Meet the committee

John Parker – Chair & Website Manager

I am John Parker the group’s Chair as of March 2020, and website manager. I joined the group in the summer of 2017 after an increasing interest in bats through 3 public bat walks with Lynn. I am interested and active with most things bats from harp trapping, swarming, bat box checks, hibernation counts, emergence surveys to bat care. I have taken part in the National Nathusius Project joining in with harp trapping. I just caught the last year of the ELL project and really enjoyed the transects which required walking. I got a bit obsessed with trying to get all tetrads sampled. This year I started doing 2 NBMP field surveys and next year am adding 3 waterways surveys. I am retired which explains where I find the time.

I am hoping to gain my Class 2 licence next summer and have been gaining experience by volunteering with Dani Linton at the Wytham Bat Project and with swarming surveys in the Cotswolds. I am also a member of the Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group to gain more experience and see how other groups work with bats.

The group is currently putting up new bat box schemes and I have been working with Amelia on choosing sites and developing bat box designs with good advice from Michael. These now include 2 designs of Kent, standard, CJM, hibernation and small cavity boxes. We have currently made just short of 100 bat boxes and have materials for the next 100. We have installed 3 small schemes with a possible 4 or 5 more to arrange.

The photo is of me at Finemere (Wytham Bat Project) with a Natterer’s bat that I had just rung, my second ringing.


Amelia Reddish – Vice Chair

I joined NBG in the summer of 2016. Prior to joining the group, I knew very little about bats but I quickly became addicted and have been a regular volunteer for several years.

I have been a member of the committee for around 2 years, starting as Social Media and Minutes Secretary. I am now Vice Chair of the group. Over the years, I’ve participated in a number of different projects and activities including the National Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Project (NNPP), Nottinghamshire Barbastelle Project (NBP), the Echolocation Location (ELL) project and various activities including bat box checks, hibernation checks and walks and talks.

I am currently involved in setting up several new bat box schemes across the county whilst also being a key contact for the Miner to Major Project. As well as bat work within the UK, I have worked with bats in Malawi whilst undertaking my masters dissertation project. I am class 2 licensed and training towards my Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor and class 4 licences.

The photo is of me holding a Barbastelle bat which I had in care. TheBarbastelle is one of our rarest species in Nottinghamshire.


Laura Hammerton – Secretary

Hello! I’m Laura. I’m the group’s Secretary and have been a bat group member since 2013. The main part of my role is to monitor the group’s email account and either reply to queries or forward emails to someone else on the committee who can help. The majority of emails we get are about putting up bat boxes, planning permissions for developments or people asking for walks and talks.

I began working towards a career change from contaminated land consultancy in 2010 and I’m now an ecological consultant with a Level 2 bat licence which I gained partly through volunteering with the group. I have helped with trapping and radio tracking (NNPP and NBP), bat box and hibernation checks, bat care and public walks since joining the group. I have a toddler who takes up a lot of my time so I don’t get out to volunteer in the field as much these days but hopefully that’ll change and I’ll be more active again in the future!

I’m holding a Noctule bat in the photo which we caught at Wollaton Hall on one of the NNPP sessions in 2019. It’s one of the largest species we have in Nottinghamshire and I’m definitely more nervous (it has big teeth) about holding it than I look!


Paul Stone – Treasurer

For me, it started whilst walking the dog on summer evenings at dusk. I stopped to watch the bats flying around overhead. Realising I knew next to nothing about these creatures, I decided to find out more. I joined the Bat Group. The more I learnt, the more fascinated I became with them. So here I am some 20 or so years later as Treasurer of the Notts Bat Group and I have been doing that job since 2011.

A Chemist by profession, I spent most of my working life in environmental management at Boots, until taking early retirement in 2004.

 


Lynn Victor – Bat Care Co-ordinator

I am Lynn Victor and I have been a member of the Bat Group for about 20 years. I have a life-long interest in wildlife and volunteering with the Bat Group has given me amazing opportunities to find out more about these fascinating mammals and help with their conservation.

I was soon persuaded to become involved with bat rescue for the group; there were few carers in the County back then and I learned a lot from Margaret Thurgood who regularly cared for 20 bats at a time. I have been a coordinator for the group for several years, helping to develop our care network and practices so that we can both help more bats and spread the workload. We now have a team of active carers, most of the equipment needed is funded by the Bat Group (from donations) and we support each other with skills sharing and an annual training and networking day for new and existing carers.

I am very keen to raise awareness about bats with the public, and have experience of working with children, families and schools, so I enjoy leading bat walks, talks and activity sessions. This is always very rewarding – children come up with the best questions! It’s great when people become more involved with bats as a result, even putting up bat boxes and buying a bat detector so they can find their own bats.

Bat rescue is also a great way to engage with people who actually have a bat in their garden or property. Even if the bat doesn’t pull through, we’ve played an important part through raising awareness, igniting interest, maybe even finding and safeguarding a roost. If the bat makes a full recovery, taking it back to the finder and releasing it in their garden is the best feeling ever. I feel very lucky to be a part of NBG, I’m learning all the time and wish I had time to do more; luckily there are other members out there far better with technology than me and willing to stay up all night doing surveys!


Michael Walker – Records Officer

My interest in bats began in the mid 1990’s when I attended a bat walk at Colwick Country Park. It was a case of once heard, forever smitten with the wonderful world of bat echolocation. I became an English Nature (now Natural England) Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor in 1998 and a trainer in 2002. I chaired the Nottinghamshire Bat Group from 2008 until 2018 and coordinated the Heritage Lottery funded Echolocation Location project which concluded in November 2018 with the publication of the ‘Bats of Nottinghamshire’ book.

I remain the records officer for the group and am more often than not to be found in a woodland either checking bat boxes or monitoring hazel dormouse populations with the Nottinghamshire Dormouse Group.


Mike Cummings – Membership Secretary


Phil Bych – Equipment Manager


Ed Jude – Social Media


Alex – Bat Care assistant


Andy Beal – Events Co-ordinator


Tiffany Rabett