What are cute, furry, nocturnal and unfairly feared across the world? Bats, of course. Put aside your leathery prejudices and consider the bat anew.
I read a lot of adventure stories when I was a kid, and one of the stock ’scary’ adventures was when the plucky children ventured into a dark cave, only to be terrified with hordes of bats flying out. One of the girls would always squeal that a bat would get into her hair. And a sensible boy would explain that bats never fly into people, because of their excellent echo-location.
That, I can exclusively reveal, is nonsense. I’ve had bats fly into me not once, but twice in recent weeks, although I think my hair must be too short to get into.
The bats in question were in rather gothic surroundings. Firstly one that had been swooping around Wells Cathedral during Evensong took a dive at me when I opened a side door, then another fluttered from a hedgerow down a very dark lane, smack into the side of my face.
Fortunately I’m made of sterner stuff than Anne in the Famous Five. I think they’re fascinating and rather beautiful creatures. I love the way they flit silently, agile and quick as swifts, pocket handkerchieves flung into the night sky. There are few sights more magical than watching bats emerge from the trees on a warm summer evening.
Forget about the blood sucking thing – bats in the UK eat insects, including pesky mosquitoes, and have no interest at all in your jugular.
And although my recent close encounters were in Somerset and Cornwall on holiday, there’s a great place to find bats much closer to home. Sydenham Hill Woods nature reserve is home to a colony of rare brown long-eared bats, as well as six other species.
The bats chose a delightfully spooky home – the disused railway tunnel which used to take trains from Nunhead to Crystal Palace upper level railway station. If there’s a more fortuitous conjunction of bats and ghost trains, I’ve yet to hear about it.
The London Wildlife Trust, which manages the woods, is making improvements to the tunnel, with two huge ‘hanging walls’ to make the tunnel cosier. Recently, 54 deluxe bat boxes have appeared up the trees, encouraging more of these delightful creatures to take up residence. Chantal Brown, conservation officer for the woods, says pipistrelle bats have already started using them.
Pleasingly, Chantal says that Sydenham Hill Woods is ‘managed for bats’. ‘We try and maintain lots of habitat that suits them, trees to roost in, water and meadows to attract insects for them to feed on, ivy is kept on all the trees and of course we don’t use any chemicals on site and encourage native regeneration of trees that suit bats, eg oak,’ she tells me.
The best time to see the bats, says Chantal, is shortly after dusk, although you may need a mysterious-sounding ‘bat detector’ to help. But the Trust runs guided bat walks around the woods, if you don’t like the thought of going bat-spotting on your own. Unfortunately, despite it being bat-tastic Halloween, we’ve just missed the prime bat season of June to September. The walks will start again next summer.
Walks and other events in the woods are posted on the noticeboard at the Crescent Wood Road entrance to the woods.
Image (of a fruit bat, not a Dulwich bat) from Charlie JB’s photostream on Flickr.com, with CCL.
Loading ...