we've been bat spotting.

[megletthesecond]

Lovely evening with a local expert who had the sonar listening gadgets and a whizzy app on his iPad.

We were able to listen to them flying in to feed on insects over a stream and follow them with a powerful torch.

And the kids got some cake out of it. So everyone is happy . Now I'm off to see how much the detectors cost.

Sounds lovely. My local country park does something similar but without the cake

I can bat watch from my sofa as my next door neighbour has bats in his belfry roof space and it is fascinating to see them fly out (like the beginning of Scooby Doo) and swoop over our gardens on the hunt for insects at dusk.

Aaaw. I'd like some batty neighbours. The local ones fly over if I put laundry out in the evening but they come from nearby parks.

Bat detectors aren't expensive. Didn't know about the app though. Does that tell you the species? We have at least two species. Can pick them up on the bat detector, which the kids love, but can only manage 'big bat' and 'small bat'.

The bat detector apps aren't that good yet - it told us we had spotted a vampire bat in the south of France!

Wow, that would be something! Not sure we have had vampires.

This sounds really great! Especially if you do this with a pro who can tell you a lot of background information!

Cinthy, if you and your kids have now got the bug for bat spotting and spotting other wildlife, you may like to nominate your kids for the UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing. Prizes are being sponsored by the binocular people Optricron.

Nominations close on 31 July - see bit.ly/NBNawards for more information...

Cinthy, if you and your kids have now got the bug for bat spotting and spotting other wildlife, you may like to nominate your kids for the UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing. Prizes are being sponsored by the binocular people Optricron.

Nominations close on 31 July - see bit.ly/NBNawards for more information...