Grounded Trees & Ecology

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Grounded Trees & Ecology

Arboriculture and ecology company based in Swansea. Bat and other ecology surveys, plus tree works.

13/11/2025

Today we are going to take a look at our Guide Thermal TK612 cameras - an essential part of our bat survey arsenal. These thermal cameras have different imaging settings that allow us to alter the colour of our recordings. These pictures of a brown long-eared bat roosting in a loft space illustrate the difference between these settings!

We usually use the iron red setting to film over our emergence surveys as we have found that this gives the best contrast between bats and buildings, and particularly bats and the sky. When using our DV2 thermal cameras, which have the same image setting, we tend to favour the adjustable red hot or the white hot settings. When filming internal spaces, the green hot settings really make bats pop!

What is your favourite setting? If you use thermal cameras, what settings are your favourites?

11/11/2025

Here’s a throwback to one of my personal favourite projects - this beautiful old coach house in the Brecon Beacons. This is a project we have been working on for a while now, trying to gather as much data as possible regarding the roost inside so we can mitigate for its loss as best as possible.

We have discovered a day and night roost for lesser horseshoe bats, with a maximum count of
four of them hanging up inside the loft space. On one of our visits, we also spotted a juvenile LHS in the loft space, indicating that this could be a satellite maternity roost.

This was a really fun project to get to be a part of - and it’s not over yet! We still have to design and construct a bat house worthy of replacing this incredible box before the coach house is renovated. We hope to be able to update with its progress soon!

04/11/2025

Where do bats go in November?

After the mating season and a few months of fattening up for the winter, bats retreat to roosts with stable temperatures - underground in caves or mines or tucked into cavity walls. They lower their metabolic rate and enter hibernation, one of only a handful of UK species that undergo true hibernation in place of torpor. Can you name the other UK species that undergo true hibernation?

28/10/2025

Emergency survey - what do you do when you start work and find bats?

This recently happened to one of our clients, who began reroofing and quickly discovered bats under a ridge tile. Luckily, the roofers did exactly what they were supposed to do - carefully replaced the feature to protect bats, stopped all works, and contacted a licensed bat ecologist (us!)

We got to site as soon as we could, conducted a Preliminary Roost Assessment where we found THOUSANDS of bat droppings, and stayed on site to conduct an emergence survey that night. Despite being out of season, we recorded a total of twenty six bats emerging from the property from a total of six access points. It makes you wonder how much activity we’d record within the core bat activity season.

The roof is in desperate need of repair. There are many gaps and areas that have been damaged, leading to water ingress that has caused internal damage.

Our next steps are to get the droppings DNA tested to try get a better idea of the species utilising this home, and apply for an emergency bat licence so the much needed roof repair can continue as soon as possible.

23/10/2025

On a rare sunny day in September, we conducted a Preliminary Roost Assessment at a local office building.
The surrounding habitat was not deemed to have high bat foraging potential, being in an industrial estate, although there are patches of shrubs, a treeline, and a river nearby that could provide potential foraging opportunities and commuting routes.

Potential roosting features identified from the outside of the building included gaps along the length of the ridge tiles, gaps under lifted roof tiles, and large crevices under fascia boards where we found what we suspected to be bat droppings.

The loft space was large and lined with bitumen felt. Unfortunately, due to safety concerns, we could not thoroughly inspect the loft space. Ecologists falling through ceilings is not usually included in a PRA, so we do our best to avoid such incidences.

There was a considerable amount of bat activity around the building, with soprano pipistrelles continuously flying up to a soffit at the rear of the building. Although we did not record any emergences or entries, this activity indicates that maybe there is something more going on here, so we are hoping to return next summer to conduct another emergence survey!

16/10/2025

Doing PRA’s in autumn means getting a little soggy, but rain or shine, nothing stops our team from getting out to survey!

Last month, we had the pleasure of conducting a Preliminary Roost Assessment at this beautiful old church that has been empty for a number of years. Now under new ownership, a new lease of life is going to be breathed into this building as it is being converted into a residential family home.

We identified external potential roosting features that could be used by bats such as gaps under fascia boards and missing roof slates.Internally, there is no loft space, and rendering that has been damaged by water egress over the years has begun to be removed, revealing a bitumen felt lining.

We conducted an emergence survey before the end of the season and found only one bat emerging from an area that would not be affected by the development.

23/09/2025

Recently, we visited this beautiful farmhouse to conduct the bat surveys necessary to secure planning permission for the construction of a two-storey side extension.

Unfortunately, we could not gain access to the interior of the property on our first visit, so a loft inspection was out of the question. What we did achieve was a thorough external inspection whereby we identified many potential bat access points and roosting areas, and marked potential bat foraging habitat and commuting paths.

This property had high potential for bats, so we got started on our first emergence survey right away, and noted six emergences. Hopefully next time we get to go up into the loft space and discover some extra bats!

18/09/2025

Earlier this week, we shared an evening of brown long-eared activity inside a barn. Here's what we recorded on our second evening visit to the same site!

Again, we have brown long-eared bats entering this barn, flying around before hanging up on the roof timbers to rest and groom before dropping down and continuing with the evening's pursuits.

16/09/2025

An evening with bats, hanging out in their night roost 🦇

This charming little brown long-eared bat flew into this barn and hung around at the beginning of the evening, having a stretch and a scratch, having an interaction with a fellow bat (inter-bat-ction?), before dropping back down to continue with the night.

We will miss bat season dearly. Time to start the countdown for May 2026!

11/09/2025

Another PRA completed just at the end of bat season!

This property was located in an area of high bat commuting and foraging potential, but was externally very well sealed with no obvious gaps. Internally, a few gaps could be seen at the corners of the building with light spilling into the loft space. The only issue - the loft space doesn't exist anymore. The ceiling below the loft space had been removed and internal renovations had already begun, with high levels of human disturbances throughout the home. This greatly reduces the suitability of the home for bats. However, there are still potential roosting areas between the bitumen felt lining and the roof tiles, with tears in the bitumen felt.

How would you rate the roosting potential for this building?

09/09/2025

Inspect this barn with us 👀

This barn had multiple access points, including free-flight access through permanently ajar windows and gaps at the top of doors and at the top of walls.

Inside, we found several bat droppings scattered around the whole barn on top of storage items, as well as wing cases - evidence of feeding remains. We had an inkling that this was therefore going to turn to be a night roost.

The surrounding habitat looked great - 107 acres of farmyard with native hedgerows and pockets mature woodland purposefully retained by the site's owners. There was also another barn opposite with a floor covered in bat droppings.

Stay tuned for the updated results of all the emergence surveys we conduct!

04/09/2025

Come on a Preliminary Roost Assessment with us!

Recently, we conducted a survey on this mid-terrace home that has been empty since the '80s. It has been bought at auction and there are plans for major renovations to make the home a suitable dwelling once more.

The surrounding habitat was very poor and we found no evidence of bats, so despite there being access to a loft space lined with bitumen felt, it was deemed to have 'low' roosting potential.

We conducted a dusk emergence survey at the property to ensure there were not bats present, and no bats emerged, and there was very low bat activity throughout the night. The renovations can go ahead without the need for further bat surveys or a bat licence 🦇

Address

4 Spion Kop Road
Swansea
SA65AN

Telephone

+447970274758

Website

http://Www.groundedtrees.uk/

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