At ten to seven, Judith said to me: “I’m bringing my grandchildren, so at least there will be five of us!”
I arrived at the meeting point in Old Leo’s car park just after twenty five past seven. Steve Joul was already there with about twenty five members of the public. And still they kept on coming. We introduced Steve, and still they kept on coming. Steve began a talk about bats, and still they kept on coming. Steve got out his nine bat detectors and still they kept on coming. In the end we counted between seventy five and eighty nychteridaphiles (bat lovers) of all ages. Like true nychteridaphiles, they would not stand still long enough for us to count them, but they contributed £154.97 to FOAW’s funds from which we deduce there were about fifty adults, between twenty five and thirty children, and someone who had a lot of loose change in their pocket!
Having explained how the bat detectors work and demonstrated how to use them, Steve shared them out and we set off. First of all we went to have a look at the seven bat boxes put up by Friends of Adel Woods.
We then walked along the bottom of the field to the north of Crag Lane. In the southwest corner, the bat detectors spluttered out their machine gun cry for the first time: there was a solitary bat flitting about, clearly visible against the clear sky. Soon he or she was joined by a second and possibly a third bat. The game was on!
Excited we set off round the top of the field and up to the Hospice Woodland. But the bats were now lying low – or flying high, as they occasionally taunted us with sightings as they gyrated around the top of the tree line, ensuring that their supersonic calls were too far away for our detectors to pick them up.
By now, like a swirling flock of starlings, our gathering had separated into three separate groups of bat hunters, before coalescing again seamlessly into a single congregation in the field where we had seen our first bat.
At nine o’clock it was almost fully dark and time for the younger explorers to go home to Bedfordshire and we wended our way back to the carpark, a cheery hum of conversation and satisfaction buzzing around the group.
A truly memorable evening. Thank you to Steve, for your interesting and informative talk and for leading us safely around the woods. Thank you to the committee of FOAW for organising the event. And thank you to all you nycheridaphiles for making it such an exciting and enjoyable evening.
Friends of Adel Woods 