Nature Features

By day Hugh Firmin works for Calderdale Countryside Services based in the centre of Halifax but he's also chair of the West Yorkshire Bat Group.

Hugh has been been interested in bats for as long as he can remember. However, it wasn't until a colleague at work started to bring baby bats into the office and care for them during the day that he began to think there was more to bats than he had realised: "It was seeing bats in great numbers, and some really spectacular sightings, and learning more about how important they are. I suppose that was the trigger because they are the sort of creature you don't see close up and because they fly at night they are often quite difficult to see but equally I've always been interested in bats because they are such a spectacular animal.

Batty about bats: Hugh Firmin

Almost a quarter of the world's 4000 mammal species are bats – they are the only mammals that can truly fly – and yet they've long been seen as dark and somewhat sinister creatures of the night. Hugh agrees that bats have had something of a bad press over the years but thinks this is now changing. He very recently led a bat walk around Oakwell Hall in Birstall: "The theme for that was bat myths, and almost all the children were perfectly aware it was wrong to say that bats got caught in your hair or that bats were flying mice. The good thing is that the younger generation are a bit more tuned in than maybe their parents were so, although we still have to alleviate this bad press, I think the message is slowly getting through."

Hugh also believes that many more people are now aware that bats and their roosts are protected by law: "When planning applications come in people often point out that there are bats flying in the area, they notice bats and they are aware of how important bats are so instead of being something horrible and a pest species, they are something that's important, something we conserve, and people are starting to value them a bit more as a result.

"Bats have suffered huge declines in their numbers this century, not only in Britain but in Europe, and indeed one bat species – the Greater Mouse Eared Bat - really did become extinct so that was really the trigger to protect all bat species, plus a realisation that harm was sometimes being done to them unwittingly."

Fit for a nightmare? The Natterers bat

And if anyone in West Yorkshire wants to spend some time helping to conserve one particular species, then why not bats? Hugh points out they can be found in a variety of habitats: "There are less bats on the cold moorland uplands but they are pretty widespread across the county…Certainly anywhere that is good for insects is good for bats. Canals, water bodies and lakes, the edges of woodland, grasslands, hedgerows are all good as well."

Bats are most easily spotted between May and September because in winter they are hibernating most of the time. Hugh points out that while sunset is quite a good time of the day for bat spotting getting up very early in the morning may be even better: "Sunrise is a time when bats often gather together in large numbers before they go into their roost – we call it swarming – so they'll be flying around for 45 minutes or so and you get a better sight of them then rather than night when they are just zooming out of their roost to go feeding. Unless you know where the roost is you might just miss them. They just zip off, while in the morning they are gathering around so it's a good time to look for bats and for bat roosts as well."

But, if bats do not feed on our blood as legend has it, what exactly do they eat?: "In Britain bats feed on insects. If they are a very small bat, and there are quite a few different kinds of bats, they'll fed on midges eating 3000 in a night (!) Think how many that is when you scale it up to say 100 bats over the summer months. But the bigger bats will eat bigger prey. They'll eat flying beetles, flying moths, virtually any insects."

The Noctule: West Yorkshire's biggest bat!

The West Yorkshire Bat Group came into existence when a group of enthusiasts got together to share their experiences. Five years ago the Group became a charity, making it easier to both attract new people and help bats. There is no such thing as a typical Bat Group member: "We've got about 100 members and they are a complete range of people – some are people who have a bat roost in their home or they are just keen on bats, and some are people who work as volunteers or as professionals with bats in their day-to-day work." Planning consultants are also among those now getting involved with the Group.

The Bat Group is also about to launch a grant scheme for people, landowners and organisations who want to do something for bat conservation. This could include the erection of bat boxes. Hugh says: "In the same way you get boxes for birds you can have boxes for bats…These boxes can be put upon trees and buildings as another possible place for bats to roost because often there's a limited number of roost sites. They're not always successful. It's not like putting up a box and a blue tit goes into it. You might have to put up quite a lot of boxes before you get any bats at all."

Hugh believes the West Yorkshire Bat Group is a very good place to be for anyone who really wants do their bit for nature conservation in West Yorkshire: "I think unusually for a society we've got a very high percentage of active members. They attend walks, they help in leading walks, they help with bat surveys and they really get stuck in whereas in most societies you find it's just 10% that actually do the work."

Best for bats: Gibsons Mill!

So what can new members expect to find? "Really it's just a matter of learning from fellow members of the Group and then developing their interests as they see fit. We do a lot of work with the public. We've got displays we take out to shows and guided walks are a major part of our work where the main skill you need is just to be a good teacher rather than an expert bat person. We do about 15 walks a year and get between 50 and 100 people on each walk so you can see how many people we are educating about bats."

There are also talks and a newsletter to help throw even more light on the fascinating world of West Yorkshire's bats. It's surprising to find that the Noctule, West Yorkshire's largest bat, has a wingspan of up to 38 centimetres! It can be seen flying high at dusk and is often mistaken for a bird. Daubenton's Bat, on the other hand, spends most of its time close to water using its large feet to pick insects off the surface and it can live up to 30 years!

Some members of the Bat Group are licensed 'bat workers' following specialist training from Natural England, the official organisation which manages the UK's natural environment. The 'bat workers' go into the homes of people who discover bats lodging there or who have other bat-related problems. Hugh adds: "Sometimes they may take an injured bat away and give it some TLC before hopefully releasing it." Anyone who discovers a bat in their house or in distress should ring the Natural England helpline.

As we are here in the centre of Halifax we ask Hugh if there is one place he can recommend in Calderdale to go to bat spotting: "The Gibson Mill area of Hardcastle Crags is quite a good place because there are quite a few large roosts there with different kinds of bats. Again it's an area where there's woodland, there's some grass and there are some water bodies, streams and a dam. I think that's the one I'd mention."

[Thanks to Paul Redmond for permission to use his image of the Natterer's bat, to the Bat Conservation Trust and photographer R.E. Stebbings for the image of the Noctule bat and to the Bat Conservation Trust and photographer Hugh Clark for the image of the flying pipistrelle.}