We enjoyed an excellent and most informative talk by Michael Walker of the Nottinghamshire Bat Group which was supported by a selection of images. We were told about the numerous types, sizes and locations of bats, both in the British Isles and also some from around the world. The habitats of bats was explained, this leading us to the importance of habitats in the wild and the need for instance, for bats to have hedgerows to follow in flight. It was explained that we can play our part in helping these fascinating nocturnal animals by having gardens which support lots of insects for the bats to feed on. The group has been succesful in getting Heritage Lottery Funding for a 3 year project to ‘map’ bats in Nottinghamshire.

As a society, it was agreed that we could no doubt help in this cause by inviting our members to consider having a ‘bat detector’ in their gardens for a few days. Volunteers would be contacted, possibly from April or May next year to arrange for a detector to be placed in their garden. If you are interested in taking part in this project please contact us and we will then decide on the best way forward in conjunction with the Nottinghamshire Bat Group.

The speaker, on a number of occasions, referred to bats flying around Lowdham cricket field during the late summer evenings. Having played and been heavily involved in Lowdham cricket club over many years, it was only at the end of the talk that I realised I knew the speaker, he used to sell cricket ‘bats’!!