Kelsey Park - one of the most beautiful parks in our area - often has interesting walks and talks arranged by dedicated local enthusiasts. There is an information centre, which is manned most of the time and full of useful leaflets, and it is easy to check their calendar for upcoming events.
I had long been planning to attend one of their Bat Walks, and was just waiting for my eldest son to reach a suitable age. 2012 was the year! - father and son (both as excited as each other) headed off to Bat HQ and a very enjoyable evening.
We arrived at 20:00 BST to find a small group of about 25 people, including children, wrapped up warm and gathered around the information centre. The walk was being hosted by Ishpi Blatchley, a local bat expert and nature enthusiast. I hoisted Todd up onto my shoulders, to facilitate an excellent view of Ishpi and her helpers, and we received a brief introduction to the order Chiroptera. Some of the information I knew, but I didn't realise female bats could live for 40 years and there were a variety of other helpful snippets that really set the scene and helped immerse us in the fluttering world of these misunderstood creatures.
We all received a BATBOX, which was a real highlight of the evening, and helped Todd feel quite the nature detective as he proudly held it aloft - scanning the night sky for winged mammalian activity. Sunset occurred at 20:00 BST and, as we advanced into the park, darkness quickly enveloped us in an inky shroud.
We were asked to set the BATBOX frequency to around 50kHz, as this is ideal for the smaller bat species such as Pipistrelles. We were advised that three species were likely to grace us with their ultrasonic presence - the Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) , Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii).
Sure enough we were only a few minutes into the route and our BATBOX starting clicking wildly, as it detected the first Pipistrelles flitting past the branches above. We were in the presence of flying mammals, though they remained cloaked by the darkness they trust so well. It did not take long for one to emerge from its onyx sanctum and flit across the lighter grey sky - providing a tantalising silhouette of the little insectivorous predator.
Along the way Ishpi pointed out a bat box (the wooden kind fixed to a tree) and explained how they receive a great deal of traffic during the autumn months, with males using them as a harem.
We headed to the lake, beautiful centre piece of Kelsey Park, and the detectors continued to click wildly as we arrived at the perfect haven for Daubenton's bat. It was possible to see them skimming the surface in their search for insects and one of Ishpi's helpers shone a torch across the water, successfully tracking several animals, as they skimmed through the aqueous gloom.
Above is a really bad photo taken over the lake! The two lighter spots in the middle are wings reflecting my flash light, but they also look like an eerie pair of eyes staring back from the darkness. Rather fitting for a walk which many would consider sinister, but my own opinion couldn't be further from this.
It was cold and I had to give Todd my coat at one point, but that didn't detract from a very enjoyable evening being at one with the bats. All in all we must have seen a good thirty or forty examples of all three species and I would thoroughly recommend the event to anyone.
I am advised by Ishpi that the Noctule, one of our largest species, congregates in significant numbers for one week only around June. This is due to the eruption of a particular food source. I am hoping to receive an email nearer the time and thoroughly look forward to observing bats the size of starlings!