Stockgrove Country Park Survey

Probably the best bat site in Bedfordshire

Open to non members

The Bedfordshire Bat Group has been monitoring bat activity here since 1988. Species known to be present are common pipistrelles, soprano pipistrelles, long eared bats, Daubenton’s bats and Noctules. Brandt's bat and barbastelle have been mist netted very close to this site.

This is an ideal site to hone your bat detector skills. (We can lend you bat detectors for the evening if you let us know in advance you are coming)

We monitor numbers of emerging bats and count Daubenton’s flying over the lake. We usually see between 5 and 30, but have had as many as 120.

This is the best site in the county if you want to be sure of seeing bats.

Click here to read an article from the April 2005 newsletter describing the site in more detail.

Click here to see what the site is like

How to get there

After leaving the A5 at the Flying Fox roundabout, head towards Heath and Reach. Just before the village, turn right towards Great Brickhill. The park is situated about 1/2 mile along this road. If you're coming from the west, then it is easier to come via Leighton Buzzard. Turn towards Woburn, along North Street. This then becomes Heath Road after a few hundred yards. Continue on through Heath and Reach, turning left as soon as you leave the village. The turning is opposite the bus stop (map and instructions courtesy of the Greensand Trust)

We meet at the roadside car park (SP919294)

(The car park inside the main gates is closed at 9 pm)

In 2007

We tried out a minor modification to our Daubenton counting technique which we ran in parallel with the original more complex one. The results proved almost identical and so we will use the simplified technique in 2008. We managed to mist net a Daubenton when it returned to a roost which had been unoccupied for several years.

Dates for 2008

Month	Date	Start Time
April	Mon 7th	7.40pm
	Mon 21st	8.00pm
May	Mon 5th	8.20pm
	Mon 19th	8.45pm
June	Mon 2nd	9.00pm
	Mon 16th	9.10pm
	Mon 30th	9.10pm
July	Mon 14th	8.50pm
	Mon 28th	8.45pm
Aug	Mon 11th	8.20pm
	Mon 25th	7.50pm
Sep	Mon 8th	7.20pm
	Mon 22nd	6.50pm

In 2008 we would like to continue our hunt for whiskered/ Brandt's bats. but we need more people if we are to do this in addition to the routine monitoring work.

Want to know more?

Contact Mark Best (his details are in the newsletter) or

envelope email us at batsinbeds@fsmail.net

Other activities

Click here for a full list of other activities you could get involved with