This is the glamourously named A8317. She didn't really want her photo taken today, surprising really as we are old friends. We've been meeting up every year since 2013 (24 times actually) in North Wiltshire. A real survivor. #bechsteins @batconservation.bsky.social

“In 2012, Natural England formally declared its intention to designate between 12 and 20 sites each year for two to three years, moving to deciding 50 cases each year. In reality, it has decided on… just 33 new SSSIs in the past 14 years and none since 2023.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🦇 Everything you need to know about the Bat Conservation Trust's Nocturnal Garden at #RHSChelsea Flower Show can be found here: www.bats.org.uk/our-work/noc.... From the design inspiration, a plant list, the sculpture Dark Amber and more! Thank you to Project Giving Back for sponsoring the garden.

#ProcB in @sciam.bsky.social | Acoustic flow velocity manipulations affect the flight velocity of free-ranging pipistrelle bats: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

🧵Today I visited soggy Savernake Forest, deep in the heart of Wiltshire. It was to record Open Country, a Radio 4 programme. 🌳 My segment, well it was the forest ghostlore of course! 👻 And there’s plenty of stories in those dark and ancient woods. Blog coming soon. Here’s a preview thread…🧵

Some of the fun, and frankly weird, stuff found during bats surveys this month with @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social. #caving #bats 🦇

Thank you Fiona! Every year for 25 odd years (excepting Covid)! Here's to many more. Will P @batconservation.bsky.social

More underground hibernation surveys, more wondering where to go, more data collected for the Greater horseshoe project (all licenced), more catching up with old friends, more trying to avoid wet feet. 25 yrs and counting. @batconservation.bsky.social @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social

As we draw to the end of the year, a big pat on the back to our 300 members. Wherever you are, in the country or overseas, you are doing great things locally and nationally for Bat conservation. Take a bow. More science stuff in 2026 @batconservation.bsky.social

🦇A new episode of our podcast, BatChat, is out now - The Hoffman Kiln: Where Bats Reclaim the Dales. North of Settle in the Yorkshire Dales lies the Hoffman Kiln, a relic of the industrial revolution. It's now an important site for bats of the Dales all year round.

Daubenton's bats are now entering hibernation a month earlier than 13 years ago without increasing fat reserves, highlighting shifting survival challenges linked to climate change. doi.org/g955mn

I’m too old and too male to be in the Rainbows, but as a result of some volunteering / educational outreach we did a couple of weeks ago on behalf of the @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social I am now the very proud owner of a Rainbows “Bat activity” patch. It is deeply excellent.

Ooh ooh ooh - TK Maxx in Swindon, a single pair of the most PERFECT wireless headphones for folks to use with Bat Detector on their iPhone. So anyone in the @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social needs to get a move on to secure them - I left them REALLY visible :)

Who had the idea to build the expensive HS2 bat tunnel? Answer: HS2 Ltd. Who approved it? Parliament. Was it necessary to route the track through species-rich ancient woodland? No, as a strategic environmental assessment would have shown, had one been done. www.bats.org.uk/news/2025/04...

At the National Bat Conference we shared the trailer for season 7 of our podcast, BatChat. And now we get to share it with you all! Returning on the 5 November.

While I'm on it, here is a round flat wasp nest in schwegler 1FF (not seen that before) Noctule Soprano pip wing Jools and Anna doing box checks in the Cotswold Water park @bct @wiltsbg

The Shire is wet for the first time in 4 months! The land is sighing as the moisture is sucked up. To celebrate here are a few random pics from the summer. Brandt's (bat of the year! ) Brown long eared Bechstein's Natterer's @bct @wiltsbg

Listen! Rare Grey long-eared bat found in Kent, 40 years after last one seen. Only 9 known maternity colonies in UK. 👏 Mountfield Ecology & @ecotypegenetics.bsky.social. Here's one I found a few weeks ago 🦇 @batconservation.bsky.social @mammalconeurope.bsky.social @mammalsociety.bsky.social

2025. Acoustic romance in old church attics: Greater mouse-eared bats display lek mating system phys.org/news/2025-06...

This is male Bechstein's J19405. Typically for young males at this time of year, evicted (under duress by the state of his ear) from the maternal home and banished to the 'man shed' equivalent on the edge of the wood. Braydon forest, Wiltshire, May 2025.

These totally brilliant 5x life-sized 3D printed bat skulls are by www.nobone.be, on display at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's excellent Country Comes to Town day in Chippenham.

How will bats respond to climate change? Our new paper shows that Nathusius's pipistrelles are likely to expand their European range, but most other bats will lose out. Things look particularly bad for the pond bat, which is already declining rapidly. 🌍🦇#bats #climatechange doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

How Do Bats Find Artificial Roosts? Surprisingly, our study found that bats' previous experience with artificial roosts mattered more than enhanced detectability! Read more in our new paper! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Photo by Anja Bergmann

🦇 In our latest blog, our CEO @kitstoner.bsky.social , reflects on the latest developments of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill: rhetoric vs reality on nature and development; read it here and share widely: batconservationtrust.substack.com/p/the-planni...

Super review, on point.

🦇The Vincent Weir Scientific Award aims to reward and encourage research on the conservation biology of bats by new researchers. Applications for the Vincent Weir Scientific Award are now open! Nominations will close on Monday 30 June.

A local mag, The Village Buzz, asked me for a ghost story. Given where we live, I felt it had to be the story of Black Molly of Pyt House. It's a curious tale of a pregnant maid servant, a skeleton in the basement and a family curse. Read the full story here: weird-wiltshire.co.uk/2024/03/17/b...

Nathusius’ pipistrelle 🦇 is quite a remarkable species, an 8g fluffball that can migrate over 2000km across Europe. In our new paper, we use population genetics to learn a bit more about this amazing creature. (🧵 1/6) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I'm posting this photo of Greater horseshoe bats because I just think it is one of the best I've seen! 🦇 (Photo credit Laura Pratt) taken in a Wiltshire mine Feb 2025. Anyway, now to do a bit of bat box maintenance and wait for the sun to shine. P.S. It snowed in the Shire today🦇

Dartmoor's becoming a scary place folks. If the rampaging wild boar don't get you, this 'poisonous' snake surely will. Wildlife in a National Park? Unthinkable. @arc-trust.bsky.social #wildlife #nature www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymout...

When bats can't hear... 🦇Plan B(at)🦇 ... they compensate by adapting their flight path and vocalizations. They flew lower, oriented themselves along walls and increased both the number and length of their calls, boosting the power of echo signals used for navigation. 🧪 hub.jhu.edu/2024/11/25/b...

🦇

Just a few more days to apply for a PhD with me! Use new technologies to study movement and ecology of serotine bats in UK. Evidence can guide future rabies control strategies, helping bats and people. Click on project 'Understanding transmission..' here: www.surrey.ac.uk/bbsrc-wessex... #PhD #bats

We've walked and crawled and climbed, covered many kilometres underground, smelt the distinct oder of pipe tobacco from the disgruntled spirit of an old quarry man (seriously spooky) and done our bit for science. Now to drink tea and eat cake, and maybe biscuits.

We've been in The pit of doom, Pharoah's tomb, Muddy hole, Death chamber, Clapham Junction (not that one) and the back passage. We've wrecked our knees and recorded several thousand bats across our hibernation sites. Wiltshire Bat Group hard as nails and covered in cr*p

Graffiti horses drawn by Victorian quarrymen (plus a random head) I found underground this week. Did you know that faces are almost always turned to the left when drawn on walls by right-handed people? 👀. You're welcome! #history #drawing #caves

Exciting news as part of our OneBat Horizon project. Next step will be Motus receivers to try to detect international movements. 🦇🌍 #bats #ecology #onehealth #conservation cyprus-mail.com/2025/02/21/g...

This week has mainly been spent underground, studying gorgeous greater horseshoe bats with @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social 🦇🦇 #wildlife

The things you find on bat surveys.. Have been crawling around underground for the past few days, monitoring bats and training new bat peeps. @wiltsbatgroup.bsky.social 🦇

From the archive. I always appreciate a decent piece of cave/mine art that someone took a bit of time over, and above it, a greater horseshoe (undisturbed) who hadn't read any of the books about how it should hang up

🦇 Start thinking about how you can turn your garden into a bat haven, so it's ready for bats when they start waking up in spring! After months of hibernation they will need all the food they can get. Find out more here: https://buff.ly/2HkKSuq

Thank you! ❤️🦇 We now have over 2000 followers on @bsky.app We are very grateful for your support. Do please continue encouraging friends and family to follow us on here. Bats need friends, now more than ever.

🦇 This is absolutely terrific news!! Since 2002, for 20 winters, one solo male greater mouse-eared bat was recorded hibernating in a tunnel near the south coast, by Sussex Bat Group. In early 2023 a second bat was recorded in the same tunnel. A record in a new county is amazing!!

Number of people attacked by a wild lynx, anywhere, ever = 0. On the other hand you could be killed by cows, mauled by a dog, or die from an infection caused by your pet cat...

So the day has finally come where the reality has struck and a few of my copies have come through for family! I’m overwhelmed with a variety of emotions - relief, tired, worried, excited but mainly anxious for those who read it and what they may think!

As we draw near to the end of the year, a big thank you! to the WBG volunteers who went up and down ladders and stood around in nice places, doing science stuff.

A couple of photos from this summer to kick things off. No prizes for ID though