Jersey Bat Group

Michael Brimacombe has contacted us as follows:
“Conrad Evans of Jersey Trees for Life has suggested I seek your assistance concerning establishing the presence of bats in the grounds of our property Temple View .
The context for this enquiry is a current proposal under the High Hedges law to very drastically reduce the height of a line of mature Holm Oaks standing in La Rue des Marettes, which makes this matter very urgent.
Knowledgeable people working here have claimed to have seen bats and Conrad Evans has suggested that the cavities in these Holm Oaks, some of which are more than a century old, may be inhabited by bats. He has recommended that a “bat detector” should be used by a trained detector to determine if this is the case.”

Due to the urgency of the need for this survey we are going to be carrying out an initial survey on Thursday 17th June (this week), Kate Sharma is then going to conduct a survey of the crevices in the trees during the day on Friday, we will then conduct a follow up dusk survey on Monday 21st June.

As it is a fairly large hedgerow we could do with as many volunteers with bat detectors as possible in order to conduct the dusk surveys.

If you are available on Thursday or Monday please let me know, we will be meeting at Temple View, La Rue des Marettes, St Martin JE3 6DS at 9pm. Temple View is located about 400 yards down La Rue des Marettes – leading from the main road just North of Ransoms Garden Centre eastwards to Anne Port – the path leading up Faldouet Dolmen is straight on and about 200 yards further. It is the third house on the right hand side up a short drive between a couple of cement pillars. There are gates at the top of the drive, but people can park in the field on the right at the top.

Your help would be much appreciated for this survey.

Thanks,

ani

The weather report is not looking good for tomorrow therefore I am re-scheduling the Oaklands survey for 8.15/8.30pm Thursday 27th May, please confirm your attendance so that I can update the surveyor.
thanks,
ani

A big thank you to Si and Miranda for coming down to La Braye to help me out on Saturday, and to Si for volunteering to write a newsletter article about the event.

CHEERS GUYS

ani

Hi All,

As you are probably aware we are going to have a stall at the Spring Watch Wild Day out event at La Braye on Saturday 22nd May.

The event runs from 10am until 4pm and volunteers are needed to attend the stall and organise the children’s activities, I will be there for the majority of the day but it would be great to get a few more people to come along as well. If you are able to attend please let me know what times you can do!

Thanks,

ani

For those of you that are interested here are the official posters for the spring watch events we are taking part in:
JBG wild day out Bat walks poster
Spring Watch poster

Just a quick reminder that we are holding a training event on Monday 17th May at Durrell.

Meet in the Internation Training Centre lecture theatre at Durrel at 7.30pm for the theory training, this will be followed by the practical training starting at around 8.30pm.
To get to the International Training Centre lecture theatre. Turn off at the entrance just before the Durrell entrance (coming from Trinity) or just after (coming from St Martins), go down the long drive and park where they see other cars, then walk further on down to the buildings at the end.

Hope to see you all there.

Thanks,

ani

Incase any one is interested here is a link to an article from the BBC concerning moth numbers falling which will effect bat numbers: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10114969.stm

Title: Oaklands Survey
Location: Oaklands house, Trinity
Description: Emergence survey of Oaklands house prior to building work.
Start Time: 20:30
Date: 2010-05-26

As those that attended the meeting know, we are going to be conducting an emergence survey of Oaklands in Trinity for which we will receive a £250 donation from the owner. We need to conduct this survey at the end of May/beginning of June and the building surveyor needs to know the date and the number of people that will be on site in advance, therefore we need to organise numbers and a date that everyone who wants to take part is available. If you want to be involved in this survey please add a comment with your name and available dates/unavailable dates for late May/early June.

Thanks,

ani

Based on the comments I suggest we have the initial date as Wednesday 26th May, but if the weather is bad have thursday 27th, Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd as back up dates. Let me know if you can make those dates as I need to tell the surveyor how many of us will be on site for health and safety.

Thanks,

ani

Thank you to all who attended last nights meeting.

We now have 3 new committee members.
I am continuing as Chair for another year, Pam De Gruchy has taken over as Treasurer, Kate Sharma has taken over as Secretary and David Tipping has joined as a committee officer.

As well as electing the new committee we have also arranged a training event for all bat group members and decided to take part in the Spring Watch festival and Wild Day Out. Full details of the minutes and events to follow.

ani