In Summer 2019 we organised a Bat Talk in the Pavilion Café followed by a night time walk in the Town Park and nature reserve.
This was followed by a bat box making day at which members of the public assembled their own bat boxes.
In 2018 and 2019 Sustainable Warminster commissioned two bat surveys. They were funded by the Wiltshire Community Energy Fund and members of Sustainable Warminster. The surveys confirmed that there are at least 14 of the UK’s 18 species of bat living in this area. These include Lesser and Greater Horseshoe, Bechstein’s and Barbastelle bats which are specially protected under UK legislation.
Bat Surveys
Following the popular ‘Bats in the Park’ event and ‘Bat Box Making Day’ in Summer 2019, Sustainable Warminster commissioned surveys from a professional ecologist, assisted by volunteers from the Wiltshire Bat Group. They recorded and analysed the supersonic calls of the bats and trapped and ringed bats in nets.
The survey work was funded by a grant from the Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy Fund. WWCE build solar energy farms on land where they enhance wildlife biodiversity at the same time as generating electricity. They have also installed solar panels on the new café at Langford Lakes.
Bat species found in the surveys
Over 120 bat boxes have been put up on houses and trees in and around Warminster. Warminster Area Board provided a grant for the rough sawn cedar for making the boxes.
Sustainable Warminster are asking people who have boxes to look out for signs of activity.
Like hedgehogs and dormice, bats emerge from hibernation in Spring. They move between roost sites in attics, trees or underground spaces. Bat boxes may be attractive to females looking for safe a dry maternity roosts where they can gather to give birth, or in late Summer to single or multiple bats looking for places to mate.
If anyone thinks they have bats in their attic, behind tiles of cladding, in an outbuilding or a bat box, Sustainable Warminster ask that they report this to them. It is illegal to disturb bats, so advice should be sought if they are found. Bat droppings may be found below a bat roost.
For further information click on the links below.
https://www.bats.org.uk/support-bats/bat-groups/south-west-england/wiltshire-bat-group