Comment for bat report records

TVERC has been talking to local bat groups and, as a result, has decided that providing additional information about bat records would be helpful when judging the importance of records and also in assessing the importance of particular sites for bats, so to what extent they are using a site and what they are using it for. We will try and provide as much useful, relevant information as possible. Specifically we will report on the following (where the information is available from the primary source).

List of possible comment contents

This is what to expect in bat record comments:

Reporting on Meaning
Equipment Equipment used (e.g. model of bat recorder, IR cameras etc
Analysis software Any information about software used to analyse bat calls
Weather conditions Self-explanatory
Timing Duration or time of survey/event (can be approximate)
How are bats using the site? e.g. commuting/foraging (this only applies to flyover records)
General site use How much the site is used by bats? (High, Medium, Low). Estimated using the number of bat passes and/or comments by recorder
Relative site use Out of the bat using the site, what is the relative use by a particular species

When using bat passes to evaluate general/relative species use we are using the following guidance:

Use level Bat passes
High use > 30% of all recorded passes
Medium use 5-30% of all recorded passes
Low use <5% of all recorded passes

So if general use is LOW but relative use HIGH this would mean that there are not many bats using a site, but those that are using it are mainly of this particular species. It should be stressed that these quantities are somewhat subjective, but nevertheless, the comments will provide helpful information