Our projects aim to improve our understanding of bat distribution and activity by providing an opportunity for anyone to take advantage of recent advances in technology for automating the capture and analysis of acoustic data for bats. Currently we are conducting or plan to conduct bat surveys across the whole of Norfolk, southern Scotland and parts of Suffolk.

To achieve this, we have set up a number of Bat Monitoring Centres in these areas, from which you can borrow equipment for a few days to take part in the survey. In return we will let you know what species were recorded. The survey season runs from mid-April (from the beginning of May in Scotland) until the end of September, so plenty of time to take part.

We are limited by the number of detectors, so if you are interested you need to be quick in expressing interest and reserving your 1-km square to survey. Once you have reserved a square, you will be able to reserve a detector to use.

Please note that this survey requires three different points (ideally at least 200-metres apart) to be surveyed ideally on consecutive nights within a 1-km square (survey methods). To choose a survey square please sign up through our Norfolk or southern Scotland sign up maps.

The Norfolk Bat Survey was launched by Dr Stuart Newson at the British Trust for Ornithology in April 2013, to improve our understanding of bats and support their conservation. Since this time, the project has analysed over a million bat recordings from across the county. The Southern Scotland Bat Survey funded by Scottish Natural Heritage will run from May 2016.

If you have any queries about the Norfolk project or equipment, please contact Hazel Evans or Stuart Newson at BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, Tel: 01842 750050, Email: [email protected]. For the southern Scotland Bat Survey, please Email: [email protected].