September 2025 HGMC Bat Walk

First and foremost, I’d like to say a huge thank you to, Mike for putting this evening together.

We literally couldn’t have been luckier with the weather, it was a mild, calm and pleasant evening. We gathered up just around the corner from the Gade Spring Wetland Reserve. Once everybody had arrived introductions were made for the new comers while regulars caught up. There were plenty of questions about “What is a bat walk?”. Once we made our way down to meet, Mike he made sure to get everybody up to speed and prepared for the rest of the evening.

He explained what bats we were most likely to see, and more excitingly. What bats we would hear, thanks to the heterodyne bat detectors the Box Moor Trust provided. He explained how they work and what to listen out for and off we went. It was just before dusk and although it had been explained that we would probably need to wait another 15-20 minutes for the bats to start flying, our good luck continued. Immediately we heard and saw a couple of bats flying over the water.

With absolutely zero rush, we made our way down the wetland reserve which runs parallel to the canal. The excitement in the group was palpable. Everyone spinning around and pointing wildy when their detector got a signal. A particularly satisfying moment was when an unseen bat flew down the entire length of the path setting off every ones detectors in sequence. The group mingled around and conversation was plentiful, although punctuated regularly by more bat sightings.  

After an hour or so we had made our way down the full length of the reserve and it was now beginning to get chilly. With a much more focused pace we made our way to the hut where we had picked the detectors and learnt how to use them. We all took a seat, and then had a loosely guided conversation. This is really the reason we do these things. To get men talking. Some important things were said, a few laughs were had and a small exercise in gratitude was delivered to the group. Before we went our separate ways every one expressed how they had enjoyed going out at looking for bats and that it had ignited a child like sense of wonder in them