Village Bat Walk

As the light began to fade on Friday 4th September, nearly

30 people gathered beside the village pond for a rather

different kind of wildlife walk. Armed with bat detectors and

guided by Rhona Bate from the North Bucks Bat Group,

we set off to discover what was happening around Weedon

after dark.

Rhona began the evening with a fascinating introduction to bats, before we headed into Susie and Chris Webster’s garden and ponds to look for the first bats emerging at dusk.

It wasn’t long before the bat detectors started clicking and chirping. What surprised us all was just how much bat activity was being picked up by the detectors compared with the number of bats we could actually see. Every so often, a bat would swoop silently overhead or skim across the surface of the pond, giving us a fleeting glimpse of these remarkable little creatures.

We appeared to detect two main species, probably Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and Daubenton’s Bat (Myotis daubentonii). Susie and Chris’s ponds clearly provide an excellent habitat, attracting the insects on which the bats feed and creating an ideal setting for watching their evening activity.

As darkness descended, we moved on to Glebe Farm, where Sabrina and Ella have been working hard to enlarge and improve the pond habitat. Once again, the detectors revealed bats hunting around us, even when they were almost impossible to see in the darkness.

For many of us, it was a chance to discover a hidden side of the village. While we might think of Weedon as quiet once the sun goes down, our bat detectors told us a very different story!

A huge thank you to Rhona for sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm and giving us such an informative insight into the fascinating world of bats. We are also very grateful to Susie, Chris, Sabrina and Ella for generously allowing us to visit their wildlife habitats.

It was a wonderful evening of wildlife, discovery and community—and a reminder that sometimes, all we need to do is stop, listen and look a little more closely at the wildlife on our own doorstep.