Staring up at the night sky, 14-year-old Matt Bassett’s heart skips a beat as he spots a bat flying past.
“I haven’t seen a bat before and I like animals,” says Matt, from West Bromwich.
“My dad has told me about them and we thought it would be brilliant to see them so we decided to come on a bat walk.
“They are quite quick so I will have to keep my eyes peeled.”
A bat walk at Sandwell Park Farm in West Bromwich last night drew in 35 people all keen to spot one of the flying mammals.
Bat warden Chris Sherlock says forget Dracula, bats are nothing to be scared of.
“It is not unusual for 35 people to turn up for a bat walk because they are generally really keen,” says Chris, 44, who has been a member of the Birmingham and Black Country Bat Group since 1989.
“A lot of people are scared of them but if they learn more about bats it stops them being so nervous.
“Events like the bat walks are very family orientated. Children are being made more aware of environmental issues at school and once they have made the step from dinosaurs to other interesting animals they do tend to like bats.
“Bats are here, they are in our gardens and people generally see them on holiday. They have also had quite a high profile recently thanks to TV programmes such as Spring Watch.”
But Robert Bassett, 54, from West Bromwich says they never see bats at home.
“I always see them when I’m on holiday in Cornwall,” he says.
“It is good when you spot them because they usually stay away from built-up areas.”
Andy Crump, 24, from Walsall says his wife, who works at Sandwell Park Farm, enjoys going out bat spotting. “We go out together with a bat detector and she likes to go to Cornwall where there are a lot of species.
“There are fewer bats the further north you go because they like the warmer air. They can be everywhere but you usually don’t see them until you start looking.”
Interesting
Jennifer Tyler-Stevens, 37, from Oldbury says: “I’ve always wanted to come on a bat walk.Bats don’t scare me and I find them quite interesting even though I have only ever seen them on holiday, so I don’t know much about them.”
Brian and Diane White, both aged 58, from Coseley say they are members of the RSPB and wanted to spot some of the animals that only come out at night.
“We don’t normally see them when we are at home, it is usually when we are out walking in the countryside and it starts to get dark. They come out a lot earlier than people think,” says Brian.
Di Fowler, 63, and her husband Mike, 58, from Sutton Coldfield were also on the bat walk.
Di says: “I work for Sandwell Council and was looking at their summer activities list and thought this would be interesting.”
Chris Sherlock says she became interested in bats around 20 years ago. “In 1986 it was International Year of the Bat and I was living in Birmingham and there was a weekend school at the university about bats.
“Bat groups were being set up around the UK and people were becoming aware about how they are an endangered species.”
Sadly, bats are under threat and even in Britain one species, the mouse-eared bat, recently became extinct, while nine others are considered threatened or rare.
“People do generally like bats and they think it is interesting how they navigate using radar,” says Chris.
“Humans can here them communicating but we can’t hear the sounds they make to navigate.”