As we draw to the end of the year, a big pat on the back to our 300 members. Wherever you are, in the country or overseas, you are doing great things locally and nationally for Bat conservation. Take a bow. More science stuff in 2026
@batconservation.bsky.social

While I'm on it, here is a round flat wasp nest in schwegler 1FF (not seen that before)
Noctule
Soprano pip wing
Jools and Anna doing box checks in the Cotswold Water park
@bct @wiltsbg

The Shire is wet for the first time in 4 months! The land is sighing as the moisture is sucked up. To celebrate here are a few random pics from the summer.
Brandt's (bat of the year! )
Brown long eared
Bechstein's
Natterer's
@bct @wiltsbg

This is male Bechstein's J19405. Typically for young males at this time of year, evicted (under duress by the state of his ear) from the maternal home and banished to the 'man shed' equivalent on the edge of the wood. Braydon forest, Wiltshire, May 2025.

I'm posting this photo of Greater horseshoe bats because I just think it is one of the best I've seen! 🦇 (Photo credit Laura Pratt) taken in a Wiltshire mine Feb 2025. Anyway, now to do a bit of bat box maintenance and wait for the sun to shine.
P.S. It snowed in the Shire today🦇

We've walked and crawled and climbed, covered many kilometres underground, smelt the distinct oder of pipe tobacco from the disgruntled spirit of an old quarry man (seriously spooky) and done our bit for science. Now to drink tea and eat cake, and maybe biscuits.

We've been in The pit of doom, Pharoah's tomb, Muddy hole, Death chamber, Clapham Junction (not that one) and the back passage. We've wrecked our knees and recorded several thousand bats across our hibernation sites. Wiltshire Bat Group hard as nails and covered in cr*p

From the archive.
I always appreciate a decent piece of cave/mine art that someone took a bit of time over, and above it, a greater horseshoe (undisturbed) who hadn't read any of the books about how it should hang up

As we draw near to the end of the year, a big thank you! to the WBG volunteers who went up and down ladders and stood around in nice places, doing science stuff.

A couple of photos from this summer to kick things off. No prizes for ID though