December 27, 2023 • 32 mins
Send us a Text Message with what batty adventures you’ve been up to this summer!
S5E50 On the edge of Kidderminster lies Hurcott Pool and Wood Nature Reserve. An old boathouse on the edge of the pool has been repurposed by Worcestershire Bat Group and a few minutes away lies Lea Castle Village where the street lighting has been designed with bats at the forefront of its design. We join bat group members Cody Levine and Matthew Terry on a summer evening at the end of July.
- Watch a video of the boathouse on YouTube
- Discover more about Worcestershire Bat Group and follow them on twitter, facebook and Instagram
- Take a look at the Wyre Forest page on Hurcott.
- Read about the Lea Castle Village and how Worcestershire County Council are rolling out red street lighting across the county.
- Discover your local bat group
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve Roe (00:06):
Hello, and you're listening to the award winning
podcast from the BatConservation Trust BatChat where
we take you out into the fieldto discover the world of Bats
ConservationYes, hello This podcast is for
anyone with a fascination in theamazing nocturnal mammals that
fill our skies at night. Andwe're back continuing with
(00:28):
series five through the festiveseason. If you don't know by
now, episodes are released everyother Wednesday from now until
the spring. If you're new toBatChat, welcome along. I'm
Steve Roe. I'm an ecologist andin my spare time a trustee for
the Bat Conservation Trust. Thissummer in late July, I had the
pleasure of heading to thecounty of Worcestershire to meet
with members from Worcestershirebat group, two locations very
(00:49):
close to each other. The secondof those locations was the new
housing development where thestreet lighting has had that's
at the very forefront of itsdesign. But before that, our
first guest, Cody Levine isgoing to introduce where we're
headed and what was stoodoutside.
Cody Levine (01:08):
Hi, so this is Hurcott bat house. And Hurcott
is a ward on the side ofKidderminster in northern
Worcestershire, where the sideof Hurcott Lake, which is a SSSI
and local nature reserve, ispart of a manmade landscape from
the late 18th century andbelongs to the manor house,
(01:29):
which we can't actually see onthe other side of this gorgeous
Lake. But that manor house goesback to the sort of 14th century
and I'm leaning against aboathouse that was constructed
in the mid 19th century part ofa trend in the 19th century for
people to build these thesemanmade landscapes where they go
out fishing and boating, andit's been running into disrepair
(01:53):
over the last decades. The lakeitself is looking fantastic now,
but also recently went throughperiods of drying up the EAA
have put in some variable damsjust a little bit further
upstream that's starting toreplicate some sort of seasonal
inundation so that HimalayanBalsam is dying back and we're
(02:14):
now seeing some really niceground floor
Steve Roe (02:17):
and the and the wider areas, it's all part of a nature
reserve, isn't it? Is it open tothe public? You know, is it used
by dog walkers or is it privateland?
Cody Levine (02:26):
Yeah, it's really popular nature reserve. It's a
triplet sign local naturereserve, really well used. It
feels like we're in deepcountryside here. But we're
actually just on the edge ofKidderminster, which is quite a
heavily built settlement wasinteresting from from my point
of view, we're interested in thestrategic value for biodiversity
(02:48):
of the site, and it's one of twoor three really big blue green
corridors that connect the opencountryside off to the east and
they run through to the weststraight into into
Kidderminster, this forms partof the brook that goes through
Padmore pools, which is alsopart of the triple Si, and then
that connects to the riverstauer and the Canal, which runs
(03:09):
north south throughKidderminster and that's bounded
by pucks to Marsh triplesafe Tothe North will demolish
triplesafe to the south. Soyou've got this fantastic
network of blue and green linearfeatures. You wouldn't know it
when you drive throughKidderminster, it looks like a
pretty urban environment. Butyou've got these incredible,
really valuable ecologicalcorridors for wildlife. And
(03:31):
we're really standing in ahoneypot of one at the moment.
Steve Roe (03:34):
Here like Cody said, as I've travelled down the six
plus the MCS tollen, then on tothe M six here, and it got very
green, very quick, all of asudden, and Quick Left turn onto
a little lane and there was onlya two minute drive down the lane
to where we are to where we arenow. Cody, are you involved with
the bat group? Is this comesabout as part of your
professional work? How have yougot involved with doing the work
(03:56):
here at the boathouse,
Cody Levine (03:57):
a little bit of both. So I'm involved in the
back group. I'm one of thecounty ecologists at the county
council as well. And I've gotsome very good colleagues who
work for the district councilwho manage this nature reserve.
So the range of team here we'reresponsible for public safety
and for the biodiversity thesite's this building had fallen
(04:17):
into disrepair. And it was thesort of structure that I think
probably attracted young nearwill do well as probably have
done the same as yourself as akid and they've been scrambling
over it and whatnot, and thatthere was a chance that someone
was going to injure themselves.
So the Rangers had been taskedwith making it safe, they put a
business case together to showthat it actually cost more or
less the same. To make thestructure safe, put a new roof
(04:39):
on it and secure it and turn itinto something useful for
wildlife as it would to knock itall down and remove everything
from the site. So bless them ona fantastic look at the bill. So
Steve Roe (04:50):
we're looking at from the back back of the building
where the pathway is it lookslike it's quite a small
structure, but as you walk downto the front of it, the ground
slopes away and it's all Almosta two storey building as a big
it's pretty Bell Building with awith a pitched roof. And there's
a lock doorway that was still infront of lots of bad access
points that we can see youthere's North about bricks, bad
(05:12):
access bricks, as a vents andwildlife just or Colin Morris
style wedge box at the apex, aswell as quite a large opening
about halfway up, which I'massuming is for horseshoes. Have
you got horseshoes in thecounty?
Cody Levine (05:26):
We do. There's a little story about that, which
is really one of my measures ofsuccess for this thing. I was
three things that I reallywanted to see happen with this
project. And the first one wasto get it over the line. Anyone
who's had builders, it knows howdifficult it is getting the
project from beginning to end.
And this one on many, manyoccasions didn't look like it
was going to come through. Soagain, why forest District
(05:47):
Council Rangers are absolutelystars. And they made this
happen. So absolute kudos tothem. Second thing was really
about raising awareness andeducation about bats and bat
conservation. And I think it'sbeen successful. We've had loads
of public bat walks from therangers here and loads of
activities from that from thebat group. They've been
(06:07):
monitoring it for about a decadeor so. And the third thing is
really about less thanhorseshoes. Yes, you spotted it
straightaway with with thehopper at the front there. So
we've got about 16 differentspecies of bat in
Worcestershire, we've recordedabout 10 of those species at
least here in her cot. When Istarted at the county council
about 15 years or so ago,horseshoe bats are my absolute
(06:29):
favourite, you had to gosomewhere if you wanted to pick
them up reliably. And thattended to be south end of the
county, maybe more than hillswhere there was a decent
stronghold of lesser horseshoestill is and an increasing
number of greater horseshoesfrom that direction as well or
over towards the Cotswold ofScotland. Over the course of the
last decade, we've seen a sweepof Horseshoe records coming
(06:51):
north across the county. Andthat might be from climate
change, it could be the factthat species are recovering. It
was 2012 I think it was that westarted picking up records of
lesser horseshoes from a siteless than half a mile from here.
And this is at the very northernend of the county. So it was a
real outlier from everywhereelse that we knew we've got this
a horseshoe. So we were quiteexcited about that. So one of
(07:12):
the measures of tests for me wascould we tempt those horseshoes
from that site across a litroad? So what's effectively a
honeypot site? So yeah, that wasthat was what we were hoping to
see done the moment we finishedwork here. So
Steve Roe (07:30):
just before we go in, first of all, when did the
project start? And just how mucheffort has it taken to get it
where it is today? You know, howhow long did that process take?
Cody Levine (07:41):
By far the most difficult because the getting
the money and getting all of thefish and slips in place, and the
Rangers did all of that work forus the back group, we we helped
advise we supported the backgroup members came down here in
2018. And we did a presenceabsence survey just to make sure
that there was nothing roostingin it. And it was pretty
knackered at that stage, therewasn't much for any bats to
(08:03):
roost in. So we knew that wewere okay over winter 2018 A
firm local firm came in andreroofed it this wall that I'm
leaning against was rebuilt, Iput the foundations for this in
myself, which was first time Itried to be mortar and bricks.
And that that winter we lockedit and walked away that oh, the
back group made a donationyou'll see of the bat boxes in
(08:26):
there. We've we've paid for. Weput an application into the Bat
Conservation Trust for theirpartner group support funder.
We're very grateful that wewe've got much funding from
that. Thank you, Lisa, if you'rethere. And that was also matched
by a contribution from theDistrict Council and the county
council donated my time and alsothe monitoring, that monitors
(08:47):
that are in there as well. Thenwe went to wild care, and they
very kindly listened to me flapmy gums about the conservation
project, and offered us asizable discount on the bat
boxes. So again, thank you toWildCare for making this
possible.
Steve Roe (09:03):
Brilliant. And you we say it's a boathouse actually,
we're quite far from the edge ofthe lake here, you know,
historically, was the lake rightup to the doorway was it been
used for other things in thepast? Yeah, we
Cody Levine (09:13):
would have been standing in the nice water.
That's how much the levels havechanged to
Steve Roe (09:17):
have a look inside.
So Cody's on the sensible thinghas come prepared with a torch
as I've left my head torch inthe car. And it's really quite
large inside. Probably fourmetres high. There's a nice
sandy floor and we can see rightup to the to the underside of
(09:38):
the tiles. And in front of us issomething that's going to be
quite familiar to a lot of batecologist and bat workers. It's
events and wildlife just style,less a horseshoe call tower and
you just want to describe whatthey are what they're designed
for coding. Sure.
Cody Levine (09:54):
Yeah. Okay, so this is breezeblock construction.
It's about head height and Arectangular, it's split into
three or four differentchambers. There is a window like
opening, so bats could fly in.
And the idea is it's going totrap cool damp air inside and
create lots of little separateleashes where they'll hopefully
(10:17):
overwinter. It's designed tosort of replicate a cave, steady
humidity and temperature. Sowhat we're trying to do here is
create an opportunity for themto spend winter and just above
us, there's opportunities forthem to spend summer as well.
Steve Roe (10:33):
Yeah, so just talk about this. So in the middle of
the roof, we've got a,essentially a box that looks
like a miniature attic. What'sit constructed often, and sort
of how large is it and what'sthe purpose then,
Cody Levine (10:45):
it looks like a large dog kennel. It's not for
flying dogs. It's plywood,triangular, planes of Flyboard
lined with cork inside. And theidea with this is and again,
it's from the lesson horse shoeconservation handbook is to try
and trap the warm air Warm airrises up to the to the roof
avoid. And what we're trying todo here is capture it and create
(11:07):
a nice environment for maternitywrists. So this will be
hopefully where the bats havecome and give birth and hang out
in the summer. So we're justtrying to create as many
different niches for them tofill their their lifecycle with
as possible.
Steve Roe (11:21):
And if any listeners have been on to various websites
and gone shopping for bat boxes,it's like walking into one of
those websites and actuallyseeing all the different
possible types of apples you canbuy in real life is like a
showroom. What sort of boxeshave we got here codeine? Are
they for different species?
Cody Levine (11:37):
Yeah, we've got a little bit of everything. So
we've got some Kent style boxes.
And I like the fact that theback group members who have come
in and monitor them havescrolled their name on that's my
daughter's name on one overthere. So she comes in here and
check these boxes periodically.
We've got some Schwegler styleboxes here would create style
boxes. Those are great atkeeping the heat in, we've got
(12:01):
some more wedge style boxes, theVincent style ones over there.
And then we've also got thesethese are quite interesting.
They replicate mortise and tenonjoints. So these tend to be used
by Myotis. I think they're quitelike those little cavities
inside. So we've got a few ofthose as well. And
Steve Roe (12:20):
then Cody, what sort of access points, you know, once
the doors shut, it's actuallyreally dark in here one of the
access points where bats canactually get inside this
building, we've
Cody Levine (12:28):
got four different access points, we got to try and
balance that because we didn'twant through draft. So we got to
try and reduce it to what we'rethink's likely to be used. We've
got this hopper above the door,which has got this baffle behind
it that tries to trap a littlebit of the wind, just to the
side of that I'm not sure youcan see it from inside there is
an access brick. And that goesthrough a sort of twin leaf
(12:51):
wall. And then we've closed theeaves down almost all the way
around the building becauseotherwise we'll get some numpty
trying to stick something andjust above head height, you
can't reach it. But you can justabout see from the outside on
both sides, you've got someaccess at the eaves point there
so bats could fly in and out.
And then lastly, there is one ortwo raise rich tiles which is
above this rich plate, you willbe able to see the light coming
(13:15):
in very easily from here but thebats could if they wanted to
either roost on top of that richplate or flip out of the raised
ritual. And
Steve Roe (13:24):
you've got no under filter on this on tonight of
these tiles. Was that aconscious decision to make it
easy for the rats to find theway in? Yeah,
Cody Levine (13:30):
a little bit of both. We didn't want to put a
membrane in here because wecould reduce the cost. And also
we thought we didn't need it
Steve Roe (13:38):
since the project's been completed so you say we
will chat in the carpark earlierthe project's been completed for
about the last three, threeyears or so. Have you had any
evidence of actually using it sofar? About
Cody Levine (13:49):
four or five weeks after we close the security
doors and Ron the the batdetectors came back and found
that there were less a horseshoebats fluttering around inside it
periodically that they come inand spend a couple of nights and
then disappear again. So we knowthat they're using it probably
as a satellite roost, maybemaybe as a feeding perch, but
(14:13):
because the very quiet callsvery directional calls, the
chances of them being outsidethe bat house are absolutely
negligible down but debriscoming in here and using it. So
there's that we did a couple ofemergency surveys and we've seen
pepper sterols and brownlongbeards. Moving around, we've
seen one less a horseshoehanging up in here once and just
by your feet. There are somefresh bat droppings on the floor
(14:35):
so we know that over the lastcouple of nights and all
likelihood we've had somevisitors here to spreading
Steve Roe (14:41):
that so even within the last you know within weeks
you say of days of closing upthe bats already found it. I
know you started using it soclearly there's a need for for
this sort of thing in the widerarea. If there are people with
projects like this or backgroups with projects like this
and they've got disusedbuildings and and there's the
opportunity It's a What wouldyou say to those groups to try
(15:02):
and coach them to take theplunge and actually actually put
the hard work in? Oh
Cody Levine (15:06):
god, you absolutely do it. This. This, I think
demonstrates that conservationjust needs the resources,
people's time and effort andthat there is funding out there
if you can bid for it, get it,do it. There's knowledge and
expertise out there to tap intoso talk to people who have done
it already. And you know,wildlife is crying out for some
help. If you can find anotheropportunity like this sees it.
Steve Roe (15:31):
So we've come back outside and Cody, we're just
explaining that immediatelyoutside, there's a very small
space before we get intobrambles in the in the
vegetation down to the edge ofthe lake. And there's quite a
few Silver birch trees that werethat were stood outside and
Katie was saying that theRangers are about to do some
thinning of these or at leasthaloing. What sort of management
have you got in mind for thelong term is there any sort of
(15:53):
long term management plan forthe for the site,
Cody Levine (15:55):
or the the Rangers manage is 50 hectare nature
reserve and they areprogressively removing the
amount of conifer on here andincreasing the broadleaf. And
there's some really nice bits ofwoodland up on the top of the
hill, which I can show youoriginally I was reticent about
taking down any trees aroundhere. I will just try and get as
much cover a close to the to theinsurance as possible. And I
think that was probably mymistake, because the horseshoes
(16:16):
found it pretty much straightaway, didn't they? So the next
thing really is trying to makethis as suitable as possible for
them. And the Rangers said,let's let's get more sunlight on
the roof. So yeah, they'llthey'll take some of these trees
down. And I think that mightmake it more suitable inside the
hot box as well. Here's thething I was going to ask you if
you wanted to see that site thatI mentioned half a mile away. So
Steve Roe (16:37):
at this point, Cody and I jumped in his car and left
the other bank group members toget set up ready for the
emergent survey of the boathousewhilst we took the four minute
drive across her carts to thenew Lee Castle Village
Development, which became thefirst homes England site to gain
build with nature accreditation.
And a really short drive awayfrom her caught nature reserve.
Katie just bought us to a newbuild development than ever,
(17:00):
which was escaping already. Thisis certainly Castle, which is
been developed by Linden homes,and Katie's brought me here
because it's received somenational recognition in the form
of its lighting. So the mainroad is lit with what looked
like normal LED street lamps,lamp posts, like lighting
columns. But Cody tells me thatthese are a bright red lights.
(17:22):
And that's because it's a homesEngland project. And they came
to you guys at the council toask for advice on how to get
this through to planning youwere saying,
Cody Levine (17:34):
Yeah, that's right.
So was the show we areparticularly interested in
linear corridors for ecology andtrying to make sure that we
avoid fragmentation of those byeffects like street lighting.
And we knew that this particularsite just around the corner from
her car got horseshoe bats, aswell as a number of other
species. So when it came to bebuilt out, what we wanted to
(17:55):
make sure was that theresidential lighting had to be
safe for residents had to besafer, drivers have to be safe
for people coming to visit thesites. But we also want to make
sure that the bats we're stillgoing to use it afterwards. So
one of the solutions from theoriginal solution was to try and
maintain dark corridors. Andbecause this is a main spine
roads, because we got busesgoing to come up and down here
(18:16):
that that's not safer for peopleto use, we couldn't do that. We
tried to look at individualcorridors of darkness in between
otherwise lit spine road. Butthen what you have is people
driving from light to dark tolight. And again, that's just
not safe enough to comply withhighway standards. So what we
have here is a compromise. Theselights are as bright as normal
street lights, but they aremonochromatic red. And there's
(18:39):
some studies done in Europe thatseems suggest that for species
like Brown, longer bats and somemeiosis species, they act much
the same in darkness as they doin red light. So we're hoping
that with these lights, therisks that have been found from
those species on sites will notbe deterred. from continuing to
use these lovely corridors, youcan see these big blocks of
(19:01):
woodland on either side of theroad. So that the reason why the
bats continue to cross the road,so they'll still be here. But
now we'll have people living andenjoying the site as well. We
saw some of them on a recent batwalk her carts, who said they've
moved in here because they knewit was good for bats. So that's
I think, winning for everyone.
Steve Roe (19:21):
Yeah, and you were saying in the car, you were
quite worried originally, interms of winning the site has
been developed whether peopleactually want to move here. But
it's the site still indevelopment. The first phase has
been done. There's all thehouses are, are in occupation,
and the rest of the site hasbeen developed at the moment.
But you were saying when youwalk down here, and you were
worried that people are going tolike the unlit streets
(19:41):
themselves in You said that'snot happened Touchwood
Cody Levine (19:43):
it's not happened yet. No. So people seem to
understand why bits are dark,and they clearly support the
agenda.
Steve Roe (19:50):
And as we've driven down the site, Katie's points
that are on the edge of somesemi ancient natural woodland,
and where we're stood at themoment on the main road in
there's a A decent block ofwoodlands line in the site.
surveys were presumably doneprior to the to the work has
been done. Cody what sort ofspecies were found on site?
Cody Levine (20:10):
Oh from memory I think they had common and
soprano peps Bran longbeards.
There were the usual nocciolaoccasional BBs still, I think
pottering around Myotis. Andbrown longer were roosting on
site as whether less a horseuser originally, I think there
was a series of undergroundstructures. So the developer
here, very proactive, veryinnovative, they've worked with
(20:31):
the District Council and thecounty council, in finding
compensation mitigationstrategies for the for the
batteries on site and linkingthose to make sure that you've
still got that connectivity. Nowearlier, I was talking about
those blue green corridors andhow important they are for
wildlife. So maintaining thosecorridors, both inside the site
and connecting to thesurrounding landscape. So I
think they've done as good asthey can. And they've achieved a
(20:55):
Building With Nature water, agreen infrastructure award for
that work as well.
Steve Roe (21:00):
And given the successful the popularity of
this different licencestrategies, it's something that
was to show a look into to rollout on a county wide scale to
you know,
Cody Levine (21:10):
so it's something that we're already thinking
about, we are replacing ourtraditional lighting stocks on
the main roads here, we haverecently undergone an upgrade of
about 10,000 LED lanterns, rapidled upgrade project, that was a
spend to save because of theenergy saving that we can make
by transferring from oldlighting stock to new, we knew
(21:31):
that introducing light, changingthe light, rather, where it was
already lit could have an effecton wildlife. But similarly, we
could use the sort of mitigationlighting mitigation to reduce
the effect that lighting ourmain roads already has, we're
not going to get the opportunityto Unlight our main roads for
safety, obviously, but what wecan do is switch inside woodland
(21:52):
corridors or overwater coursesand use warmer wavelengths of
light. If not for bats, then byremoving the blue light content
of the lights. We're reducingthe phototactic effect on
invertebrates. So we'reprotecting the food webs inside
ecological networks.
Steve Roe (22:08):
Brilliant, and we'll put a link to more information
about lightning fun to the BCTwebsite as well. So Katie,
thanks very much for forbringing us a very short drive
of a mere four minutes fromsite. So thanks for that. My
thanks to Cody for taking thetime to do that interview,
especially since he was feelingunder the weather. Back at the
hercog pools and wood naturereserve. I joined fellow Bat
Conservation Trust trusteeMatthew Terry. So I've left Cody
(22:31):
back at the boathouse and I'vecome a little bit further along
the path to a little lookoutpoint with some benches
overlooking local pool and I'msitting with the Chair of
Westeros back group MatthewTerry. Matthew, how long have
you been involved with thatconservation? And what's the
history of Worcester Shabbatgroup?
Matthew Terry (22:50):
Well, the history of Worcestershire bat group goes
back to the 80s. I got into batsin about 2014 2015 When my wife
started a job as a librarian ata local school, and no one told
her it was a maternity roosts ofsoprano pipistrelles, she found
out one day when she came in inMay, and there was a lot of
scrambling in the roof. And thatjust sparked curiosity for both
(23:14):
of us. And it went from there.
We went into backcare. So we didbackcare for three or four
years. And that was incredibleto be so close to Tibet so
quickly, even though it is youknow, it can be quite stressful,
quite something to take on. Andthen I did burst into his chair.
And then COVID hit. And now I'mback as chair again.
Steve Roe (23:40):
Great stuff. And how many members does the group
have? And what sort ofactivities apart from the risk
count? We're doing head start onboathouse? What sort of other
activities do you guys doalongside this? And things like
backcare.
Matthew Terry (23:55):
Things have changed a lot since COVID. It's
a bit boring to bang on aboutCOVID. But it really did sort of
tear the heart out of localwildlife groups, generally, I
suppose. And it's been quite astruggle to get it back up and
running. People have graduallystarted to emerge and come along
to events. So we're still inthat growth phase, I suppose.
(24:15):
But we've got 100 members now,which which I think is really
healthy. We're doing bat walks.
And some talks, we started a newproject in the Y forest, working
with the Y community land trust,to try and encourage local
people to gather more records ofwildlife more generally,
someone's lost his dog behind.
(24:36):
You can pick that up. And I'mhoping to do something more
substantial around records,possibly an atlas of bats in the
county as a longer term projectat MDMP. We do a really nice
countless of horseshoes everyyear that Chrome caught which is
(24:57):
National Trust properties. JustOne of the most spectacular
places you can go to see bits ofan evening. So a bit of
everything really.
Steve Roe (25:05):
Matthews just casually dropping in Croome
Court there which has got, howmany lesser horseshoes these
days?
Matthew Terry (25:11):
Oh goodness. Oh, I should know because we've just
done three counts. And I can'tthink it's I think it's about
150 101 site and about 50. Theother
Steve Roe (25:20):
so many is just blase.
Matthew Terry (25:23):
Yeah, and in two sites, one is an orangery and
old I think it's sort ofGeorgian greenhouse, which is
quite spectacular. And the otherone is the complete opposite.
It's a blacked out x 1950s RAFairbase. So yeah, it's an
amazing place to see. To see andhear wishes.
Steve Roe (25:45):
They one of the first times I saw and heard lesser
horseshoes was we did a did likea mass expedition from
Derbyshire bat group down tovisit these guys down in, in
Worcestershire, and they're verywelcoming. And yeah, we've
helped them count cannabis down.
And that was 15 years ago. Nowsomething like that was a long
time ago. So it's nice to knowthat, that that site is still
being monitored. In terms ofWorcestershire on the map is
(26:08):
quite a big County, what sort ofarea does it cover? You know,
what sort of landmarks willpeople recognise in the county?
Matthew Terry (26:18):
Well, I'm going to do landmarks by backs,
probably. But if you start atthe north, we've got y forest,
which is still, you know, anancient woodland. Still pretty
sizable. Probably not that wellcovered recently for bat
records. And that's one of thereasons we're doing, we're keen
to do this work with the widercommunity land trust. So that's
(26:42):
a good place to start. We've gotthe river seven that comes
through, pretty much runs allthe way through the county. I
only know the north of thecounty really, I mean, one of
the challenges of the bat group,the bat group has is the county
is just so big, trying to getevents and activities run across
the county is really, reallydifficult tends to depend on
(27:03):
where people live as to wherethe activity is. The seven is a
great location for for bats. Andthen travelling down the seventh
to the middle of Worcestershire,you've got Worcester itself was
to city and the big draw theresorry to bang on about horror
shows but it's the it's thewhole show roost under right
under the Worcester cathedral.
It's not huge. So it's a it's ait's a hibernation was done to
(27:27):
the cathedral and then amaternity roost in one of the I
think it's the bishop's palaceat the Cathedral. So there's
lots of Horseshoe activitythere. And that's particularly
interesting because it's rightin the heart of a city and, you
know, it's quite unique to haveall shoes right in the heart of
the city, I think. And they theyforage over the over the river
(27:49):
on the meadows. And then what Iknow less about is the Malvern
hills. So there are bats thereare some I've done some I've was
taken on a midnight scramblethrough the through the wooded
steep inclines of of Northernhills just before COVID about
(28:10):
2019 Looking for barbastellesplenty of other styles there and
again there are a whole shoeroosts in the tunnels that go
under the under
Steve Roe (28:21):
the hills. It has shown up now.
Matthew Terry (28:24):
I mean we are to use a you know an Instagram term
we are blessed for with thenumber of species we've got
here. I think don't quote mealthough you are quoting me it's
about 15 species we've we've hadrecorded in Worcestershire which
is just you know, absolutelygreat. The ones we don't have we
(28:46):
don't have great horseshoes asfar as I'm aware. That's the
only sort of major species thatwe that we haven't got in the
county as far as I'm aware. And
Steve Roe (28:55):
the wind is just picking up as the moons very
picturesque Lee rising over thetops of the trees and it's just
about going dark enough then I'mexpecting to see a pipistrelle
or something or other to sliparound the corner these oak
trees that were sand an eighthSo shall we go and help the guys
count out the house thereMatthew Yeah let's go
I can see a pip over there inthe distance good too far for
(29:22):
you guys to pick it up hereright. It's just been kicking
around here. So that's in thecounty you guys go through your
fears.
Unknown (29:59):
One
Steve Roe (30:57):
So there's a number of volunteers. Here tonight
counting the bats out of theboathouse and you can hear that
there's not chosen come come apepper chosen Spanner
pipistrelles floating about justsqueezing down. Just squeezing
down the side of the boathousewhere Charlene and Leah here,
(31:20):
you had a tonne of guys. Nothingcoming out. I think flying
around a lot got gotten knockedover in my circles thanks to
Cody Matthew and the other wasto Chabad group members, you can
watch a video showing the hercogbat house on YouTube. We've put
a link in the show notes, alongwith links to more information
(31:42):
about the red lighting scheme atthe Lee Castle Village
Development. And if you'd liketo find out more about your
local bank group, there's a linkin the show notes which will
take you to your closest BankGroup's website so you can see
what your local group is up to.
Whilst during this festiveperiod. We'd really appreciate
it if you could please tell theworld about Batchat on your
social media channels. We'll beback in two weeks time So until
then, Happy New Year.
Hello, and you're listening to the award winning
podcast from the BatConservation Trust BatChat where
we take you out into the fieldto discover the world of Bats
ConservationYes, hello This podcast is for
anyone with a fascination in theamazing nocturnal mammals that
fill our skies at night. Andwe're back continuing with
(00:28):
series five through the festiveseason. If you don't know by
now, episodes are released everyother Wednesday from now until
the spring. If you're new toBatChat, welcome along. I'm
Steve Roe. I'm an ecologist andin my spare time a trustee for
the Bat Conservation Trust. Thissummer in late July, I had the
pleasure of heading to thecounty of Worcestershire to meet
with members from Worcestershirebat group, two locations very
(00:49):
close to each other. The secondof those locations was the new
housing development where thestreet lighting has had that's
at the very forefront of itsdesign. But before that, our
first guest, Cody Levine isgoing to introduce where we're
headed and what was stoodoutside.
Cody Levine (01:08):
Hi, so this is Hurcott bat house. And Hurcott
is a ward on the side ofKidderminster in northern
Worcestershire, where the sideof Hurcott Lake, which is a SSSI
and local nature reserve, ispart of a manmade landscape from
the late 18th century andbelongs to the manor house,
(01:29):
which we can't actually see onthe other side of this gorgeous
Lake. But that manor house goesback to the sort of 14th century
and I'm leaning against aboathouse that was constructed
in the mid 19th century part ofa trend in the 19th century for
people to build these thesemanmade landscapes where they go
out fishing and boating, andit's been running into disrepair
(01:53):
over the last decades. The lakeitself is looking fantastic now,
but also recently went throughperiods of drying up the EAA
have put in some variable damsjust a little bit further
upstream that's starting toreplicate some sort of seasonal
inundation so that HimalayanBalsam is dying back and we're
(02:14):
now seeing some really niceground floor
Steve Roe (02:17):
and the and the wider areas, it's all part of a nature
reserve, isn't it? Is it open tothe public? You know, is it used
by dog walkers or is it privateland?
Cody Levine (02:26):
Yeah, it's really popular nature reserve. It's a
triplet sign local naturereserve, really well used. It
feels like we're in deepcountryside here. But we're
actually just on the edge ofKidderminster, which is quite a
heavily built settlement wasinteresting from from my point
of view, we're interested in thestrategic value for biodiversity
(02:48):
of the site, and it's one of twoor three really big blue green
corridors that connect the opencountryside off to the east and
they run through to the weststraight into into
Kidderminster, this forms partof the brook that goes through
Padmore pools, which is alsopart of the triple Si, and then
that connects to the riverstauer and the Canal, which runs
(03:09):
north south throughKidderminster and that's bounded
by pucks to Marsh triplesafe Tothe North will demolish
triplesafe to the south. Soyou've got this fantastic
network of blue and green linearfeatures. You wouldn't know it
when you drive throughKidderminster, it looks like a
pretty urban environment. Butyou've got these incredible,
really valuable ecologicalcorridors for wildlife. And
(03:31):
we're really standing in ahoneypot of one at the moment.
Steve Roe (03:34):
Here like Cody said, as I've travelled down the six
plus the MCS tollen, then on tothe M six here, and it got very
green, very quick, all of asudden, and Quick Left turn onto
a little lane and there was onlya two minute drive down the lane
to where we are to where we arenow. Cody, are you involved with
the bat group? Is this comesabout as part of your
professional work? How have yougot involved with doing the work
(03:56):
here at the boathouse,
Cody Levine (03:57):
a little bit of both. So I'm involved in the
back group. I'm one of thecounty ecologists at the county
council as well. And I've gotsome very good colleagues who
work for the district councilwho manage this nature reserve.
So the range of team here we'reresponsible for public safety
and for the biodiversity thesite's this building had fallen
(04:17):
into disrepair. And it was thesort of structure that I think
probably attracted young nearwill do well as probably have
done the same as yourself as akid and they've been scrambling
over it and whatnot, and thatthere was a chance that someone
was going to injure themselves.
So the Rangers had been taskedwith making it safe, they put a
business case together to showthat it actually cost more or
less the same. To make thestructure safe, put a new roof
(04:39):
on it and secure it and turn itinto something useful for
wildlife as it would to knock itall down and remove everything
from the site. So bless them ona fantastic look at the bill. So
Steve Roe (04:50):
we're looking at from the back back of the building
where the pathway is it lookslike it's quite a small
structure, but as you walk downto the front of it, the ground
slopes away and it's all Almosta two storey building as a big
it's pretty Bell Building with awith a pitched roof. And there's
a lock doorway that was still infront of lots of bad access
points that we can see youthere's North about bricks, bad
(05:12):
access bricks, as a vents andwildlife just or Colin Morris
style wedge box at the apex, aswell as quite a large opening
about halfway up, which I'massuming is for horseshoes. Have
you got horseshoes in thecounty?
Cody Levine (05:26):
We do. There's a little story about that, which
is really one of my measures ofsuccess for this thing. I was
three things that I reallywanted to see happen with this
project. And the first one wasto get it over the line. Anyone
who's had builders, it knows howdifficult it is getting the
project from beginning to end.
And this one on many, manyoccasions didn't look like it
was going to come through. Soagain, why forest District
(05:47):
Council Rangers are absolutelystars. And they made this
happen. So absolute kudos tothem. Second thing was really
about raising awareness andeducation about bats and bat
conservation. And I think it'sbeen successful. We've had loads
of public bat walks from therangers here and loads of
activities from that from thebat group. They've been
(06:07):
monitoring it for about a decadeor so. And the third thing is
really about less thanhorseshoes. Yes, you spotted it
straightaway with with thehopper at the front there. So
we've got about 16 differentspecies of bat in
Worcestershire, we've recordedabout 10 of those species at
least here in her cot. When Istarted at the county council
about 15 years or so ago,horseshoe bats are my absolute
(06:29):
favourite, you had to gosomewhere if you wanted to pick
them up reliably. And thattended to be south end of the
county, maybe more than hillswhere there was a decent
stronghold of lesser horseshoestill is and an increasing
number of greater horseshoesfrom that direction as well or
over towards the Cotswold ofScotland. Over the course of the
last decade, we've seen a sweepof Horseshoe records coming
(06:51):
north across the county. Andthat might be from climate
change, it could be the factthat species are recovering. It
was 2012 I think it was that westarted picking up records of
lesser horseshoes from a siteless than half a mile from here.
And this is at the very northernend of the county. So it was a
real outlier from everywhereelse that we knew we've got this
a horseshoe. So we were quiteexcited about that. So one of
(07:12):
the measures of tests for me wascould we tempt those horseshoes
from that site across a litroad? So what's effectively a
honeypot site? So yeah, that wasthat was what we were hoping to
see done the moment we finishedwork here. So
Steve Roe (07:30):
just before we go in, first of all, when did the
project start? And just how mucheffort has it taken to get it
where it is today? You know, howhow long did that process take?
Cody Levine (07:41):
By far the most difficult because the getting
the money and getting all of thefish and slips in place, and the
Rangers did all of that work forus the back group, we we helped
advise we supported the backgroup members came down here in
2018. And we did a presenceabsence survey just to make sure
that there was nothing roostingin it. And it was pretty
knackered at that stage, therewasn't much for any bats to
(08:03):
roost in. So we knew that wewere okay over winter 2018 A
firm local firm came in andreroofed it this wall that I'm
leaning against was rebuilt, Iput the foundations for this in
myself, which was first time Itried to be mortar and bricks.
And that that winter we lockedit and walked away that oh, the
back group made a donationyou'll see of the bat boxes in
(08:26):
there. We've we've paid for. Weput an application into the Bat
Conservation Trust for theirpartner group support funder.
We're very grateful that wewe've got much funding from
that. Thank you, Lisa, if you'rethere. And that was also matched
by a contribution from theDistrict Council and the county
council donated my time and alsothe monitoring, that monitors
(08:47):
that are in there as well. Thenwe went to wild care, and they
very kindly listened to me flapmy gums about the conservation
project, and offered us asizable discount on the bat
boxes. So again, thank you toWildCare for making this
possible.
Steve Roe (09:03):
Brilliant. And you we say it's a boathouse actually,
we're quite far from the edge ofthe lake here, you know,
historically, was the lake rightup to the doorway was it been
used for other things in thepast? Yeah, we
Cody Levine (09:13):
would have been standing in the nice water.
That's how much the levels havechanged to
Steve Roe (09:17):
have a look inside.
So Cody's on the sensible thinghas come prepared with a torch
as I've left my head torch inthe car. And it's really quite
large inside. Probably fourmetres high. There's a nice
sandy floor and we can see rightup to the to the underside of
(09:38):
the tiles. And in front of us issomething that's going to be
quite familiar to a lot of batecologist and bat workers. It's
events and wildlife just style,less a horseshoe call tower and
you just want to describe whatthey are what they're designed
for coding. Sure.
Cody Levine (09:54):
Yeah. Okay, so this is breezeblock construction.
It's about head height and Arectangular, it's split into
three or four differentchambers. There is a window like
opening, so bats could fly in.
And the idea is it's going totrap cool damp air inside and
create lots of little separateleashes where they'll hopefully
(10:17):
overwinter. It's designed tosort of replicate a cave, steady
humidity and temperature. Sowhat we're trying to do here is
create an opportunity for themto spend winter and just above
us, there's opportunities forthem to spend summer as well.
Steve Roe (10:33):
Yeah, so just talk about this. So in the middle of
the roof, we've got a,essentially a box that looks
like a miniature attic. What'sit constructed often, and sort
of how large is it and what'sthe purpose then,
Cody Levine (10:45):
it looks like a large dog kennel. It's not for
flying dogs. It's plywood,triangular, planes of Flyboard
lined with cork inside. And theidea with this is and again,
it's from the lesson horse shoeconservation handbook is to try
and trap the warm air Warm airrises up to the to the roof
avoid. And what we're trying todo here is capture it and create
(11:07):
a nice environment for maternitywrists. So this will be
hopefully where the bats havecome and give birth and hang out
in the summer. So we're justtrying to create as many
different niches for them tofill their their lifecycle with
as possible.
Steve Roe (11:21):
And if any listeners have been on to various websites
and gone shopping for bat boxes,it's like walking into one of
those websites and actuallyseeing all the different
possible types of apples you canbuy in real life is like a
showroom. What sort of boxeshave we got here codeine? Are
they for different species?
Cody Levine (11:37):
Yeah, we've got a little bit of everything. So
we've got some Kent style boxes.
And I like the fact that theback group members who have come
in and monitor them havescrolled their name on that's my
daughter's name on one overthere. So she comes in here and
check these boxes periodically.
We've got some Schwegler styleboxes here would create style
boxes. Those are great atkeeping the heat in, we've got
(12:01):
some more wedge style boxes, theVincent style ones over there.
And then we've also got thesethese are quite interesting.
They replicate mortise and tenonjoints. So these tend to be used
by Myotis. I think they're quitelike those little cavities
inside. So we've got a few ofthose as well. And
Steve Roe (12:20):
then Cody, what sort of access points, you know, once
the doors shut, it's actuallyreally dark in here one of the
access points where bats canactually get inside this
building, we've
Cody Levine (12:28):
got four different access points, we got to try and
balance that because we didn'twant through draft. So we got to
try and reduce it to what we'rethink's likely to be used. We've
got this hopper above the door,which has got this baffle behind
it that tries to trap a littlebit of the wind, just to the
side of that I'm not sure youcan see it from inside there is
an access brick. And that goesthrough a sort of twin leaf
(12:51):
wall. And then we've closed theeaves down almost all the way
around the building becauseotherwise we'll get some numpty
trying to stick something andjust above head height, you
can't reach it. But you can justabout see from the outside on
both sides, you've got someaccess at the eaves point there
so bats could fly in and out.
And then lastly, there is one ortwo raise rich tiles which is
above this rich plate, you willbe able to see the light coming
(13:15):
in very easily from here but thebats could if they wanted to
either roost on top of that richplate or flip out of the raised
ritual. And
Steve Roe (13:24):
you've got no under filter on this on tonight of
these tiles. Was that aconscious decision to make it
easy for the rats to find theway in? Yeah,
Cody Levine (13:30):
a little bit of both. We didn't want to put a
membrane in here because wecould reduce the cost. And also
we thought we didn't need it
Steve Roe (13:38):
since the project's been completed so you say we
will chat in the carpark earlierthe project's been completed for
about the last three, threeyears or so. Have you had any
evidence of actually using it sofar? About
Cody Levine (13:49):
four or five weeks after we close the security
doors and Ron the the batdetectors came back and found
that there were less a horseshoebats fluttering around inside it
periodically that they come inand spend a couple of nights and
then disappear again. So we knowthat they're using it probably
as a satellite roost, maybemaybe as a feeding perch, but
(14:13):
because the very quiet callsvery directional calls, the
chances of them being outsidethe bat house are absolutely
negligible down but debriscoming in here and using it. So
there's that we did a couple ofemergency surveys and we've seen
pepper sterols and brownlongbeards. Moving around, we've
seen one less a horseshoehanging up in here once and just
by your feet. There are somefresh bat droppings on the floor
(14:35):
so we know that over the lastcouple of nights and all
likelihood we've had somevisitors here to spreading
Steve Roe (14:41):
that so even within the last you know within weeks
you say of days of closing upthe bats already found it. I
know you started using it soclearly there's a need for for
this sort of thing in the widerarea. If there are people with
projects like this or backgroups with projects like this
and they've got disusedbuildings and and there's the
opportunity It's a What wouldyou say to those groups to try
(15:02):
and coach them to take theplunge and actually actually put
the hard work in? Oh
Cody Levine (15:06):
god, you absolutely do it. This. This, I think
demonstrates that conservationjust needs the resources,
people's time and effort andthat there is funding out there
if you can bid for it, get it,do it. There's knowledge and
expertise out there to tap intoso talk to people who have done
it already. And you know,wildlife is crying out for some
help. If you can find anotheropportunity like this sees it.
Steve Roe (15:31):
So we've come back outside and Cody, we're just
explaining that immediatelyoutside, there's a very small
space before we get intobrambles in the in the
vegetation down to the edge ofthe lake. And there's quite a
few Silver birch trees that werethat were stood outside and
Katie was saying that theRangers are about to do some
thinning of these or at leasthaloing. What sort of management
have you got in mind for thelong term is there any sort of
(15:53):
long term management plan forthe for the site,
Cody Levine (15:55):
or the the Rangers manage is 50 hectare nature
reserve and they areprogressively removing the
amount of conifer on here andincreasing the broadleaf. And
there's some really nice bits ofwoodland up on the top of the
hill, which I can show youoriginally I was reticent about
taking down any trees aroundhere. I will just try and get as
much cover a close to the to theinsurance as possible. And I
think that was probably mymistake, because the horseshoes
(16:16):
found it pretty much straightaway, didn't they? So the next
thing really is trying to makethis as suitable as possible for
them. And the Rangers said,let's let's get more sunlight on
the roof. So yeah, they'llthey'll take some of these trees
down. And I think that mightmake it more suitable inside the
hot box as well. Here's thething I was going to ask you if
you wanted to see that site thatI mentioned half a mile away. So
Steve Roe (16:37):
at this point, Cody and I jumped in his car and left
the other bank group members toget set up ready for the
emergent survey of the boathousewhilst we took the four minute
drive across her carts to thenew Lee Castle Village
Development, which became thefirst homes England site to gain
build with nature accreditation.
And a really short drive awayfrom her caught nature reserve.
Katie just bought us to a newbuild development than ever,
(17:00):
which was escaping already. Thisis certainly Castle, which is
been developed by Linden homes,and Katie's brought me here
because it's received somenational recognition in the form
of its lighting. So the mainroad is lit with what looked
like normal LED street lamps,lamp posts, like lighting
columns. But Cody tells me thatthese are a bright red lights.
(17:22):
And that's because it's a homesEngland project. And they came
to you guys at the council toask for advice on how to get
this through to planning youwere saying,
Cody Levine (17:34):
Yeah, that's right.
So was the show we areparticularly interested in
linear corridors for ecology andtrying to make sure that we
avoid fragmentation of those byeffects like street lighting.
And we knew that this particularsite just around the corner from
her car got horseshoe bats, aswell as a number of other
species. So when it came to bebuilt out, what we wanted to
(17:55):
make sure was that theresidential lighting had to be
safe for residents had to besafer, drivers have to be safe
for people coming to visit thesites. But we also want to make
sure that the bats we're stillgoing to use it afterwards. So
one of the solutions from theoriginal solution was to try and
maintain dark corridors. Andbecause this is a main spine
roads, because we got busesgoing to come up and down here
(18:16):
that that's not safer for peopleto use, we couldn't do that. We
tried to look at individualcorridors of darkness in between
otherwise lit spine road. Butthen what you have is people
driving from light to dark tolight. And again, that's just
not safe enough to comply withhighway standards. So what we
have here is a compromise. Theselights are as bright as normal
street lights, but they aremonochromatic red. And there's
(18:39):
some studies done in Europe thatseems suggest that for species
like Brown, longer bats and somemeiosis species, they act much
the same in darkness as they doin red light. So we're hoping
that with these lights, therisks that have been found from
those species on sites will notbe deterred. from continuing to
use these lovely corridors, youcan see these big blocks of
(19:01):
woodland on either side of theroad. So that the reason why the
bats continue to cross the road,so they'll still be here. But
now we'll have people living andenjoying the site as well. We
saw some of them on a recent batwalk her carts, who said they've
moved in here because they knewit was good for bats. So that's
I think, winning for everyone.
Steve Roe (19:21):
Yeah, and you were saying in the car, you were
quite worried originally, interms of winning the site has
been developed whether peopleactually want to move here. But
it's the site still indevelopment. The first phase has
been done. There's all thehouses are, are in occupation,
and the rest of the site hasbeen developed at the moment.
But you were saying when youwalk down here, and you were
worried that people are going tolike the unlit streets
(19:41):
themselves in You said that'snot happened Touchwood
Cody Levine (19:43):
it's not happened yet. No. So people seem to
understand why bits are dark,and they clearly support the
agenda.
Steve Roe (19:50):
And as we've driven down the site, Katie's points
that are on the edge of somesemi ancient natural woodland,
and where we're stood at themoment on the main road in
there's a A decent block ofwoodlands line in the site.
surveys were presumably doneprior to the to the work has
been done. Cody what sort ofspecies were found on site?
Cody Levine (20:10):
Oh from memory I think they had common and
soprano peps Bran longbeards.
There were the usual nocciolaoccasional BBs still, I think
pottering around Myotis. Andbrown longer were roosting on
site as whether less a horseuser originally, I think there
was a series of undergroundstructures. So the developer
here, very proactive, veryinnovative, they've worked with
(20:31):
the District Council and thecounty council, in finding
compensation mitigationstrategies for the for the
batteries on site and linkingthose to make sure that you've
still got that connectivity. Nowearlier, I was talking about
those blue green corridors andhow important they are for
wildlife. So maintaining thosecorridors, both inside the site
and connecting to thesurrounding landscape. So I
think they've done as good asthey can. And they've achieved a
(20:55):
Building With Nature water, agreen infrastructure award for
that work as well.
Steve Roe (21:00):
And given the successful the popularity of
this different licencestrategies, it's something that
was to show a look into to rollout on a county wide scale to
you know,
Cody Levine (21:10):
so it's something that we're already thinking
about, we are replacing ourtraditional lighting stocks on
the main roads here, we haverecently undergone an upgrade of
about 10,000 LED lanterns, rapidled upgrade project, that was a
spend to save because of theenergy saving that we can make
by transferring from oldlighting stock to new, we knew
(21:31):
that introducing light, changingthe light, rather, where it was
already lit could have an effecton wildlife. But similarly, we
could use the sort of mitigationlighting mitigation to reduce
the effect that lighting ourmain roads already has, we're
not going to get the opportunityto Unlight our main roads for
safety, obviously, but what wecan do is switch inside woodland
(21:52):
corridors or overwater coursesand use warmer wavelengths of
light. If not for bats, then byremoving the blue light content
of the lights. We're reducingthe phototactic effect on
invertebrates. So we'reprotecting the food webs inside
ecological networks.
Steve Roe (22:08):
Brilliant, and we'll put a link to more information
about lightning fun to the BCTwebsite as well. So Katie,
thanks very much for forbringing us a very short drive
of a mere four minutes fromsite. So thanks for that. My
thanks to Cody for taking thetime to do that interview,
especially since he was feelingunder the weather. Back at the
hercog pools and wood naturereserve. I joined fellow Bat
Conservation Trust trusteeMatthew Terry. So I've left Cody
(22:31):
back at the boathouse and I'vecome a little bit further along
the path to a little lookoutpoint with some benches
overlooking local pool and I'msitting with the Chair of
Westeros back group MatthewTerry. Matthew, how long have
you been involved with thatconservation? And what's the
history of Worcester Shabbatgroup?
Matthew Terry (22:50):
Well, the history of Worcestershire bat group goes
back to the 80s. I got into batsin about 2014 2015 When my wife
started a job as a librarian ata local school, and no one told
her it was a maternity roosts ofsoprano pipistrelles, she found
out one day when she came in inMay, and there was a lot of
scrambling in the roof. And thatjust sparked curiosity for both
(23:14):
of us. And it went from there.
We went into backcare. So we didbackcare for three or four
years. And that was incredibleto be so close to Tibet so
quickly, even though it is youknow, it can be quite stressful,
quite something to take on. Andthen I did burst into his chair.
And then COVID hit. And now I'mback as chair again.
Steve Roe (23:40):
Great stuff. And how many members does the group
have? And what sort ofactivities apart from the risk
count? We're doing head start onboathouse? What sort of other
activities do you guys doalongside this? And things like
backcare.
Matthew Terry (23:55):
Things have changed a lot since COVID. It's
a bit boring to bang on aboutCOVID. But it really did sort of
tear the heart out of localwildlife groups, generally, I
suppose. And it's been quite astruggle to get it back up and
running. People have graduallystarted to emerge and come along
to events. So we're still inthat growth phase, I suppose.
(24:15):
But we've got 100 members now,which which I think is really
healthy. We're doing bat walks.
And some talks, we started a newproject in the Y forest, working
with the Y community land trust,to try and encourage local
people to gather more records ofwildlife more generally,
someone's lost his dog behind.
(24:36):
You can pick that up. And I'mhoping to do something more
substantial around records,possibly an atlas of bats in the
county as a longer term projectat MDMP. We do a really nice
countless of horseshoes everyyear that Chrome caught which is
(24:57):
National Trust properties. JustOne of the most spectacular
places you can go to see bits ofan evening. So a bit of
everything really.
Steve Roe (25:05):
Matthews just casually dropping in Croome
Court there which has got, howmany lesser horseshoes these
days?
Matthew Terry (25:11):
Oh goodness. Oh, I should know because we've just
done three counts. And I can'tthink it's I think it's about
150 101 site and about 50. Theother
Steve Roe (25:20):
so many is just blase.
Matthew Terry (25:23):
Yeah, and in two sites, one is an orangery and
old I think it's sort ofGeorgian greenhouse, which is
quite spectacular. And the otherone is the complete opposite.
It's a blacked out x 1950s RAFairbase. So yeah, it's an
amazing place to see. To see andhear wishes.
Steve Roe (25:45):
They one of the first times I saw and heard lesser
horseshoes was we did a did likea mass expedition from
Derbyshire bat group down tovisit these guys down in, in
Worcestershire, and they're verywelcoming. And yeah, we've
helped them count cannabis down.
And that was 15 years ago. Nowsomething like that was a long
time ago. So it's nice to knowthat, that that site is still
being monitored. In terms ofWorcestershire on the map is
(26:08):
quite a big County, what sort ofarea does it cover? You know,
what sort of landmarks willpeople recognise in the county?
Matthew Terry (26:18):
Well, I'm going to do landmarks by backs,
probably. But if you start atthe north, we've got y forest,
which is still, you know, anancient woodland. Still pretty
sizable. Probably not that wellcovered recently for bat
records. And that's one of thereasons we're doing, we're keen
to do this work with the widercommunity land trust. So that's
(26:42):
a good place to start. We've gotthe river seven that comes
through, pretty much runs allthe way through the county. I
only know the north of thecounty really, I mean, one of
the challenges of the bat group,the bat group has is the county
is just so big, trying to getevents and activities run across
the county is really, reallydifficult tends to depend on
(27:03):
where people live as to wherethe activity is. The seven is a
great location for for bats. Andthen travelling down the seventh
to the middle of Worcestershire,you've got Worcester itself was
to city and the big draw theresorry to bang on about horror
shows but it's the it's thewhole show roost under right
under the Worcester cathedral.
It's not huge. So it's a it's ait's a hibernation was done to
(27:27):
the cathedral and then amaternity roost in one of the I
think it's the bishop's palaceat the Cathedral. So there's
lots of Horseshoe activitythere. And that's particularly
interesting because it's rightin the heart of a city and, you
know, it's quite unique to haveall shoes right in the heart of
the city, I think. And they theyforage over the over the river
(27:49):
on the meadows. And then what Iknow less about is the Malvern
hills. So there are bats thereare some I've done some I've was
taken on a midnight scramblethrough the through the wooded
steep inclines of of Northernhills just before COVID about
(28:10):
2019 Looking for barbastellesplenty of other styles there and
again there are a whole shoeroosts in the tunnels that go
under the under
Steve Roe (28:21):
the hills. It has shown up now.
Matthew Terry (28:24):
I mean we are to use a you know an Instagram term
we are blessed for with thenumber of species we've got
here. I think don't quote mealthough you are quoting me it's
about 15 species we've we've hadrecorded in Worcestershire which
is just you know, absolutelygreat. The ones we don't have we
(28:46):
don't have great horseshoes asfar as I'm aware. That's the
only sort of major species thatwe that we haven't got in the
county as far as I'm aware. And
Steve Roe (28:55):
the wind is just picking up as the moons very
picturesque Lee rising over thetops of the trees and it's just
about going dark enough then I'mexpecting to see a pipistrelle
or something or other to sliparound the corner these oak
trees that were sand an eighthSo shall we go and help the guys
count out the house thereMatthew Yeah let's go
I can see a pip over there inthe distance good too far for
(29:22):
you guys to pick it up hereright. It's just been kicking
around here. So that's in thecounty you guys go through your
fears.
Unknown (29:59):
One
Steve Roe (30:57):
So there's a number of volunteers. Here tonight
counting the bats out of theboathouse and you can hear that
there's not chosen come come apepper chosen Spanner
pipistrelles floating about justsqueezing down. Just squeezing
down the side of the boathousewhere Charlene and Leah here,
(31:20):
you had a tonne of guys. Nothingcoming out. I think flying
around a lot got gotten knockedover in my circles thanks to
Cody Matthew and the other wasto Chabad group members, you can
watch a video showing the hercogbat house on YouTube. We've put
a link in the show notes, alongwith links to more information
(31:42):
about the red lighting scheme atthe Lee Castle Village
Development. And if you'd liketo find out more about your
local bank group, there's a linkin the show notes which will
take you to your closest BankGroup's website so you can see
what your local group is up to.
Whilst during this festiveperiod. We'd really appreciate
it if you could please tell theworld about Batchat on your
social media channels. We'll beback in two weeks time So until
then, Happy New Year.
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