Fun Meeting the Bats.

When our 6 year old grand-daughter was staying with us and we told her we thought we might take her to see bats she was very worried. Wasn’t at all sure she wanted to go. She had heard all sort of things about bats!

A little gentle persuasion and an assurance we could come home at any time if she didn’t like it persuaded her to come and see what happened. The sun was still up and there were no bats to be seen when we arrived. Quite a lot of grown-ups and no other children so she clung close.

James Riches and Harry Mycock started speaking and soon had her attention. As the sun set she was awarded a bat badge for answering one of the questions and was began to be excited at the imminent arrival of bats. Soon everyone was equipped with a detector and we could start to listen to the bats echo location.

We didn’t have for wait long. Flying high round the trees bats started feeding, flitting and dancing across the sky. The clicking of the detectors rose and fell as they came and went. Pipistrelles we learnt – you can tell by the frequency they use.

She was entranced and soon more bats arrived and she had to search for another frequency to discover what they were. The hunt was on, shyness and fear abandoned. Fortunately with a group there is usually someone who has their detector tuned to the frequency of new arrivals and everyone is very nice and helpful. Soon she had heard and seen four different species.

As the light began to fade away we walked home. She was thrilled – it had been so exciting and she had been able to stay up until half-past nine!