Seeing Bats with Essex Bat Group Bat Walk at Parndon Wood Reserve

Now that it is summer, there are so many more events popping up! I actually started a website of things to do in Harlow to help keep track of everything. Parndon Wood Nature Reserve has been known to host a bunch of events throughout the year, but as ECCO no longer looks after the reserve, there seems to be less and less. I was delighted when I heard that Essex Bat Group was hosting a Bat Walk within the reserve, featuring a talk all about bats!

The Essex Bat Group is a local, volunteer organisation that is fully licensed to save and re-release bats in all of Essex. They are all very well trained and knowledgeable in bats and are looking to share that knowledge with others. We arrived, with two of our nature-loving friends, at the reserve and shuffled into the side room where a presentation was shown. The Essex Bat Group had a bunch of taxidermy bats, to show off the sizes and the way that the bats looked, as well as a side panel area that was full of information on bats that you could currently find in Essex.

The presenter started a slide show, which had lots of information on where bats live, what they do in the winter, how much food they need, what the different bats look like, why we see them so much in Autumn, and so much more. It was interesting as I really didn’t know so much about bats before I came! The models of the tiny baby bats were much smaller than expected, and this presentation also had sounds that bats make, so we could hear them. It was extremely informational; I had no idea bats healed so fast or about the ways that humans are causing issues for bats at present time. There were plenty of moments to ask questions and the whole feel of it was relaxed and community led, which really was nice.

After the presentation, the two members from Essex Bat Group brought out two of their bats that they are currently caring for, one of which is in long-term care with them due to a head injury that has left that bat unable to walk around properly or fly. Another, much smaller bat was also shown to us as well! While the Essex Bat Group looks to release the bats that come into their care, sometimes it’s not possible or takes a while. For the smaller bat, they are still feeding them and making sure they are able to fly and survive before releasing. These bats were very calm around all of us, being held by the presenter, and it was so neat seeing them close up.

The weather on the day we went to the Essex Bat Group Bat Walk was actually pretty rainy, so due to health and safety (and how dark it was), we weren’t able to have a long bat walk. With that in mind, they had brought along some detectors that let us better hear the sonar that the bats put out, and we had a small walk to the side of the nature reserve where we could see bats flying ahead and listen to them eating and trying to find food. It was very interesting and the noise detector was quite unique in feel! The Essex Bat Group do a fantastic job of caring for bats and showcased a unique event that was very informational.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!