Mad about Bats – Wilderhood Watch

As hedgerows, meadows and ponds disappear to make way for human development and our cities grow brighter and brighter, bat populations are coming under increasing pressure. These incredible mammals that have adapted to take to our skies are truly magical beings, and they desperately need our help. Our Mad about Bats project aims to engage residents to bolster their numbers by dimming their outside lights and gardening in a bat-friendly way.

Ten Top Tips for a Bat Friendly Garden

_{Pipestrelle bats emerging from the eaves at dusk to forage for flying insects.}

To launch our project, Wilderhood Watch collaborated with the Wild Jam Bat Group and St Albans Friends of the Earth.

_{We surveyed over 20 Wilderhood Watch streets (shown in red),} _{which gave us a good indication of bat activity across St Albans.} _{Many thanks to Maraget Harris from the Wild Jam Bat group (and a Wildlife Gardening Champion!) for creating this map.}

Together with Wild Jam we surveyed 6 St Albans allotments and 20 Wilderhood Watch streets by training residents to install audio moths (tiny recording devices). These were left in place for 5 nights in June 2025, which gave them plenty of time to pick up any bat activity. We are analysing the results at the moment and will use this information to advise participating streets on how best to encourage our bat population.

Bat survey results 2025

In the meantime, through our Pollinator Highway and Toad Road projects, we’ve been planting meadows in our gardens and encouraging Wilderhood Watch members to build ponds. Through our Buzz Stop initiative, the number of local green spaces that are now left unmown over the Summer is steadily increasing, creating more habitat for invertebrates to flourish.

_{Attendees of Wild Jam’s Bat Talk last year were lucky enough to meet a gorgeous little pipistrelle bat. So tiny!}

We collaborated with SA Friends of the Earth to stage a bat themed Sustfest 2025 event on March 14th. Heidi Mansell from HMWT (and also a Wilderhood Watch volunteer), gave a fascinating talk about bats, complete with some wonderful video footage. Liz Leicester from the Wild Jam bat group discussed our plan to survey bats in St Albans and inspired 2 more streets to join us in the process, and Cllr Jenny Roberts described her amazing encounters with bats in Jersey Farm. The venue was filled with a very enthusiastic and patient audience (we had a few teething problems at the beginning of the evening), who enriched the evening with some wonderful questions and comments.

_{A big thank you to Heidi, Liz and Jenny for being such engaging and interesting speakers. We all came away far more knowledgable about these awe-inspiring creatures and determined to protect them.}

Participating Streets:

Pollinator Friendly Plants

If you would like to join in with our project, please email nadia@wilderhoodwatch.org.