We are delighted to release our report: Neighbourhood Bats: With a Little Help from Neighbourhood Citizen Scientists, a community heritage project funded by the Heritage Council.
This project, carried out through Bat Conservation Ireland affiliated Bat Groups, enabled participants to conduct a monitoring programme over a 6-week period at the height of bat season to see what bat data could be collected.
The equipment used for this was a Song Metre Mini, a light weight, easy to use, affordable recorder, which can conduct species inventory and presence/absence bat surveys.
This piece of equipment was monitored remotely via an App, which is free and easy to download.
This project is an extension of current bat monitoring activities, which Bat Conservation Ireland already carries out and gave volunteers in bat groups the opportunity to carry out surveying over the summer period is a Covid-safe way and also help increase their skills.
The bat groups who participated in the project were as follows:
An additional location at Kildare was also used.
The data collected (via SD cards) was then analysed and a report has been produced, based on the results. You can view a copy of this report here: Neighbourhood Bats – with a little help from Neighbourhood Citizen Scientists FINAL REPORT.
We would like to thank the Heritage Council for funding this project and each of the bat groups for their participation and volunteering their time.