Links

Created January 2010
Updated  March 2017

The first port of call for information about bats in Great Britain. The Bat Conservation Trust also runs a 24 hour helpline to provide expert advice on all aspects of bat conservation.They completely revamped their website in Spring 2008 and it is now much more accessible.

Helpline number is 0345 1300 228 . http://www.bats.org.uk

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Bat Conservation International. A huge American site with a massive archive of articles http://www.batcon.org

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You can’t do better than this site if you want lucid authoritative information about the bats of the British Isles. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/behaviour/batlab/

Also have a section  on Chinese bats
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WT_BCN_blackThe Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust is the largest charity working for the conservation of wildlife and wild spaces within the three counties.

http://www.wildlifebcn.org/

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The Greensand Trust is an independent environmental charity that works with local communities and landowners to conserve and promote the distinctive landscape, wildlife and history of the Greensand Ridge, and to improve access, understanding and enjoyment of this fascinating area. Most of our best bat sites are on the Greensand Ridge including Stockgrove Country Park which he have been surveying for twenty years. __http://www.greensandtrust.org/_
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BNHS logoThe Bedfordshire Natural History Society endeavours to cover all branches of natural history particularly in relation to Bedfordshire. The Bat group is affiliated to it, produces an annual bat report for its journal The Bedfordshire Naturalist. It provides support towards our every day running costs and has in the past given us a grant for equipment

http://www.bnhs.org.uk

Now available on the Bedfordshire History Site Grab a Grid Reference Duo This popular tool now supports Ordnance Survey maps, postcode searches and place name searches.

View aerial photos alongside OS maps of different scales and get grid references directly from both. Locations can be linked, emailed, and book marked. Also very useful for verifying grid references. The Beds boundary, VC30 and Accessible Wildlife Sites can also be overlaidYou can also download the Society’s magazine Wild about Beds (formally The Munjac) from their website.

Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue, based in Leighton Buzzard, does what it says on the tin, and provides care for a wide range of injured wildlife. www.wildlife-rescue.org.Helps us with bat care and advice

The Community Tree Trust is a charity which collects seeds from native plant species, grows them on and sells them to the public. They hold regular collection days. dates for which are in the latest edition of their newsletter which is posted on their website.

 

 

BedsLife is a partnership of organisations promoting nature and biodiversity conservation in Bedfordshire and Luton. We include government, local authorities and conservation groups. We are guided by the Bedfordshire and Luton Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), launched in 2001.

Local Bat groups

In Britain bat groups are organised on a county basis. You can get a list of the bat groups in your area from the Bat Conservation Trust. Here are some of the nearby groups we have links with

The Cambridgeshire Bat Group and the Bedfordshire Bat Group do a lot of work together including tracking barbastelles, hibernaculum checking and generally taking the mick. We’ve also done some joint training sessions. They have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1733641183520612/ and are working on a new website – wta\ch this space

The Herts and Middlesex bat groupe. We’ve done some joint work with them in the past and have been known to gate crash their indoor meetings on occasions  http://www.hmbg.org.uk/

In 2005 the Bedfordshire Bat Group finally got round to working with the North Bucks Bat Group to hunt barbastelles on the Beds/Bucks border. They rapidly got up to speed on micky taking  since then we have worked together on a number of survey and they gave us a lot of advice when we set up our bat bat project in 2011 http://www.northbucksbatgroup.org.uk.

Far away groups

TrinibatsFour members of the Bedfordshire Bat Group have so far been involved in the Trinibats Project. Trinibats also has a facebook page