February marks the approach of the busy spring survey season and is the perfect time to take stock and make sure you have everything you need for your upcoming fieldwork.
To avoid disrupting any survey work later on in the year, we recommend that you take the time now to inspect all technical equipment for any faults. This will allow you to organise any necessary repairs in plenty of time.
We also suggest organising and ordering any equipment you may still require ahead of time, including accessories such as SD cards and batteries.
To help you get equipped for your surveys, we have compiled a helpful list of the key upcoming surveys that are due to begin in the next few months, together with any essential equipment that they require.
February
- Badger bait surveying is best undertaken from late February to late April. Use a peanut and syrup mix with different colour badger bait marking pellets for each sett.
- February is also a key time to survey bat hibernation roosts. We stock all of the main passive bat detectors currently on the market, as well as a comprehensive range of endoscopes.
March
- Reptile felts or corrugated refugia for the survey of reptiles should be put out a few weeks before surveys start to allow them to ‘bed down’. Refugia inspections tend to begin in March or April depending on weather conditions.
- Newt surveys start in mid-March and continue through to June. We offer newt bottle-traps as either whole or pre-cut bottles. Bamboo canes that are used to hold the bottle-traps in place are available to purchase separately.
April
- Dormouse nest tubes should be in place by late March or early April if possible. Hook and loop strapping is ideal for securing tubes and provides a reusable alternative to cable ties.
- eDNA surveys for Great Crested Newts have a relatively short survey window between 15th April and 30th June. We recommend organising and booking your dates and kits in advance.
May
- Summer roost surveys for bats begin in earnest during May. Make sure you have all the active and passive bat detectors required by your team along with any accessories such as head torches, hand-held counters, and spare batteries and memory cards. You might also need to consider night vision or thermal imaging equipment.
June
- Surveys of aquatic invertebrates in static waters usually begin in June. We supply a comprehensive range of kick nets and pond nets, emergence traps, microscopes and hand lenses.
A note on licensing
Please note that some of the species mentioned above are protected by law in the UK. Any survey work on protected species must be undertaken by a licenced ecologist. Different levels of licence are required for different survey and mitigation methods. For more information, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wildlife-licences.
If you have any queries you can contact our customer services team on 01803 865913 or via email at customer.services@nhbs.com.