Working to protect and conserve Jersey’s native bat species through research, education, and community involvement.
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By Callum Webb
Durrells’ Barnaby the Bat – a May baby like myself – was my first introduction to bats. The teenage Livingstone fruit bat is still doing well, just he’s no longer on the list of adoptable animals.
However, cycle rides at dusk around green lanes expose me to Jersey’s native bats. It’s a good way to unwind, but a cycle can become long in duration if you keep stopping to watch bats.
If you asked me at the start of 2025 “how many bats have we discovered in Jersey?”, I may have blagged a higher amount. Trust be told, I’d reckoned there was one species. I knew the small bats that constantly swooped and looped had the species name ‘pipistrelle’, just I’d incorrectly pronounce that as “pipistrell-ee”.
I’ve now seen three bats:
The heterodyne detectors, the ones we use for public walks, are very fun indeed. You dial into a peak frequency but unless you have the frequency in the in the right area and you know what call pattern different species have, I found it hard to get into.
BatChat, Bat conservation Trusts’ podcast, had an episode exploring the Echo Meter Touch 2 as part of citizen science, based on it being user friendly. I’d recommend that as a novice. It comes in around £150, but it identifies bat species you’ve got and plots them on a map. It shows me I’ve also encountered noctule and Leisler’s bats, just I’ve yet to see them with my own eyes.
Getting into bats, I’ve benefitted greatly from my wife, Laura, sharing the hobby. While she’s great support for public bat walks, adorned with an Echo Meter Touch 2 plugged into her tablet, she’s made spotting bats a mutual hobby. It adds another pleasant layer to that de-stressing cycle. She’s even encouraged our younger family members, where our nephews and niece have requested we go round looking for bats on their sleep overs. It’s with the younger members we’ve seen some juvenile bats flying alongside adults, but it’s with Laura that I saw my first Serotine – swooping exaggeratingly around the lime trees of St. Mary’s cemetery.
If your a novice, I’d recommend approaching bat watching as an alternative evening activity; it’s low-intensity and doesn’t sap your social batteries. If you’ve been indoors all day and Netflix doesn’t appeal, get out to somewhere relaxing and enjoy dusk.
Working to protect and conserve Jersey’s native bat species through research, education, and community involvement.
Jersey Bat Group
Registered Charity No. 17
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