We saw the announcement in the Surrey Mirror last week and thought ‘That sounds interesting’. So there we were last night, outside The Pavilion restaurant in Priory Park, Reigate at about 8.30pm. We were a little early and there were only a couple of other people there, apart from myself, Gill and her sister Ali. However by 8.45 there were about fifty of us altogether and two Priory Park rangers. The wardens handed out half a dozen bat detectors and off we went towards the trees at the top of the park. This is apparently where they roost and we were told that we should see them coming out of the trees on their way to hunt. The bat detectors were tuned to 45 megahertz which most bats can be detected at.
Anyway 9.15 came and went and still no sign of a bat. We were beginning to think this was a pointless way of spending a Thursday evening in May. We were led down to the lake and still nothing. Then, suddenly, Gill thought she saw something up above just for a split second. A few minutes later the bat detectors starting making whooshing noises and we knew we were in business. The rangers told those who had detectors to try different frequencies as each species of bat has its own particular frequency. Within a few minutes there were a huge variety of noises emanating from these machines. And then we started seeing them.
One or two at first, darting about over the lake, hoovering up all the small insects they could find. Then there were some quite large bats which were flying more slowly and actually catching insects on the water. These are called ‘Daubenton’s Bats’ or ‘Water Bats’. There were also ‘Soprano Pipistrelles’ which are only the size of your thumb and ‘Noctule Bats’ which are much larger ( they can have a wingspan of up to 45cms ). The place was alive with bats everywhere of all shapes and sizes. Some of them came quite close to us as they were darting about.
We’d been told not to use our torches as, contrary to public opinion, bats can actually see and they don’t like torchlight. It was amazing just how much light there still was coming up to 10 o’clock at night. Our eyes had grown accustomed to the twilight and the spectacle of watching these bats was truly mesmerising. Anyway we thought we’d better call it a night but we’ll definitely be back to have another look.
Why not go and see for yourselves? To find out more about bats visit The Bat Conservation Trust website.
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