Richard has recently obtained the following survey licences from Natural England:
- A27 – licence to disturb cirl buntings during surveys. Whilst every effort is made to avoid disturbance of cirl buntings during observational surveys, the RSPB recommend that a Natural England licence be obtained for the Schedule 1 species. We are currently undertaking breeding cirl bunting surveys around Exeter and Dawlish.
- CL19 & 20 – level 3 & 4 bat survey licences. These licences allow the capture of bats for survey purposes using mist nets and harp traps. Bats are carefully caught using these methods and released following data collection.
- A project licence to allow the ringing of bats in south west England. Bats can be carefully ringed, using an aluminium lipped/flanged ring that has a unique identifier code printed on it so that individual bats can be recognised. This project aims to contribute to the South West England Bat Atlas and to gain information on behaviour, bat movement and distribution, to inform conservation actions and development/planning proposals.