Northern Ireland Bat Group

Northern Ireland Bat Group Northern Ireland Bat Group is a registered charity made up entirely of volunteers who help conserve and raise awareness on bats in Northern Ireland.

Our group is made up of volunteers from all walks of life with a common interest in bats. Since 1985 we rescue & rehabilitate bats; deliver bat talks & walks all over NI, gather bat records, assist with research projects and train people wishing to apply for a bat roost visitor license. We also work closely with the Bat Conservation Trust, NIEA, CEDaR & Bat Conservation Ireland

Not on my watch!🦇This cheeky chunky male Leisler’s bat decided a good place for temporary shelter would be on top of a s...
29/08/2026

Not on my watch!🦇

This cheeky chunky male Leisler’s bat decided a good place for temporary shelter would be on top of a security alarm 🤦‍♀️

Thanks to his big belly full of insects security couldn't set the alarm until he moved 😆

Thanks to Martin for contacting us and volunteer Joanne for releasing him successfully that same evening - no surprise he started foraging immediately! 🦇

If you find a bat contact us via our form 👇

https://www.bats-ni.org.uk/bat-queries/

🦇BAT EVENTS NEAR YOU🦇We are delivering some bat talks & walks in September & October 😊For more details and how to book 👇...
21/08/2026

🦇BAT EVENTS NEAR YOU🦇

We are delivering some bat talks & walks in September & October 😊

For more details and how to book 👇

https://www.bats-ni.org.uk/events/

A special event will take place for our amazing volunteers & current members in December - you'll receive an email in October 😉🥳

Lots of bat events planned as part of our 40th birthday celebrations this year 🥳www.bats-ni.org.uk/events/ To our amazin...
03/08/2026

Lots of bat events planned as part of our 40th birthday celebrations this year 🥳

www.bats-ni.org.uk/events/

To our amazing members - keep an eye on your emails in October for a special invitation 😉 🦇

amazing!
10/07/2026

amazing!

Did you know brown long-eared bats love perching in their favourite spot and eat moths? They are not so keen on the wings though, and will just let them fall on the floor unscathed.

This photo, taken by Mike Mullis, is a collection of moth wings left by a brown long-eared bat from underneath its feeding roosts in his barn in East Sussex.

The wings had been discarded by the bats from various perches inside the barn - some are easy to find and pick up while others often settle in remote spots that are difficult to reach or just fall into spider's webs.

Some extra information on the behind the scenes of capturing this from Mike: "The main problem is that individual wings are simply laid down on the A4 sheet without being fixed or stuck in any way. It can be quite a nightmare as any small movement of my hand or body can flip the moth wings over, then I have to delicately fiddle around with them in position or have to re-position them completely. Have to keep all windows & doors closed to do all this. Took me about 3.0 hours to produce and get photo'd".

(photo shared with Mike's permission)

🦇ROOST COUNT TRAINING🦇📣Free training for our current members 🗺Help put more Northern Ireland sites on the National Bat M...
10/06/2026

🦇ROOST COUNT TRAINING🦇

📣Free training for our current members

🗺Help put more Northern Ireland sites on the National Bat Monitoring Programme map

📍County Antrim - [email protected]

📍County Tyrone - [email protected]

For more information & to register send an email to contacts above.

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️Volunteers needed in   Fintona/Enniskillen Help monitor bats in   to find out if their populations are increasin...
04/06/2026

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️Volunteers needed in

Fintona/Enniskillen

Help monitor bats in to find out if their populations are increasing, decreasing or stable 🦇

🦇Love bats? Volunteer with us!
We are looking for volunteers to help monitor bats in two locations in Ireland.
📈The main aim of Bat Conservation Ireland is to help conserve Irish bats. In order to ensure Irish bats are being conserved it is important to find out if their populations are increasing, decreasing or stable.
📊Regular monitoring is the key to picking up any declining (or increasing) trends, which are in turn, important in forming conservation policy and management on a nationwide and EU level. BCIreland manages five schemes to track trends in bat populations.
🦇The annual population trends of common pipistrelles, soprano pipistrelles and Leisler's bats are assessed every year by driven surveys across the island of Ireland. Along 28 pre-mapped routes, teams of two people drive slowly and use bat detectors to record the bats along roadsides twice in July and August. In order to derive reliable trends the same routes are driven year after year.
🔦We need new volunteer teams in Meath and Fermanagh to help cover these two routes so that we can find out how their populations are doing.
🦇No experience is needed, we provide training and we analyse the bat sounds afterwards to identify what bats were present.
🏡If you live in either of these two areas, you have the use of a car, you have a couple of evenings free in July and August, and have a willing team mate to help please get in touch!
For more information please email: [email protected]
Thanks to support from National Parks and Wildlife Service & Northern Ireland Environmental Agency.
📸 Tina Aughney

03/06/2026

FOUND A BAT?🦇

Use our easy contact form to connect quickly with a trained volunteer near you 👇

https://www.bats-ni.org.uk/bat-queries/

👉Select 'Grounded bat'

🦇Thanks from the bats! 😊

Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR Northern Ireland Environment Agency Bat Conservation Trust

Well done to volunteer Inge on her first release yesterday 👏 Thanks so much to finder David for contacting us and keepin...
02/06/2026

Well done to volunteer Inge on her first release yesterday 👏 Thanks so much to finder David for contacting us and keeping him safe until help arrived 😊

We are well into busy bat rescue season so if you find a bat please get in touch via our contact form so that we can get a trained volunteer nearest you to respond:

👉https://www.bats-ni.org.uk/bat-queries/

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to help bats that are grounded or injured and for contacting us to get them the help they need ❤

01/06/2026

🦇COUNT BATS 🦇

We are well into bat survey season and time to count roosts!

Our umbrella organisation Bat Conservation Trust are looking for new roosts to add to the bat map in

If you have a bat roost it's easy to take part 🏡

👉Sign up to the survey and register your roost anytime if you are interested in counting your bats. By taking part in the Roost Count, you will be helping monitor how different bat species are faring across the UK.

🗓The Roost Count involves doing two evening counts between 6th and 25th June and at least five days apart.

To sign up 👇
https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/national-bat-monitoring-programme/surveys/roost-count

🦇We will organise free roost count training for our members so if you'd like to learn how to use a heterodyne bat detector, identify bats in flight and gain new skills then please get in touch: [email protected]

National Bat Monitoring Programme

05/05/2026

Another one away - this time in Dungiven🦇🦇🦇

Thanks to our amazing volunteer Ian for travelling to collect & check him over. No injuries and thankfully after some food & water from Ian - away he went (very fast!) 😊

A big thank you also to finder Caoimhín for contacting us 👏

💻If you find a bat please contact us using our form so that we can pass it on quickly to a volunteer nearest to you: https://www.bats-ni.org.uk/bat-queries/

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Cultra

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