that data foryet. But once we've got the
locations of roofs for thingslike the cools, pipistrelle, we
(08:50):
can then record some niceecholocation calls, if we can
then identify their flight pathsto and from those roofs and if
we could find key foraging areasagain for those bats that would
be really really good give us agood idea of what parts of our
countryside really need toprotect. Because as with
everywhere, you know, jerseysare really small little island
(09:11):
and you know, the bats have gotsomewhere to live but so did the
human so there's always thatlittle bit of conflict there.
So, you know, trying to find getas much information as we
possibly can if we can find someparts to tag so that that's not
always as easy as it sounds. No,
Steve Roe (09:29):
it's been quite challenging, isn't it and
Henry's coming over frommainland because you were from
here originally and then liveover in London. Do you just want
to describe the sort of thehabitats that we've been
trapping in you know what whatwhat the areas we've been doing
our oh gosh.
Henry Glynn (09:43):
Yeah, so we've we've mostly been trapping
around the woodlands so far inround. One of our question,
where did we go? Not for us?
This is after three nines oftraffic I can I can barely think
let alone talk.
Liz Walsh (09:59):
So We did a reservoir, didn't we? Yeah,
Henry Glynn (10:03):
so we've been mostly focusing around the
woodlands but trying to sort oflike diversify a bit around the
habitats there. So the firstnight we were out on the place
called creepy Valley, which is alittle woodlands attached to a
sand dune on one side, one ofour most most biodiverse sites
in the islands. And basicallyhousing estates and urban areas
(10:23):
on the other side. So quite aninteresting mix, where you might
have bats roosting in the urbanareas and then commuting through
this woodland to get to foragingareas or coming down to forage
in The Woodlands. Then yeah, sowe also, were at the reservoir
The following night, there wego. So the reservoir The
following night, obviously justto, you know, get that exposure
(10:44):
to wet habitats, which obviouslybrings out some different
species as well. And actually,just going back to what you were
saying before, I think one ofthe light drivers for wanting to
take up with the jersey backproject, as well, as a lot of
the species that we had recordsfor we had like one or two
records, we didn't really have alot of confirmation that they
were in the island breeding inthe island living in the island
(11:04):
properly. So I'm starting toimplement some more like
advanced techniques for trappingand Miss netting and stuff was a
way to try and confirm sort ofpresence and absence of species
and status in the island aswell. Which I forgot my saying,
oh, yeah, different habitats.
And yeah, and so we had thereservoir last night, obviously
thinking we've now got some goodrecords of like dog Benton's and
stuff in the island and thefuzziness at the time of year as
(11:26):
well. It's good for looking forthe fuzziness. So it's a nice
choice to go for. And then lastnight, we actually went to one
of our most sort of diversewoodlands. It's one of the few
woodlands that wasn't cut downin the Second World War. Largely
because it belongs to a mannerwhich is protected. And so
anyway, it's a really diversewoodland, and it's got oak oak
(11:48):
dominated woodlands, with somenice unimproved Meadows
alongside that have conservationgrazing going on and a light
managed for wildlifeconservation. So wanted to check
that out, again, sort ofsurrounded by agricultural land,
by and large, but you know, in avery country countryside area,
as opposed to an urbanised area,so different. So again,
(12:11):
potential for different speciesor different kind of use of the
area. For that, butunfortunately, it was cold, and
a bit miserable, and we didn'tcatch much.
Steve Roe (12:23):
Yeah, this is my first time on jersey. So the
first night like Henry said, oneof the most biodiverse areas,
forgotten, there were redsquirrels on the islands, that
was really nice for me to say.
And yet the minute of thingsreally nice and lush and green,
we've had only been out on thepodcast in series one talking
about Jersey back group. Davidterms of the skill set, then,
(12:43):
you know, how many people in theback group? And what sort of
skills do you have? And whatsort of skills is missing and
lacking at the moment?
David Tipping (12:53):
I think that Liz is probably much better able to
answer that question.
Liz Walsh (12:59):
It was a range of skills and experience. So there
are members of that group thathave been involved in the the
advanced survey work for anumber of years, some of which
also have experienced trappingin South America and other
places. So there's, there's arange, but there's there's very
(13:20):
few. So what we wanted to doalso is also collaborate more
widely with the other channelislands. So recently, we held
our first Channel Island batforum and workshop to partly to
look at getting a Channel Islandwide, passive acoustic
monitoring scheme. So Henry haddone some pilot work on a J bats
(13:42):
scheme to follow on from I bats.
And when we were sort of lookingat that, it would just be so
much better if perhaps acrossthe Channel Islands, we were all
doing the same thing. So Josieis perhaps a little bit further
forward on its bat research thanthe other islands that don't
have quite the resources thatwe've had the bat work in
previous times. So across theother islands at the moment,
(14:05):
there's a baileywick bat surveyhappening, which is another
passive acoustic monitoringscheme that the BTO are
partnering with the Bailiwickgovernments to roll out so
they're in their third year thisyear, so they just kicking off
with all of their getting theirkits out to the volunteers to do
their acoustic research. So it'sa four year project. So now's a
(14:26):
really good time to be actuallycoming together to get a
research project that amonitoring project that will go
forward for all of the islandshopefully, which ideally would
also align quite well with the,the methodology that is being
used will be used in the UK aswell. So we've got more
(14:48):
comparable data going forward.
So we wanted to do somethingthat's more collaborative and
help. So open up theopportunities for people from
the other islands to see work isgoing on here. So to be able to
come and do emergent surveys ifwe, if we managed to buy these
(15:08):
elusive species and actuallymanaged to radio track them, so
to give them the volunteers fromboth jersey and the other
channel islands to get someradio tracking experience, we've
also got a couple of guys fromour Asian Hornet teams out
trapping with us at the moment,who have shown really keen
interest in learning about bats,which is really nice to see. But
(15:29):
they've been doing some trackingwork with the Asian Hornets to
be able to find out where theirkey nest sites are. So they can
destroy those nests or beingquite an invasive species. So
it's really nice to get thatdiversity and mix and
collaboration. Because we worktogether more, not just with the
(15:53):
back group, but the otherindividuals and NGOs that are on
the islands between us, we canwork far more effectively, by
collaborating and supportingeach other and learning from
each other. We've been somefantastic conversations going
on, on the fat sessions inbetween processing, and learn
(16:13):
lots about lots of differentspecies, we've got people with a
particular keen interest inmarine biology with us as well.
So it's been a really fantasticexperience.
Steve Roe (16:23):
And I guess what's the, you know, looking into the
future, then Dave, what's,what's your ideal vision for the
backs of Jersey in terms ofknowledge and conservation going
forwards?
David Tipping (16:34):
Ideally, would that they'd be the golden
ticket, that would be themonitoring strategy that enabled
us to do proper abundance anddiversity at you know, that's,
that's what we'd like. But Ithink that there's no chance
that there's one survey that'sgoing to do that, so. So that,
(16:57):
like, it's an interesting place,really, because we were so close
to France, you know, there's allsorts of potential for
migration, we're also on a routebetween the south of England and
France. So you know, continentalmigration wise, we're well well
placed, it would be nice tounderstand it, there's, there's
(17:21):
so much of it with bats that youcan get a bigger picture on, and
we we don't have that it wouldbe great, it would be great to
gain any knowledge on that,really. And there's a lot of
alignment between the islandshappening at the moment, as Les
was saying, we've also gotbiodiversity centres kind of
starting. Starting a morecollaborative approach across
(17:43):
the islands, you know, we'd goto using an underlying database
that will span the ChannelIslands, there's so much
opportunity to workcollaboratively like that.
That's including bats in on thatwould definitely be the place to
go.
Steve Roe (17:57):
And have you seen technology change over those
years? And, you know, thinkingback to when the back group
started 30 days, what changes?
Have you seen in the use oftechnology in survey methods?
Liz Walsh (18:07):
Well, the detectors have got a lot better, haven't
they? They're far moresensitive. And when the eye
bats, surveys first started off,we're using the time expansion
microphones, won't you, David.
And, you know, now with thedevelopment with good full
spectrum recording, for the lastfew years of the ibex project,
(18:27):
use both types. But obviously,you've got far more recordings
from the full spectrum. So youknow, one of the things that we
want to do when we design a newor agree the New Channel Islands
about monitoring scheme acousticmonitoring scheme, is to make
sure that we we get ourtechnology right at the start.
(18:48):
And, you know, obviously there'sthere's financial constraints,
but making sure that we've gotsomething that's is going to
stand the test of time, becauseany monitoring scheme is going
to need to go for a good numberof years to get that, you know,
reliable trend and be being berepeatable. But, you know, one
of the things that's we foundreally important with,
(19:09):
especially with the J bats,pilot projects and things is, is
that part, that communityscience element, the public
engagement factor of that can soeasily be underestimated. You
can really change people'sopinion and mindsets about bats.
They're such misunderstoodcreatures, and, you know, people
(19:31):
don't realise quite howimportant they are. And what
great indicator are, they areoff the health of your habitat.
So it you know, it's it's reallyimportant to have that community
element to a passive acousticmonitoring scheme. But that does
make it a little bit more trickyto make it that reproducibility
(19:52):
so it's this kind of balanceand, and that's what we're going
to be working together with theother channel islands to try Get
a scheme that gets the best ofall worlds as far as we possibly
can. But it's really early dayson that we're just starting to
set up a working party for that.
But as part of the, the corelibrary project, we've also had
(20:17):
an Earthwatch interns studentwith his last year. And he for
his project, he designed a roofswatch scheme. So again, that's
joining up with the biodiversityCentre, which is hosted on their
website. And it's justencouraging people to look for
the signs of a roost. So we'renot asking people to go and do a
(20:38):
recent inspection, because thatwouldn't be appropriate. But
just to go and look and see ifthey can find droppings and you
know, kids love to go lookingfor droppings and things, you
know, sitting outside in yourgarden on a nice sunny evening,
and just looking back at thehouse, and seeing if anything
flies out, you know, and loggingthose calls. And, you know, it's
(20:59):
early days, there was quite agood interaction in the first
year, but we're hoping to justkeep it keep the momentum going
on that and maybe develop alevel two surveys so that we can
then perhaps train up somevolunteers to perhaps do proper
emergence counts, and lend outsome detectors and, and kind of
move it up again, in the futureyears, but, you know, time and
(21:21):
resources, but yeah, we werehoping to do something like
that. So just improve that. Butthe public engagement bit is, is
so important, because if peoplelove their bats, then they're
much more aware of them whenthey need to do any work on
them, and make sure that theyget the appropriate support
before any developments andthings. So
Steve Roe (21:41):
you mentioned time and resources and financial
constraints. What challengescome with being on an island for
a bat group? What are thechallenges of a violent back
groups then?
Liz Walsh (21:53):
Training?
Steve Roe (21:54):
Yeah,
Liz Walsh (21:55):
yeah, it's, it's brilliant to have you guys here.
You know, it's really difficultto necessarily experience as
many species in a, in a shorttimeframe, we've got some very
experienced bat workers inJersey and some professional
ecologists, that obviously havethey're quite heavy workloads
(22:17):
and everything. But to get thatsort of diversity and skill set,
and to, you know, just learningfrom lots of different people is
really difficult. So, you know,to get all of that group off the
island, and, and to go trappingwith different organisations,
different groups andorganisations is really
expensive. And, you know, you'veseen with the weather yourselves
(22:39):
here today, you know, when you,you know, when you you've
arranged something like this,you are really down to the
elements. So there's a lot oftravel costs, accommodation
costs, all of those kinds ofthings that just add to it and
make it much more challenging toorganise. But it is a small
little island as well. So youknow, now we've got a bigger
(23:01):
diversity of bat workers, youknow, as their skill sets are
improving, you know, it's it'sgets, you know, difficult to
make sure that we're not doingtoo much work in different
areas. So again, thatcollaboration that close
working, you know, is reallyimportant. And, you know, it's
really good, but we've got some,you know, great skill people on
(23:22):
the island.
Steve Roe (23:24):
How large is the baggage and how many members
you've gotten on the activemembers. I mean, we've had about
1015 people out so far thisweek.
Liz Walsh (23:32):
I think there's from the ATM, which was a couple of
weeks ago, I think there'sprobably about 40 to 50 paid
members of that group. Butthere's not that many that are
active. So we've got a couple ofthe back group that have been
out most nights this session,including the treasurer and the
(23:52):
secretary, and a previousresearch officer was sat with us
tonight. But you know, we'realways after more people. And I
think the by the fact that we'verun this as a government project
on this occasion, it does openit up to people who aren't
actually members of that group.
So I'm hoping that byencouraging people from
(24:15):
different NGOs, with differentinterests of those that were
really just interested in theradio tracking, and now really
keen on that. So, you know,hopefully, that will help swell
the bat groups, resources. And,you know, some of the ecologists
from natural ecology have beenout on a few of the sessions as
well. So, you know, gave thegathering their expertise into
(24:36):
the back group will be reallygood as well. So if they've, but
it's, again, it's reallydifficult because ecologists are
really busy at the same time asthe back group need to be so you
know, it is difficult, buthopefully, this this helps to
swell their numbers.
Steve Roe (24:52):
So we've mentioned a few target species that are set
between the three of you. Canyou name all the species that
you've got on jersey or you'vehad on jersey and you Blood
records for no pressure.
Henry Glynn (25:05):
Anyone started going to circle?
Liz Walsh (25:09):
Do you want to start with a pipistrelles? David?
Okay,
David Tipping (25:11):
so we've got common we've got a few soprano,
I think, the
Liz Walsh (25:16):
calls and the Medusas. So that's the four
pipistrelles
Henry Glynn (25:20):
old record of savvy scripts drill a long time ago.
Yep.
Liz Walsh (25:27):
We've got at least one. Well, we've got one less a
horseshoe bat records a bitoccasionally. And we've got at
least two greater horseshoebats. And then we've got some
lovely long eared perhaps brownlongyear.
Henry Glynn (25:46):
Weightless on
Liz Walsh (25:48):
the Myotis. We've got your Benton's authority, but
have been dropping records ofbrands and I think we've got
letters we've got naturals we'vegot a nice fairly recent new
roost for naturals which is gotgood good numbers in which is
quite exciting. This recordSarah teens and there's I think
(26:12):
there's been there's been DNAfrom leisler. And when we
occasionally get acousticrecords that would look very
much like lies learned. And thenuptials quite debatable. We've
never had a nodule in the hand.
Not really sure we've really gotthe kind of habitat that not
sure, but there's no there areoccasional records, acoustic
records that sound reallyconvincingly like a nocturnal,
(26:35):
but who knows. Cuz, you know, weall know what acoustic
Henry Glynn (26:41):
I'm pretty sure some of the calls that I checked
from Jay Betts were confirmed isnot true. Yeah.
Liz Walsh (26:46):
I've had some that I've thought pass can't be
anything else. But you know, youknow what that's like, ya know,
like when we were Yeah. But theycould just be passing over
because, you know, which isanother reason why we really
want to work closely with theother back the other islands to
see what's what's going on. Soit's what's
Steve Roe (27:04):
that 17 species? I think that's what we just
counted up to.
Henry Glynn (27:07):
I wasn't counting
David Tipping (27:10):
I've heard rumour of 18. Yeah. What have we
missed? Do
Liz Walsh (27:14):
we Oh, yeah. The Jeff Royce. Yeah. How can we forget
our Jeff Royce? Yeah, so we'vehad Jeff Royce in the hand and
in a hibernation roost, whichwas really, really nice to see.
Steve Roe (27:27):
And what are your favourite roofs each
individually on the island ofyou've got favourite roofs that
you'd like to go and kill.
David Tipping (27:33):
So there's what I think is a 12 Century Gothic
chapel, covered in Wisteria onthe east of the islands, that
leaves down its woodland withsome ponds blowing, which is
stunning, beautiful place.
Liz Walsh (27:52):
I, I spent a lot of time with the hibernation
surveys. And that's kind of howI first got into bat work. So I
probably would go with the vastarray of German fortifications,
which many of which don't havemany bats in are very bad very
often. And they take an awfullot of survey hour per bat to
(28:16):
find but they're all interestingin a historical view as well as
as well as from the batperspective. But yeah, as
there's increasing levels ofdisturbance in these places,
unfortunately, the bat sightingsare becoming less frequent.
Henry Glynn (28:35):
I've got a favourite reason. I'm more of a
sort of wander around and lookat the sky and worrying about
the text or about the place.
Yeah, I don't like standingstill for too long. You're
Liz Walsh (28:44):
more of a woodland creature, aren't you? Yeah.
These are woodland specialists,I'd say more of a Myotis.
Steve Roe (28:54):
Who were chatting yesterday, me and Dave, we
weren't sure if you had recordsof autumn swarming in the
island.
Liz Walsh (29:00):
We have been trying to do some autumn swarming,
especially with that. And he wasdoing that when she was here.
She set up a hibernation andswarming project, which is what
the the hibernation studies wereassociated with. We've got very
limited amounts of swarmingactivity. There is a site that I
really liked to spend more timetrying to especially now we've
(29:22):
got the technology of thethermal imaging. And it's quite
a difficult site to accessthough, because it's a sort of
see Cliff SEK. So it doesn'tmean sort of scrambling down the
side of the the side of thecliff face and and perching
oneself on a precarious spot. Sonot really ideal for a harp
(29:46):
trap. Although I'm sure with theright will and equipment and
volunteers, we could potentiallydo that. But I think just purely
from a point of view withdetectors and thermal cameras.
If get a decent night It'saround swapping time that the
wind conditions and the weatherand the rain are in our favour
would be something to do. Butthose elements haven't all come
(30:08):
together for me in recent years,unfortunately, but it is the one
on the radar but yeah, there'sthere's occasional pips swarming
activity, one site where I'vebeen monitoring a natural roost
late in the season. But it'sonly a couple of individuals, I
really don't know what goes onwith our pipistrelles in the
(30:29):
winter. The back group have gotsome detectors out one in the
east and one on the west, whichare left out year round. And
obviously, the number of filesreally dies down in the winter.
But particularly the one in theWest, which is in a lovely bit
of woodland, close to a coupleof German fortifications, you
(30:52):
get a reasonable amount ofMyotis activity. So you know,
it's quite exciting becauseyou're not having to plough
through tonnes and tonnes andtonnes of common pipistrelle
files, to find the Myotis. A lotof them are sort of hidden away
and noise files for the brain aswell. So they seem to be quite
hardy, and we'll be flyingaround quite a lot during the
(31:15):
winter, but, you know, justdon't know enough about about
them. They just need loads moreresearch to do. So I think with
our passive acoustic monitoringgoing forward, we really nice to
have an element that is also inthe winter, as well as during
the summer months just to see,see what's really going on.
Steve Roe (31:36):
Great stuff. Dave, Henry and Liz. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Massive Thanks toDave to pink, Liz Walsh and
Henry Glenn for taking the timeto sit down and chat with me and
to the other Jersey back groupmembers. I had the pleasure of
spending time with that week.
We've put a link in the shownotes to the Jersey bat group.
And if you'd like to find outmore about your local bank
(31:57):
group, check out the link whichwill put you in touch with the
nearest group so that you canget involved with things going
on near you. We'll be back intwo weeks time So until then,
I'll leave you with the sound ofan early summer's evening on the
island of Jersey.
Hello and you're listening to BatChat, the
podcast from the BatConservation Trust, where we
take you out into the field todiscover the world of bat
conservation.
Yes, welcome back, folks. Thispodcast is for anyone with a
fascination in the amazingnocturnal mammals that fill our
(00:28):
skies at night. I'm Steve Roeprofessionally, I'm an ecologist
and in my spare time, I'm atrustee for the Bat Conservation
Trust. Now if you thought myvoice sounded a bit odd last
time, I was struggling with thedreaded winter lurgi. But I'm
glad to say my voice is back tocontinue with the second half of
series five. If this is thefirst time you're listening to
us episodes are released everyother Wednesday from now through
(00:50):
to the spring. Having just hadthe festive period last summer
seems that little bit furtherback in time. But this week,
we're transporting you acrossthe channel once again, to the
island of Jersey. It's thebeginning of May, dusk has
fallen, and the evening chorusof woodland birds is all around
(01:12):
me. I'm stood on a wooded laneon the eastern side of the
island of Jersey, there aregreen banks on either side of
the lane covered in firms andIvy. And the lane slopes down
towards a tiny car park wheremembers of that group are
getting set up for a night abouttrapping. Sounds like there's a
squeaky gate that keeps beingopened. But it's the call of a
(01:35):
long-eared owl chick, which issomewhere in the trees in front
of me. We did catch a glimpse ofit earlier. But now that the
light has started to go, it'simpossible to say the interview
you're about to hear is withthree members of the back group
after we'd all had a line fromseveral nights are dropping here
on jersey.
(01:58):
And I'm with Liz Walsh, HenryGlynn, and Dave tipping. And
they're going to chat to usabout the jersey back projects
and how it all started in whatwe're doing. So do you want to
introduce yourselves and howyou're going to better start?
Liz Walsh (02:11):
So yeah, I'm Liz. I got into bats through the jazz
back group, probably about 2016When Anni Biney was chair, and
she was looking for volunteersto help out with hibernation,
survey scoping sites and things.
And then I found myself sittingin woodlands all night, every
(02:32):
night pretty much throughout thesummer. And yeah, it's all kind
of stemmed from there and slowlygathering the similar kind of
skill set. But I observed Annie,Annie using to catch bats in
Jersey a few years ago.
Henry Glynn (02:52):
It was actually David who started me off on
bats. I was doing an internshipat the Department of Environment
at the time. And David said, Oh,we're going out with the back
group to survey at St. Martin'sChurch you want to come along.
So I did. And we did a bit of anemergent survey outside, which
is just really cool. And I'venever seen anything like it
before. And then went and satinside and the bats were flying
(03:14):
around in there, you could hearthem had the bat detectors going
and it was just a really likemagical experience. And from
then I was hooked.
David Tipping (03:23):
Hi, I'm David Tipping. I inherited a bat
survey a kind of static batsurvey, working for the
Department for the environmentthat basically didn't work. So
um, you know, we put loads ofeffort into it and it didn't
work. I think this happens witha lot of surveys. So we then
kind of were looking for a newapproach to things. So we picked
(03:46):
up and on the iPads monitorMonitoring Survey, which which
was kind of running at the time,and I adopted it and ran that
for 11 years. And when did thatstart? We actually started in
2011. But I think the ibatsurvey probably started a couple
(04:06):
of years before that. It's it's,it's the Zoological Society of
London. And BCT collaborationtype survey. It was Canvas as a
kind of continental wide batsurvey, I think was a bit
optimistic, but it had all theelements in it, you know, it had
(04:26):
a kind of pipeline for uploadingit had designs on an automated
analysis at the end of it allthat it kind of fell to pieces
after a couple of years. wasunfortunate. I think it worked
well for us it it kind of didwhat we needed to at the time.
Steve Roe (04:44):
And was that the first sort of major recording
scheme for bats on the islandthen
David Tipping (04:49):
we had had an initial Island bat survey back
in about 2002 done by LouiseMarcus, which was actually it
was fantastic. piece of work, itwas great. She did all sorts of
things. She did walking surveys,and amount of carbon surveys,
exit surveys, all sorts ofthings that she put together. It
(05:10):
was only about it, it was abouttwo years work, I think she did.
And it kind of started thingsoff. And the outcome of that was
it was we were looking for anongoing solutions about
monitoring in the islands. Andit was a fixed point, fixed
point monitoring that we came upwith. It didn't really work in
(05:33):
that the analysis, we weredepending on volunteers to do
the analysis. And it was just,it was just too variable. It was
just too big an expectation fora series of volunteers really.
So we needed we needed to pickkind of pin it down and do
something that was that was moreset, you know, have more options
for coming up with somethingthat was a bit more robust.
Steve Roe (05:58):
So then, Liz, where's that evolved in? And where's
this project we've got, you'vegot me and Dave, over here for
the last three, four days to dosome trapping, we have to send
target species. So what's thepurpose of the current project
then.
Liz Walsh (06:12):
So again, it comes back to this data. Acoustics is
being able to do somethinguseful with the data. We're
quite good at collecting lots ofrecordings and records, but it's
how we process that data, andhow you get reliable information
from that. So when we finishedthe 10 years worth of data on
(06:33):
iPads, we commissioned a reviewof all of that data and BCT won
the contract for that. And aspart of their report, they they
looked at trend analysis. And wecould only really get a trend
for the common pipistrellebecause the common pipistrelle
is very, very common in Jerseycompared to the other species of
(06:54):
bat. So we just didn't reallyhave the numbers of calls of the
other species. And that's partlydue to the fact it was driven
transit. So perhaps, you know,it's that more likely to be
encountered there than and it'smore difficult to drive a car,
you know, within a clutteredwoodland and sort of
environment. But, so we neededto find a way to sort of improve
(07:18):
these automatic classifiers totry and get, you know, a better
and more specific call analysisfor some of the other species.
So, one of the recommendationsin the BCTs report was for
Jersey to develop its own calllibrary. But to do that, you
obviously want a variety ofdifferent calls, you don't just
(07:41):
want release calls from thehand, because they're not always
that characteristic of whatyou're going to find on an
acoustic survey. So we want tosort of identify a few more
roosts in the island. And thatalso feeds into some of the
other, you know, usefulinformation is we've got a
number of good reefs recordsacross the island. But most of
(08:05):
those common pipistrelle roostsor, and the grey long haired
Bruce was quite a few knownquite sizable grey long haired
roosts. But other than a fewsporadic records of hibernating
bats in a few places. Thisthere's not really any strong
(08:28):
data for a lot of the otherspecies of bats that we've
encountered on jersey. So wekind of want to increase our
knowledge of the roostingfeatures that are being used in
Jersey and find out the breedingstatus of some of the species
that we don't have that data foryet. But once we've got the
locations of roofs for thingslike the cools, pipistrelle, we
(08:50):
can then record some niceecholocation calls, if we can
then identify their flight pathsto and from those roofs and if
we could find key foraging areasagain for those bats that would
be really really good give us agood idea of what parts of our
countryside really need toprotect. Because as with
everywhere, you know, jerseysare really small little island
(09:11):
and you know, the bats have gotsomewhere to live but so did the
human so there's always thatlittle bit of conflict there.
So, you know, trying to find getas much information as we
possibly can if we can find someparts to tag so that that's not
always as easy as it sounds. No,
Steve Roe (09:29):
it's been quite challenging, isn't it and
Henry's coming over frommainland because you were from
here originally and then liveover in London. Do you just want
to describe the sort of thehabitats that we've been
trapping in you know what whatwhat the areas we've been doing
our oh gosh.
Henry Glynn (09:43):
Yeah, so we've we've mostly been trapping
around the woodlands so far inround. One of our question,
where did we go? Not for us?
This is after three nines oftraffic I can I can barely think
let alone talk.
Liz Walsh (09:59):
So We did a reservoir, didn't we? Yeah,
Henry Glynn (10:03):
so we've been mostly focusing around the
woodlands but trying to sort oflike diversify a bit around the
habitats there. So the firstnight we were out on the place
called creepy Valley, which is alittle woodlands attached to a
sand dune on one side, one ofour most most biodiverse sites
in the islands. And basicallyhousing estates and urban areas
(10:23):
on the other side. So quite aninteresting mix, where you might
have bats roosting in the urbanareas and then commuting through
this woodland to get to foragingareas or coming down to forage
in The Woodlands. Then yeah, sowe also, were at the reservoir
The following night, there wego. So the reservoir The
following night, obviously justto, you know, get that exposure
(10:44):
to wet habitats, which obviouslybrings out some different
species as well. And actually,just going back to what you were
saying before, I think one ofthe light drivers for wanting to
take up with the jersey backproject, as well, as a lot of
the species that we had recordsfor we had like one or two
records, we didn't really have alot of confirmation that they
were in the island breeding inthe island living in the island
(11:04):
properly. So I'm starting toimplement some more like
advanced techniques for trappingand Miss netting and stuff was a
way to try and confirm sort ofpresence and absence of species
and status in the island aswell. Which I forgot my saying,
oh, yeah, different habitats.
And yeah, and so we had thereservoir last night, obviously
thinking we've now got some goodrecords of like dog Benton's and
stuff in the island and thefuzziness at the time of year as
(11:26):
well. It's good for looking forthe fuzziness. So it's a nice
choice to go for. And then lastnight, we actually went to one
of our most sort of diversewoodlands. It's one of the few
woodlands that wasn't cut downin the Second World War. Largely
because it belongs to a mannerwhich is protected. And so
anyway, it's a really diversewoodland, and it's got oak oak
(11:48):
dominated woodlands, with somenice unimproved Meadows
alongside that have conservationgrazing going on and a light
managed for wildlifeconservation. So wanted to check
that out, again, sort ofsurrounded by agricultural land,
by and large, but you know, in avery country countryside area,
as opposed to an urbanised area,so different. So again,
(12:11):
potential for different speciesor different kind of use of the
area. For that, butunfortunately, it was cold, and
a bit miserable, and we didn'tcatch much.
Steve Roe (12:23):
Yeah, this is my first time on jersey. So the
first night like Henry said, oneof the most biodiverse areas,
forgotten, there were redsquirrels on the islands, that
was really nice for me to say.
And yet the minute of thingsreally nice and lush and green,
we've had only been out on thepodcast in series one talking
about Jersey back group. Davidterms of the skill set, then,
(12:43):
you know, how many people in theback group? And what sort of
skills do you have? And whatsort of skills is missing and
lacking at the moment?
David Tipping (12:53):
I think that Liz is probably much better able to
answer that question.
Liz Walsh (12:59):
It was a range of skills and experience. So there
are members of that group thathave been involved in the the
advanced survey work for anumber of years, some of which
also have experienced trappingin South America and other
places. So there's, there's arange, but there's there's very
(13:20):
few. So what we wanted to doalso is also collaborate more
widely with the other channelislands. So recently, we held
our first Channel Island batforum and workshop to partly to
look at getting a Channel Islandwide, passive acoustic
monitoring scheme. So Henry haddone some pilot work on a J bats
(13:42):
scheme to follow on from I bats.
And when we were sort of lookingat that, it would just be so
much better if perhaps acrossthe Channel Islands, we were all
doing the same thing. So Josieis perhaps a little bit further
forward on its bat research thanthe other islands that don't
have quite the resources thatwe've had the bat work in
previous times. So across theother islands at the moment,
(14:05):
there's a baileywick bat surveyhappening, which is another
passive acoustic monitoringscheme that the BTO are
partnering with the Bailiwickgovernments to roll out so
they're in their third year thisyear, so they just kicking off
with all of their getting theirkits out to the volunteers to do
their acoustic research. So it'sa four year project. So now's a
(14:26):
really good time to be actuallycoming together to get a
research project that amonitoring project that will go
forward for all of the islandshopefully, which ideally would
also align quite well with the,the methodology that is being
used will be used in the UK aswell. So we've got more
(14:48):
comparable data going forward.
So we wanted to do somethingthat's more collaborative and
help. So open up theopportunities for people from
the other islands to see work isgoing on here. So to be able to
come and do emergent surveys ifwe, if we managed to buy these
(15:08):
elusive species and actuallymanaged to radio track them, so
to give them the volunteers fromboth jersey and the other
channel islands to get someradio tracking experience, we've
also got a couple of guys fromour Asian Hornet teams out
trapping with us at the moment,who have shown really keen
interest in learning about bats,which is really nice to see. But
(15:29):
they've been doing some trackingwork with the Asian Hornets to
be able to find out where theirkey nest sites are. So they can
destroy those nests or beingquite an invasive species. So
it's really nice to get thatdiversity and mix and
collaboration. Because we worktogether more, not just with the
(15:53):
back group, but the otherindividuals and NGOs that are on
the islands between us, we canwork far more effectively, by
collaborating and supportingeach other and learning from
each other. We've been somefantastic conversations going
on, on the fat sessions inbetween processing, and learn
(16:13):
lots about lots of differentspecies, we've got people with a
particular keen interest inmarine biology with us as well.
So it's been a really fantasticexperience.
Steve Roe (16:23):
And I guess what's the, you know, looking into the
future, then Dave, what's,what's your ideal vision for the
backs of Jersey in terms ofknowledge and conservation going
forwards?
David Tipping (16:34):
Ideally, would that they'd be the golden
ticket, that would be themonitoring strategy that enabled
us to do proper abundance anddiversity at you know, that's,
that's what we'd like. But Ithink that there's no chance
that there's one survey that'sgoing to do that, so. So that,
(16:57):
like, it's an interesting place,really, because we were so close
to France, you know, there's allsorts of potential for
migration, we're also on a routebetween the south of England and
France. So you know, continentalmigration wise, we're well well
placed, it would be nice tounderstand it, there's, there's
(17:21):
so much of it with bats that youcan get a bigger picture on, and
we we don't have that it wouldbe great, it would be great to
gain any knowledge on that,really. And there's a lot of
alignment between the islandshappening at the moment, as Les
was saying, we've also gotbiodiversity centres kind of
starting. Starting a morecollaborative approach across
(17:43):
the islands, you know, we'd goto using an underlying database
that will span the ChannelIslands, there's so much
opportunity to workcollaboratively like that.
That's including bats in on thatwould definitely be the place to
go.
Steve Roe (17:57):
And have you seen technology change over those
years? And, you know, thinkingback to when the back group
started 30 days, what changes?
Have you seen in the use oftechnology in survey methods?
Liz Walsh (18:07):
Well, the detectors have got a lot better, haven't
they? They're far moresensitive. And when the eye
bats, surveys first started off,we're using the time expansion
microphones, won't you, David.
And, you know, now with thedevelopment with good full
spectrum recording, for the lastfew years of the ibex project,
(18:27):
use both types. But obviously,you've got far more recordings
from the full spectrum. So youknow, one of the things that we
want to do when we design a newor agree the New Channel Islands
about monitoring scheme acousticmonitoring scheme, is to make
sure that we we get ourtechnology right at the start.
(18:48):
And, you know, obviously there'sthere's financial constraints,
but making sure that we've gotsomething that's is going to
stand the test of time, becauseany monitoring scheme is going
to need to go for a good numberof years to get that, you know,
reliable trend and be being berepeatable. But, you know, one
of the things that's we foundreally important with,
(19:09):
especially with the J bats,pilot projects and things is, is
that part, that communityscience element, the public
engagement factor of that can soeasily be underestimated. You
can really change people'sopinion and mindsets about bats.
They're such misunderstoodcreatures, and, you know, people
(19:31):
don't realise quite howimportant they are. And what
great indicator are, they areoff the health of your habitat.
So it you know, it's it's reallyimportant to have that community
element to a passive acousticmonitoring scheme. But that does
make it a little bit more trickyto make it that reproducibility
(19:52):
so it's this kind of balanceand, and that's what we're going
to be working together with theother channel islands to try Get
a scheme that gets the best ofall worlds as far as we possibly
can. But it's really early dayson that we're just starting to
set up a working party for that.
But as part of the, the corelibrary project, we've also had
(20:17):
an Earthwatch interns studentwith his last year. And he for
his project, he designed a roofswatch scheme. So again, that's
joining up with the biodiversityCentre, which is hosted on their
website. And it's justencouraging people to look for
the signs of a roost. So we'renot asking people to go and do a
(20:38):
recent inspection, because thatwouldn't be appropriate. But
just to go and look and see ifthey can find droppings and you
know, kids love to go lookingfor droppings and things, you
know, sitting outside in yourgarden on a nice sunny evening,
and just looking back at thehouse, and seeing if anything
flies out, you know, and loggingthose calls. And, you know, it's
(20:59):
early days, there was quite agood interaction in the first
year, but we're hoping to justkeep it keep the momentum going
on that and maybe develop alevel two surveys so that we can
then perhaps train up somevolunteers to perhaps do proper
emergence counts, and lend outsome detectors and, and kind of
move it up again, in the futureyears, but, you know, time and
(21:21):
resources, but yeah, we werehoping to do something like
that. So just improve that. Butthe public engagement bit is, is
so important, because if peoplelove their bats, then they're
much more aware of them whenthey need to do any work on
them, and make sure that theyget the appropriate support
before any developments andthings. So
Steve Roe (21:41):
you mentioned time and resources and financial
constraints. What challengescome with being on an island for
a bat group? What are thechallenges of a violent back
groups then?
Liz Walsh (21:53):
Training?
Steve Roe (21:54):
Yeah,
Liz Walsh (21:55):
yeah, it's, it's brilliant to have you guys here.
You know, it's really difficultto necessarily experience as
many species in a, in a shorttimeframe, we've got some very
experienced bat workers inJersey and some professional
ecologists, that obviously havethey're quite heavy workloads
(22:17):
and everything. But to get thatsort of diversity and skill set,
and to, you know, just learningfrom lots of different people is
really difficult. So, you know,to get all of that group off the
island, and, and to go trappingwith different organisations,
different groups andorganisations is really
expensive. And, you know, you'veseen with the weather yourselves
(22:39):
here today, you know, when you,you know, when you you've
arranged something like this,you are really down to the
elements. So there's a lot oftravel costs, accommodation
costs, all of those kinds ofthings that just add to it and
make it much more challenging toorganise. But it is a small
little island as well. So youknow, now we've got a bigger
(23:01):
diversity of bat workers, youknow, as their skill sets are
improving, you know, it's it'sgets, you know, difficult to
make sure that we're not doingtoo much work in different
areas. So again, thatcollaboration that close
working, you know, is reallyimportant. And, you know, it's
really good, but we've got some,you know, great skill people on
(23:22):
the island.
Steve Roe (23:24):
How large is the baggage and how many members
you've gotten on the activemembers. I mean, we've had about
1015 people out so far thisweek.
Liz Walsh (23:32):
I think there's from the ATM, which was a couple of
weeks ago, I think there'sprobably about 40 to 50 paid
members of that group. Butthere's not that many that are
active. So we've got a couple ofthe back group that have been
out most nights this session,including the treasurer and the
(23:52):
secretary, and a previousresearch officer was sat with us
tonight. But you know, we'realways after more people. And I
think the by the fact that we'verun this as a government project
on this occasion, it does openit up to people who aren't
actually members of that group.
So I'm hoping that byencouraging people from
(24:15):
different NGOs, with differentinterests of those that were
really just interested in theradio tracking, and now really
keen on that. So, you know,hopefully, that will help swell
the bat groups, resources. And,you know, some of the ecologists
from natural ecology have beenout on a few of the sessions as
well. So, you know, gave thegathering their expertise into
(24:36):
the back group will be reallygood as well. So if they've, but
it's, again, it's reallydifficult because ecologists are
really busy at the same time asthe back group need to be so you
know, it is difficult, buthopefully, this this helps to
swell their numbers.
Steve Roe (24:52):
So we've mentioned a few target species that are set
between the three of you. Canyou name all the species that
you've got on jersey or you'vehad on jersey and you Blood
records for no pressure.
Henry Glynn (25:05):
Anyone started going to circle?
Liz Walsh (25:09):
Do you want to start with a pipistrelles? David?
Okay,
David Tipping (25:11):
so we've got common we've got a few soprano,
I think, the
Liz Walsh (25:16):
calls and the Medusas. So that's the four
pipistrelles
Henry Glynn (25:20):
old record of savvy scripts drill a long time ago.
Yep.
Liz Walsh (25:27):
We've got at least one. Well, we've got one less a
horseshoe bat records a bitoccasionally. And we've got at
least two greater horseshoebats. And then we've got some
lovely long eared perhaps brownlongyear.
Henry Glynn (25:46):
Weightless on
Liz Walsh (25:48):
the Myotis. We've got your Benton's authority, but
have been dropping records ofbrands and I think we've got
letters we've got naturals we'vegot a nice fairly recent new
roost for naturals which is gotgood good numbers in which is
quite exciting. This recordSarah teens and there's I think
(26:12):
there's been there's been DNAfrom leisler. And when we
occasionally get acousticrecords that would look very
much like lies learned. And thenuptials quite debatable. We've
never had a nodule in the hand.
Not really sure we've really gotthe kind of habitat that not
sure, but there's no there areoccasional records, acoustic
records that sound reallyconvincingly like a nocturnal,
(26:35):
but who knows. Cuz, you know, weall know what acoustic
Henry Glynn (26:41):
I'm pretty sure some of the calls that I checked
from Jay Betts were confirmed isnot true. Yeah.
Liz Walsh (26:46):
I've had some that I've thought pass can't be
anything else. But you know, youknow what that's like, ya know,
like when we were Yeah. But theycould just be passing over
because, you know, which isanother reason why we really
want to work closely with theother back the other islands to
see what's what's going on. Soit's what's
Steve Roe (27:04):
that 17 species? I think that's what we just
counted up to.
Henry Glynn (27:07):
I wasn't counting
David Tipping (27:10):
I've heard rumour of 18. Yeah. What have we
missed? Do
Liz Walsh (27:14):
we Oh, yeah. The Jeff Royce. Yeah. How can we forget
our Jeff Royce? Yeah, so we'vehad Jeff Royce in the hand and
in a hibernation roost, whichwas really, really nice to see.
Steve Roe (27:27):
And what are your favourite roofs each
individually on the island ofyou've got favourite roofs that
you'd like to go and kill.
David Tipping (27:33):
So there's what I think is a 12 Century Gothic
chapel, covered in Wisteria onthe east of the islands, that
leaves down its woodland withsome ponds blowing, which is
stunning, beautiful place.
Liz Walsh (27:52):
I, I spent a lot of time with the hibernation
surveys. And that's kind of howI first got into bat work. So I
probably would go with the vastarray of German fortifications,
which many of which don't havemany bats in are very bad very
often. And they take an awfullot of survey hour per bat to
(28:16):
find but they're all interestingin a historical view as well as
as well as from the batperspective. But yeah, as
there's increasing levels ofdisturbance in these places,
unfortunately, the bat sightingsare becoming less frequent.
Henry Glynn (28:35):
I've got a favourite reason. I'm more of a
sort of wander around and lookat the sky and worrying about
the text or about the place.
Yeah, I don't like standingstill for too long. You're
Liz Walsh (28:44):
more of a woodland creature, aren't you? Yeah.
These are woodland specialists,I'd say more of a Myotis.
Steve Roe (28:54):
Who were chatting yesterday, me and Dave, we
weren't sure if you had recordsof autumn swarming in the
island.
Liz Walsh (29:00):
We have been trying to do some autumn swarming,
especially with that. And he wasdoing that when she was here.
She set up a hibernation andswarming project, which is what
the the hibernation studies wereassociated with. We've got very
limited amounts of swarmingactivity. There is a site that I
really liked to spend more timetrying to especially now we've
(29:22):
got the technology of thethermal imaging. And it's quite
a difficult site to accessthough, because it's a sort of
see Cliff SEK. So it doesn'tmean sort of scrambling down the
side of the the side of thecliff face and and perching
oneself on a precarious spot. Sonot really ideal for a harp
(29:46):
trap. Although I'm sure with theright will and equipment and
volunteers, we could potentiallydo that. But I think just purely
from a point of view withdetectors and thermal cameras.
If get a decent night It'saround swapping time that the
wind conditions and the weatherand the rain are in our favour
would be something to do. Butthose elements haven't all come
(30:08):
together for me in recent years,unfortunately, but it is the one
on the radar but yeah, there'sthere's occasional pips swarming
activity, one site where I'vebeen monitoring a natural roost
late in the season. But it'sonly a couple of individuals, I
really don't know what goes onwith our pipistrelles in the
(30:29):
winter. The back group have gotsome detectors out one in the
east and one on the west, whichare left out year round. And
obviously, the number of filesreally dies down in the winter.
But particularly the one in theWest, which is in a lovely bit
of woodland, close to a coupleof German fortifications, you
(30:52):
get a reasonable amount ofMyotis activity. So you know,
it's quite exciting becauseyou're not having to plough
through tonnes and tonnes andtonnes of common pipistrelle
files, to find the Myotis. A lotof them are sort of hidden away
and noise files for the brain aswell. So they seem to be quite
hardy, and we'll be flyingaround quite a lot during the
(31:15):
winter, but, you know, justdon't know enough about about
them. They just need loads moreresearch to do. So I think with
our passive acoustic monitoringgoing forward, we really nice to
have an element that is also inthe winter, as well as during
the summer months just to see,see what's really going on.
Steve Roe (31:36):
Great stuff. Dave, Henry and Liz. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Massive Thanks toDave to pink, Liz Walsh and
Henry Glenn for taking the timeto sit down and chat with me and
to the other Jersey back groupmembers. I had the pleasure of
spending time with that week.
We've put a link in the shownotes to the Jersey bat group.
And if you'd like to find outmore about your local bank
(31:57):
group, check out the link whichwill put you in touch with the
nearest group so that you canget involved with things going
on near you. We'll be back intwo weeks time So until then,
I'll leave you with the sound ofan early summer's evening on the
island of Jersey.
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