Yesterday I spent an amazing day at the Knebworth House Halloween Pumpkin Trail event.
I was helping out on a stall with the Herts & Middlesex Bat Group providing information on Hertfordshire’s bats. We were even able to introduce the public to some real live bats.
Before anyone panics, they are captive because they wouldn’t survive in the wild and are only handled by experienced bat experts with licences. Any bats that have a chance of fending for themselves are released as soon as they are fit enough, that’s just one of the functions of the Bat Group.
We got lucky with the weather and despite a heavy downpour the night before by 12 noon we had calm mild conditions and the public turned up in their droves. And their Halloween costumes, of course!
Each of the kids had a passport to collect stamps to earn a goody bag so they had to do at least six activities, Meet a Bat was just one of them.
There is a common connection between bats and Halloween mainly as a direct result of the vampire link. In actual fact our bats are tiny insectivores with a cute factor of 11/10. OK, I’m biased but if you ever get the opportunity to meet a bat yourself, take it. I’ll be amazed if you don’t end up agreeing with me.
There is something magical about the moment that a person sees a bat up close for the first time. The eyes widen and sparkle, the mouth drops open with an audible gasp followed by an exclamation of “Oh it’s so tiny!” or “Oh my God! It’s so cute!”. Then come the questions and we know we have a new Batfan.
So, if you didn’t know, our most common bat is the Common Pipistrelle (latin name Pipistrellus pipistrellus). It feeds on mosquitoes and midges, so it’s really important that we preserve our bugs. Our little Pip comes out around dusk and roosts in all kinds of nooks and crannies, under tiles, behind soffits, almost anywhere. With it’s wings folded it’ll fit into a matchbox and weighs the same as a sheet of A4 paper. It is small but it really is perfectly formed.
At dusk we also ran a bat walk which attracted quite a crowd and happily the Knebworth House bats performed beautifully. We picked them up on the bat detectors, could hear that they were feeding and could even see them silhouetted against the darkening sky as they flitted past us.
Well, we wowed our audience yesterday and all had a great time. I would especially like to say that Hazel Makepeace from the Bat Group did a fantastic job, running the stall from Thursday to Saturday.
If you would like to know more about the Group their website is here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kimthomas/hmbgsite/mainpage.htm
You can also follow them on twitter: @HMBatGroup
The Bat Conservation Trust website has details on all species of bats(including photographs of the Common Pipistrelle:
And for information on supporting bugs to help our bats find food, Buglife’s website is here:
Knebworth House also runs other events throughout the year, or you can just explore the house and grounds. Their website is here: