I have watched bats flit about a night for as long as I can remember. Creatures that make use of a time when there is no daylight or warmth from the sun (speaking as a sun worshipper) intrigue and inspire me. 
As teenagers, my friends and I used to head down to the River Dee in Chester and sit, just opposite the Queen’s Park suspension bridge, and watch the bats leaving their roost on their nightly forage. We would sit, with our own catch - cones full of salty chips, regularly waving a plastic fork skewered chip to signal the emergence of another bat. We would watch as they swooped and darted up to the tree line, then drop straight down towards the water surface catching their meal mid flight. After the catch, their flight would settle before detecting another winged morsel and they would repeat the manoeuvre. The sight of them flitting, darting, dropping and turning a silhouette against the darkening sky mesmerised me.
Gosh, to think – for over thirty years I have knowingly looked out for bats at dusk ,but surprisingly in all of that time, I had never pursued the interest any further. Well, that is except for a developing love for the ‘Tropical Bat House’ at Chester Zoo and the frequent urges I get to pay it a visit. I suspect it's a good thing that the Bat House doesn't offer admission without the cost of a full price Zoo ticket, otherwise I may be there so often I’d be wanting my own roost.
Then five years ago I moved to South Cheshire where every night our garden is visited by at least two foraging bats. You can almost set your watch by them. They appear just on the cusp of dusk as the daylight becomes a darkening, smoky blue hew and the blackbirds, the last to go to bed, ready themselves for their nightly roost with a final perimeter check. These bats, their species previously unknown to me, have always circled between our and next door’s garden. Both gardens are lined with hedges to about fifteen to twenty feet high with a row of fir trees and plenty of bug attracting flowers, so it seems no surprise that we regularly get foraging bats. They often fly around between the two gardens at the height of our back door, which means we can stand and watch to our hearts content as they swoop towards the door and turn on a dime to catch their prey.
They have become such regulars that our neighbour pops out into the garden and utters a soft and welcoming “Hello Bat” as she stands smoking a late evening cigarette.
I think my interest has increased over the last twelve months after watching an episode of 'Spring Watch' on BBC2 – they had a group of Bat Conservationists that were using Bat Detectors to hear and locate bats and this has been in the back of my mind ever since. I’ve looked them up a few times and put them on my wish list, but finally ‘I got around’ to doing something about it.
Last month I finally got motivated to do some up to date research and I went and bought my first Bat Detector. The nightly chip-chop and click-clicks of the Bats echolocation sounds has intoxicated me ever since and it has spurred me on to get more involved with the conservation of these lovely creatures.
Hence my 'Bat, Barns and Nocturnal Yarns' blog.
I am a complete novice at Bat Detection, Species Recognition and Conservation Surveys so this is my way of recording the things I find on my nightly walks, surveys and group meetings that I go to and I will also share some of the 'Bat Facts' and web links that I learn along the way.
If, like me you have even a passing interest in these intriguing creatures then it’s good to have you along for the experience and maybe we can learn a thing or two together.
Xx
Anna.
Photo: Bats,Barns & Nocturnal Yarns (c) Anna Ganderton 2011
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