By Angus Maclean, Species on the Edge Youth Panellist
Species on the Edge Youth Panellist, Angus Maclean, formed the Outer Hebrides Bat group after moving to Lewis last summer and learning that there was no Bat Conservation Trust back group in the Outer Hebrides. He promptly took it upon himself to rectify the situation! Here he tells us about his aims for the group and how they are getting on.
My main intention for our first year was to do lots of community engagement and host some guided bat walks. I was also keen to gather data by doing NBMP (National Bat Monitoring Programme) sunset surveys and by putting out static bat detectors on willing volunteers’ crofts to get some bat passes officially registered. Bats are severely under recorded in the Hebrides, so I’m hoping that raising the profile of bats here will help us gather more data on our local bats. At the moment, a lot of people are under the impression that we only have common pipistrelles here, so I am hoping to get some records proving we have more than one species on the island.
It was fantastic to launch the Outer Hebrides Bat Group this year and to begin to get more people acquainted with the archipelago’s resident bats. Here’s a look at what we got up to:
- We hosted three guided bat walks this year at the Lews Castle Grounds Woodland (two as part of the Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival).
- We collected acoustic recordings from seven spots across the hebrides, including from central Lewis, the Uists and Barra!
- We had Cathryn from the Skye and Lochalsh bat group (who is also the Bat Conservation Trust officer for Species on the Edge) visit and lead a bat walk in Stornoway and facilitate a bat workshop at An Lanntair.
- We attended HebCelt with Species on the Edge and got to speak to festival goers about the bats of the Outer Hebrides.
- We set up a Facebook Group for people to keep up to date with activities run by the group, to hear about our bat surveys and research, to share their own bat encounters around the islands and to keep in touch with fellow island bat enthusiasts.
As bats are now breeding and preparing for hibernation, we have no more outdoor activities planned until May next year. However, we plan to have a few educational and social online events running over the winter. To keep up to date with all Outer Hebrides Bat Group news and upcoming events, you can join our mailing list by emailing outerhebridesbatgroup@gmail.com and you can join our Facebook Group ‘Outer Hebrides Bat Group’.
