Dave A

A special moment last night. After over ten years of recording his comings and goings in our bat autumn swarming study site. Finally got up close with Y6147, a male Natterer’s bat 🦇 at least 24 years old. Ringed as an adult in 2003, still in mating condition in 2026. @johnaltringham.bsky.social

🦇 New study on Greater Horseshoe Bats in the South Caucasus! A 24-years monitoring with Prof. Bogdanowicz as collaborator, reveals strong roost fidelity, movements between caves & the importance of connected roost networks for conservation. 📄 sl1nk.com/3sj4h4k #Bats #BatConservation #Biodiversity

Spending some time in Georgia and have been blown away at the level of bat activity and diversity once you’re out of the cities. Have got so much data to review once I get home. BTO pipeline classifiers are proving invaluable when a single night produces 29gb and 8000 files of 🦇 recordings.

Always good to share our findings with other bat workers and researchers. Have been a bit blown away by the interest shown since my presentation at the @batconservation.bsky.social National Conference. Now onto the next stage of research…

The Apodemus PippyG 2 is not your average bat 🦇 detector. Beautifully clean recordings so far, looking forward to testing it on a trip to Georgia later this month. #bat #chiroptera

🦇Bats live long lives and they also appear resistant to diseases, including cancer! New research explores this relationship by examining genomes of Myotis bats. What can we learn from bats? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🦇 The deadline to book your in-person ticket is TOMORROW, 27 August!

New look and new name for "pipistrelle" iPhone app. Next release will be renamed "pippyg" to reflect the obsolescence of original pipistrelle detectors. New "BAT filter" / BATS" modes which selectively apply strong high-pass filtering in bat mode, suppressing speech and bird call bycatch.

If you have built your own pippyg static bat detectors you might want to try out this new firmware. It makes chirping much more reliable in the presence of noise and interference. No changes to the chirping app, just the firmware. drive.google.com/file/d/1xdqS...

Looking forward to presenting some results of our 🦇 research and sharing further questions…

Autumn swarming has started. After weeks of only Natterer’s 🦇 present, this week sees the arrival of Brandt’s and Brown Long eared bats.

Socially transmitted knowledge of hibernation sites in bats https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.06.743314v1

There’s been an influx of aestivating Peacock (Aglais io) butterflies over the last two weeks. Count has gone from 30 to 125. Interesting that there are plenty of pairs together… #lepidoptera #butterflies

🦇 If anyone wants to help us learn more about Daubenton's bats and how they are doing in the UK, have a look at our Waterway Survey: www.bats.org.uk/our-work/nat... . Sign-up and take part in this year's survey season in August :)

👀

Check out our new paper! 🔗 nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Sometimes that first flight doesn’t go as expected. Lovely young female Natterer’s bat 🦇 in for rehydration and some food before we reunite her with her colony.

We’re using a ZEISS Secacam to monitor a Noctule 🦇 roost remotely. Great to know the bats are in the roost before setting off on a 1.5 hour drive to carry out a survey.

A remarkable observation from Greece has provided fresh insight into the feeding ecology of migrating Eurasian Hobbies, with several birds recorded hunting bats at dusk:

Possibly Samsoniella scoliopterygis fungus on Herald Moth. A first record while on the hunt for evidence of Lesser Horseshoe bats 🦇 in a Lancashire cave.

Should be an interesting read for bat 🦇 researchers…

🦇 The National Bat Monitoring Programme 2025 report continues to show a slow recovery of some species and increased concerns for others. The answer to the question ‘how are UK bats doing?’ is complex. Read more here: www.bats.org.uk/news/2026/06...

🦇 Research by BCT and @uwebristolofficial.bsky.social on behalf of @naturalengland.bsky.social has helped achieve a major conservation milestone! For the 1st in the UK, approval for an offshore wind farm includes a requirement to monitor migratory bats: www.bats.org.uk/news/2026/06...

🦇 Our Research Manager @liagilmour.bsky.social was interviewed by @danstowell.bsky.social about all things AI and how it can be used to protect bats and other wildlife.

Big. Old. Trees. (with defects like peeling bark, holes, cracks, crevices). TAKE A LONG TIME TO DEVELOP. New paper out estimates that it takes a century for a good roost tree to develop in eastern forests. For western bats - that could be much longer. 🦇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We have an opportunity for a Head of Biodiversity Job Share to jointly direct BCT’s Biodiversity Team in line with BCT’s Strategy Objectives and national biodiversity targets. Application deadline is 09:30 on Monday 22nd June 2026. Find out more here www.bats.org.uk/the-trust/jo...

🦇

Great to receive some funding to allow us to resume the search for the most northerly UK Lesser Horseshoe bats. We’ll be back in Bowland cave and woodland monitoring to see if we can track them down and locate roosts. #bats #chiroptera #conservation #research #ecology

We run many conferences, events, training and workshops, both online and in person. Some are free and there is something for everyone. Take a look at what's coming up www.bats.org.uk/events

Clearly still a lot to learn about how and why different bat 🦇species approach swarming and hibernation. Last visit of the “winter” season to this particular site, but we’ve clear objectives for where research is headed.

How do #bats detect prey in a noisy world?🦇 Horseshoe bats fine‑tune their #echolocation to create a “silent” frequency window—filtering out background noise so echoes from fluttering insects stand out. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Brandt’s bats 🦇 now on their 37th consecutive week in hibernation. It’s going to be interesting to see just when they eventually emerge. #bats #chiroptera #conservation #ecology

Still plenty of hibernating Brandt’s bats 🦇 above the 500m contour in the Yorkshire Dales. Very little movement so far… #bats #chiroptera #research #conservation #ecology

🦇 Nominations for the 2026 Pete Guest Award are now open. Each year, the bat world is invited to nominate individuals who have made an outstanding practical contribution to bat conservation. Find out how to nominate someone here: www.bats.org.uk/our-work/awa...

Emergence survey season starts next week, but we’ve still got Brandt’s bats 🦇 in deep torpor in their hibernation sites. #bats #chiroptera #hibernation

Has bat detecting ever been more accessible? PippyG static 🦇 detector placed in a hedge and picking up nice clean Lesser and Greater Horseshoe bats, alongside Pipistrelles and Barbastelle. All for £60! Thanks to @ramoneskaraoke.bsky.social

Arrived early for the @batconservation.bsky.social SW 🦇 Conference. PippyG left on the front of the van last night. Greater Horseshoe and Barbastelle bats using the hedgerow of the campsite is a nice bonus.

Newly published research from @unileiden.bsky.social - Bats on a break: tracking the secret life of pond bats www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026...

Thought we’d be carrying out our last hibernation survey of the season today, but the Brandt’s are still in torpor. Tonight we’re surveying for spring swarming Brown Long Eared and Natterer’s bats🦇 down at valley level.

Gorgeous day out yesterday deploying bat detectors in Dorset. Hoping to pick up serotine migration or spring swarming. #bats Thanks @nationaltrust.org.uk

The more data we collect on Natterer’s and Daubenton’s bat use of this 🦇swarming site, the better the fit to @berlinbatlab.bsky.social work on Greater Mouse Eared bat mating strategy.

🦇Call for Abstracts! The National Bat Conference 2026 will take place 11-13 September 2026 at the University of Warwick and we're looking for abstracts. Abstracts should be submitted using the abstract submission form on this page: www.bats.org.uk/our-work/con... by end of April 2026. Please share

Winter isn’t over yet above the 500m contour. All change at the valley floor though with an influx of Natterer’s bats 🦇

New paper alert: >80k nacelle-height recordings and stereo-thermal 3D tracks show that bats sing in the rotor-swept zone and circle turbine nacelles. We need smarter, species-sensitive curtailment that aligns both climate and biodiversity goals. #Bats #Conservation 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s420...