About Lincolnshire Bat Group
Lincolnshire is the bulge above East Anglia on the east side of Great Britain and is the second-largest county in England and largely rural (and often unheard of so hence the introduction.)
Lincolnshire is home to 11 of the 18 British resident breeding species of bat with the commoner species being the 3 species of Pipistrelle, Brown long-eared and Daubenton’s and including Natterers, Noctule, Leisler’s and Barbastelle.
Lincolnshire Bat Group was formed in 1983 and developed from an earlier group which then joined others under the umbrella of the Bat Conservation Trust. The aims of the group as set out in “our constitution” are to promote bat conservation to the general public to undertake research on bat distribution and bat behaviour in Lincolnshire and to support the authorities in the statutory protection of bats.
We promote the interests of bats throughout the county at shows, bat walks, talks.
We undertake surveys to record the distribution of bats at different parts of the county in conjunction with various projects. Bat numbers in the UK have dropped dramatically over the last century. By helping the Bat Conservation Trust, other natural history groups and researchers to monitor the bats in the UK we can find out more about the factors which are helpful in bat survival.
We have registered carers in the county who undertake the care and rehabilitation of sick and injured bats with a view to returning them to the wild where possible.
Our county bat recorder collects sightings and roost information to establish a picture of the distribution and trends of the bat population in the county.
The bat group gets together once a quarter to hold meetings and has a social event at the end of the year. These are usually held in Horncastle as it is fairly central in the county.
We also send out periodical e-bulletins through MailChimp to keep members informed of what is happening and what they can get involved in.
Our committee currently includes a chairperson, secretary, membership secretary and treasurer, bulletin editor, records officer, and vice-chairperson but meetings are open to the membership.
The carers group and events organisers sometimes hold separate meetings.
At the 2024 AGM there were quite a few changes to personnel. Several of these were brought about by the retirement of Annette Faulkner. We could say how much we appreciate how hard she worked for so long on behalf of Lincolnshire bats but to realise the extent of her input we just have to say that her roles have been split between FOUR people.
– Helen is now looking after the Helpline and information requests -01526 344726 and info@lincsbatgroup.co.uk
– Raul and Chris are taking over doing the county bat records – Annette did it for 25 years well before computerisation and they are working on developing a new system for recording sightings. You can report any sightings to lincolnshirebatrecords@outlook.com
– Kiran is co-ordinating bat carers and bat care in the county (and sometimes along the borders). There will soon be an on-line form and link for anyone finding grounded bats but if in doubt contact the BCT number. 0345 1300 228