Tees Valley Bat News
A partnership of North Yorkshire Bat Group, Durham Bat Group and Tees Valley Wildlife Trust are organising a series of bat activities in the former county of Cleveland. The latest Tees Valley Bat News below gives full details.
TEES VALLEY BAT NEWS
Cleveland Bat Programme
Following discussions between Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and both Durham & North Yorkshire bat groups a programme of activities is being organised to encourage people to become more active in different types of bat work in Cleveland. A variety of activities, informal training and bat walks have been pencilled in throughout the year to give a flavour of the different types of bat survey. These included roost counts, field surveys, sunrise surveys and looking for swarming activity. The programme is being left a little open-ended so that it can be adapted to the particular interests or geographic locations of those wishing to take part. The Programme will be launched with a bat talk and walk at Margrove Heritage Centre on Friday 24th April, starting at 7pm. Further details of potential activities for the programme will be discussed at the launch event after which full details will be finalised and publicised. The event and subsequent programme of activities are open to anyone with an interest in bats at whatever level of commitment or knowledge. For more information contact Ian Bond (details below).
Bat News
There has also been a collective noun (a whisper, perhaps?) of new Long Eared Bat records on Teeside. Firstly Jonathan Pounder and Dave Thew were called out to pick up one that had turned up in a large fabrication shed on Hartlepool Docks; not exactly prime Long Eared territory. Another Long Eared turned up on the doorstep of the Hassel family in Kirklevington, not an unexpected area perhaps but still only my third record for the borough of Stockton. Finally Colin Heppenstall sent me some photos of a Long Eared Bat that had turned up in the Darchem factory in Stillington (thus making my fourth record for Stockton). This is the factory where Cleveland's third ever, Whiskered Bat turned up five years ago. (I shall have to check whether Darchem now qualifies for Local Wildlife Site status under the new Tees Valley criteria).
Friday 13th September 2008 was a red letter day for rare bats according to the UKBats forum. A Parti-coloured Bat flew in off the sea at north Norfolk and went to roost in a pill box on the beach. On the same day a male Kuhl's pipistrelle was picked up on the Isle of Wight. Kuhl's Pipistrelle has been officially recorded in Britain on little more than a handful of occasions, all in the past 20 years, but its distribution is spreading northwards and a maternity colony has been found in Jersey. Parti-coloured bat is a northern European species that is known to be migratory and one or two bats are now recorded in Britain on an almost annual basis. I think it's a safe bet that one of them will eventually become recognised as our 18th resident bat species but I wouldn't like to call it as to which one. However there was a further comment on the bat forum that suggests that Kuhl's might have been here all along. In Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald's 1949, "British Bats" it states "In Hampshire examples with a distinct white border to the wing membrane occur, and seem to stick together in their own colonies." A white border on the wing membrane is a diagnostic feature of Kuhl's Pipistrelle.
Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? How about the gift of a slice of immortality? I realise that was a somewhat ironic statement given what the original was supposed to be about however in a more secular, commercial world you can be remembered forever by paying lots of money to have a bat named after you. Several bat species have been discovered by John Bickham, a professor at Purdue University in the USA, and the University is auctioning the right to name them. One of the bat species is a little Yellow Bat of the genus Rhogeesa and is one of the smallest bats in the Americas, weighing only 3 grams, ie half the size of a pipistrelle. I'm going to pass on this opportunity; there are already several species with the suffix "bondi" (and who in 50,000 years will know that one of them wasn't named after me!). Also immortality doesn't come cheap, previous auctions for the right to name species have raised £50-500k per species. The good news is that much of this has been ploughed back into the conservation of the species in question.
For those happy to travel a bit further for their bat fix, check out both the recently updated North Yorks Bat Group and Durham Bat Group websites for a list of forthcoming events (as well as lots of other bat-related information). They can be viewed at http://www.durhambats.org.uk and http://www.nybats.org.uk.
Fri 24th April, 7pm Margrove Heritage Centre.
Launch of the Cleveland bats programme.
A talk on the bats of Cleveland followed by a discussion of bat work opportunities and bat walk. Bat walk to start at approx 8.15pm
Friday 8th May - Night Walk, North Cemetery Hartlepool. Meet at the Jesmond Road entrance at 8.30pm. Further details tel: 01429 523431
Monday 18th May, 8pm start - Bat Blitz. (Middleton St George)
A joint event with Durham Bat Group with the aim of counting as many roosts and recording as many bats as possible in the one night. Meet at the Lodge by the water park. For more information contact Ian Bond.
Friday 14th August, 8.30pm - Night Walk, Summerhill, Hartlepool.
Further details tel: 01429 523431
Wed 18th August, 7.30pm - Bat Walk, Guisborough Walkway