Season’s Greetings from YACWAG to all our members and supporters!

Look out for some exciting news soon. We are looking forward to announcing the purchase of more land to extend our reserve and make more space for nature in Yatton and Congresbury. This has been made possible by a bequest to YACWAG from Mrs Owen, who appreciated our work on the Strawberry Line.

YACWAG is anticipating a busy new year with lots of opportunities for the community to be involved. See inside for ways to support our work!

Six Months Surveying Bats for YACWAG by Alice Walker and Frankie Bartlett

Alice and Frankie carried out the volunteering part of their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards with YACWAG. They have written about their bat surveys carried out at Cobthorn Reserve below. Over a six month period, we conducted a series of bat surveys along the edge of the Cobthorn reserve and down towards the river to assess the presence of different species during each month or time of year. Bats are an essential part of the ecosystem, acting as indicators of environmental health and maintaining the balance in the food web. Understanding their activity patterns helps us to inform land management decisions and protect them further.

Over the course of the six months we found that the different types of bats show activity at different times of the year. For example the horseshoe bats were more active in the summer months. This could be due to the higher temperatures making it more comfortable to be out at night. The late summer months were better for the pipistrelles although they presented a lot of activity throughout the six month period.

The bats have also shown that they prefer specific areas of the nature reserve. The Daubentons mainly are found by the river which aligns with the knowledge that Daubenton bats feed on aquatic insects. Our data on the horseshoe bats suggest that they mainly stick to hedges and don’t go over open land. The pipistrelles have shown lots of activity over the weir which could suggest there are lots of aquatic insects which are prime food sources for bats. They could also hunt here because it has open space so they can echolocate better and can therefore find prey more accurately.

In conclusion, we have found lots of interesting data suggesting the different activity patterns of bats in the Cobthorn nature reserve. This is probably due to the changing food patterns and weather. We also discovered that the Pipistrelle bats are the most common bats in this area, enjoying specific spaces such as the weir and hedgerows. These patterns highlight the seasonal changes to the bats’ behaviours. This data really emphasises the importance of diverse habitats that support the bat population and the conservation of their habitat.