18 April 2008…………...For Immediate Release

BATTING FOR ENGLAND

BAT SURVEYING WORKSHOP

Starting at 7.00 pm on Friday 2 May 2008 at Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, near Coventry
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust would like to invite you to join them in this one-day workshop aimed at the non-professional who is interested in helping us to survey bats for local projects in Warwickshire.  Learn more about the ecology and behaviour of bats. The workshop will involve both an indoor and an outdoor session to help you to use a bat detector and to improve your recording techniques and ID skills so make sure you bring along outdoor gear.

COST:      £6.50 per person.   Places are confirmed on receipt of payment.   

To reserve your place please contact Bernie Higgins on 024 7630 8993.

Bats are amazing animals, and an important part of our natural environment, but their numbers have decreased so dramatically that all 17 British species are closely protected by law. For example, in Britain it is illegal merely to disturb bats or the places where they roost.

Warwickshire hosts ten of those seventeen species, so surveying our ‘home’ populations is important in helping to paint the overall picture of the numbers of bats and their roosts in the UK as a whole.

Bernie Higgins, Reserves Biodiversity Officer for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust says, “Maybe you have already noticed small bats flitting over your garden at dusk. These pipistrelle bats are, like all their relatives, newly out of hibernation, so are hungry and therefore very actively hunting the moths and insects on which they feed. Using a bat detector to not only pick up the shouts of a flying bat, but also to be able to identify which species it is makes for quite a magical experience, so why not come and join in with our Bat Surveying workshop. Not only will you be playing a vital part in the monitoring process, but you will also learn a huge amount in terrific company.”

ENDS

Press Contact:             Bernie Higgins on 024 7630 8993.

  Last updated 25 April, 2008