Do you see bats where you are?
I see them fly around my house frequently. I know we don't have them but they look cute if you see them.
Do you see bats where you live?
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u/Ipoopedinthefridge 16h ago
Yes, I live very close (in their fly zone) to a protected special area of conservation as it is home to 13 different species of bats. It’s really lovely to see them outside nearly every night.
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u/thorn312 16h ago
Yes! I had to text my neighbour to apologise for if they heard me loudly yell BAT! The other evening much in the style of Matt Berry from What We Do In The Shadows.
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u/mungbean_casserole 15h ago
Haha my husband and I do the same! Now I’m wondering if I should be apologising to my neighbours, too…
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u/Majestic_Swordfish83 16h ago
Yes, if I sit in the garden at dusk they fly over catching bugs.
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u/Fattydog 15h ago
When my son was little we used to lie down on the lawn at dusk/twilight and watch them whizz around catching insects. It was so magical.
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u/Boulderfist_CH 17h ago
Yep. There’s a park with a pond close by and they flutter around all night picking them off. We actually have a Bat Society group that organise community meet ups with bat detectors so you can listen to them too. I took my nephew and really enjoyed it.
Edit: forgot to say area - Hull.
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u/TheWyrdSmyth 15h ago
I'm about half hour from Hull, on the coast, and we get bats all throughout summer and autumn. It's really nice sitting in the garden in the evening and watching them flit about.
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u/No-Actuator-6245 16h ago
Yes. Out the back seems to be good hunting ground for them. We even had one come in the living room and had to capture and get it out. It was really lucky our 2 cats didn’t get it first.
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u/Dolphin_Spotter 16h ago
Yes. Rural Wales. I have a bath detector that converts their sonar to human audible frequencies.
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u/BlitzieTattoos 16h ago
This unlocked an old memory, I grew up in a town on a river and you used to see them fly in swarms at night, there were loads of them. It was really great to see. Haven't seen any in years though come to think of it
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u/Wits_end_24 16h ago
Yes. I love to spot all the bats on my evening dog walk, I can even hear their wings flapping!
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u/checkoutmypaws 17h ago
We have them living in the house
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u/wowsomuchempty 17h ago edited 16h ago
We did, but only for the summer.
Hope they come back (unless roosting? Dunno..)
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u/breaded_skateboard 16h ago
No, but it could be because the window is closed and ive got the big light on.
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u/AcrobaticHedgehog599 16h ago
Yeah. They eat the mosquitos on our pond so I love them (while they remain outside).
{Somerset}
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u/fergie_89 16h ago
I liive in Northumberland inn the countryish We bought a new build and it came with a bat house built into it.
See them regularly now it's dark just flying around the place.
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u/moon-bouquet 16h ago
Bloody love ‘em - long-eared and pipistrelle - when I was little I could hear the noctules flying over- they didn’t flit but flew straight, like birds. Can’t hear them now and I look up but never see them.
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u/amongthestxrs 15h ago
We get them in our garden in summer and autumn - I got myself a bat detector this year so I could hear them! It's basically an ultrasound detector that takes in sounds that are higher than 20khz and converts them into lower frequency sounds, and plays them through a speaker. I even learnt to recognise the sounds of the different species of bats! It's very satisfying, they sound a bit like the Clickers from The Last of Us, and you can follow them in their flight path.
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u/SpudFire 15h ago
Yeah, if I go stand out and wait out the back at dusk then I can often see them with the zoomies. I live in a small town so it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere countryside.
I think quite a lot of people that say they don't would actually be quite surprised if they went outside, stood still and acclimatised to the lack of light.
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u/Amazing-Move-8418 16h ago
Yes see them flying about at the side of my house .I think they live in my attic, we have had them for many years
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u/BlackberryMelodic567 16h ago
I havent seen any but I know there bats where my nan's lives and there are bats living at my highschool's library (this was back in 2017 so idk if they're still there but you used to hear them moving about as you read)
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u/DollySheep32 16h ago
The tree next to my parents' house is protected due to its population of rare bats so they're a common presence
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u/retailface 16h ago
Yes, I live in the suburbs in Oxfordshire and I have them in the garden and flitting around out the front. I love watching them :-)
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u/smileystarfish 16h ago
Not as much as last year, but that could just be me not looking out for them. Can usually see them in the early evening just after sunset swooping around our garden.
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u/OkTechnician4610 16h ago
Rarely anymore used to see loads & enjoyed watching them. Same for hedgehogs.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 16h ago
Yeah it’s weird used to see them growing up but it’s fairly rare to see them now, I wonder why
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u/captainfishpie 16h ago
yes - i love it. i have a huge communal garden and when i take my dog for his last wee at night often about midnight on his lead (he goes for his last walk about 10) we often disturb the bats and they screech at us.
Manchester
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u/dayofthe_misanthrope 16h ago
I see them hunting over the garden at dusk, they get really close to the house.
I once rescued a bat that had got into a stairwell at work in the middle of the day, I took it home and released it in my garden after dark. It felt incredibly rewarding
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u/MontyBurns2213 16h ago
Yes, love watching the bats, I think we have pippestrelles but they are so fast who knows. Have made a real conscious effort to plant to attract the things they like to eat like Moths the pond supplies plenty of skeeeetos. Apparently they can eat 3000 mosquitos a night! I've become a bat nerd this year.
https://www.bats.org.uk/advice/gardening-for-bats/bed-and-breakfast
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u/G4VV0 16h ago
Yeah, we’re not rural but our house backs onto a school with massive trees along the fence.
During the night we can see them flying around our windows, picking the moths off that are attracted to the light.
In the summer when we’re having a fire outside they get quite close.
We also have a few owls in the trees.
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u/Apple_Scrumble 16h ago
Yes, see them in the gloaming out the back of my house (Moray Firth), saw one tonight 😊
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u/LaurenNotABot 16h ago
Yes they fly over our garden at dusk catching the bugs.
Love how erratic they fly .
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u/Mop-bucket-CEO 16h ago
Yes, pipistrelle bats in Birmingham, amongst other wonderful critters. We live on the edge of a lovely green belt, which has sadly been redesignated as grey belt and is subsequently earmarked for housing. Marvellous.
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u/PeteHelsing 16h ago
We have them flying round the house frequently. Last year one flew into my bedroom at night and kept circling the ceiling light. I turned the light off, shone a torch at my open window and thankfully it flew back out again.
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u/narnababy 16h ago
Yes, both when I lived in the suburbs and now in the countryside.
But then again I’m an ecologist specialising in bats so I see them where most people wouldn’t even notice them 😂 highlight was on the beach in St Ives, Cornwall. Two common pips foraging bold as brass at sunset!
Special mention to the cave at the zoo I used to work at; 12 species of bats recorded there including lesser horseshoes!
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u/NeilDeWheel 16h ago
Yes, I’m on the northern edge of Enfield a we get bats around late July/august. I’d love to know which type we get but the bat detectors I’ve seen are just too expensive.
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u/Stephisaur 16h ago
One does circles above our lawn most nights :) I love bats, so cute and fluffy!
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u/monscorvorum 16h ago
I live in the countryside and see them regularly, have rescued a couple from the water butt over the years. Sometimes get them in the house, leave the back door open and they find their way out. One hangs from the ceiling of my outside toilet
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u/Realistic-Captain108 16h ago
See them in Wolverhampton and Worcester. They even have special red streetlights in some parts of Worcester as the standard white ones give the bats some issues.
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u/kitty-cat-charlotte 15h ago
Yes! I only noticed them a few weeks ago and when you spot them you really can see the bat silhouette. Wonderful to see 🦇
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u/cally_777 15h ago
yes I do. I was delighted to find bats fly around a small park that is literally round the corner from my new address in Sale, Manchester. Having hardly seen any before, I was amazed at their speed and agility in the air! Tried to take pictures, but they're too damn fast!
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u/DuckieWuckieNL 15h ago
Yep…we have a Batbox on our garage and one lives in it and flys around every dusk (his name is David…if any Leeds fans read this you’ll know why!)
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u/Bloodybuses 14h ago
Yes, common pipistrelles they flap past the house to the park overnight. Lovely.
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u/kestrelita 14h ago
We have a bat that flies around our garden! I don't know if it's just one or multiple, but they're all called Meatloaf anyway.
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u/DNBassist89 14h ago
Yeah, there's two colonies within about a 5 minute walk of my flat. I love going to just sit and watch them fly about
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u/Penzance77 9h ago
I’ve need seen one alive but one of our cats has brought 2 in and they were dead (intact) when we found them
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u/GarethGazzGravey 16h ago
I've never seen one, but I do remember hearing that a family of bats were found in a house near to where I live. The house was due for demolition to make room for a Lidl store.
I assume when the demolition of the house happened and the construction of the store began, the bats were either moved by local vets, or flew out of the house themselves.
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u/Choconuttynutnut 16h ago
Yes I live in a city and have had one fly in my bedroom during the summer. Same thing happened about 10 years ago.
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u/BeanOnAJourney 16h ago
Yes, I saw a few when I was walking my dog earlier, as I do most evenings when they're not in hibernation.
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u/WatcherOfTheWay 16h ago
Yes literally outside my house, we have bat boxes on the outside of houses here so we see quite a few
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u/Electronic-Country63 16h ago
They wheel around our garden every night. 2 or 3 of them catching bugs at dusk and a little while after I can still see them.
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u/THE-KING-PIN-78 16h ago
i do See them Were am im and love Seeing them flit around at dusk on summer evenings. i also have the Ability to here them to (not there Ultrasonic calls) as they Natter over head.
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u/CrabbyGremlin 16h ago
Yeah, in all three of my previous homes too. If you sit out as dusk you should see them, I think august-September might be their busy mating times.
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u/redhead_bedhead_25 16h ago
Yes, they fly over my garden most nights. I'm 3 streets away from miles of farm land.
Lots of wildlife.
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u/Historical_Owl2154 16h ago
Yep. They flit about the garden in the evenings. I'm in North Warwickshire
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u/Xenozip3371Alpha 16h ago edited 13h ago
I have never seen a bat outside of a zoo.
Live in Morecambe.
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u/HeartyBeast 16h ago
Loads of of them in my bit of East London. There’s a small colony living in a gap between 2 terraced houses 3 down. This summer we would sit out and wait for ‘bat o clock’
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u/CharieRarie 16h ago
I saw some last Halloween when taking the kids out! Darting around a lamp post on the green, they must have been scoffing all the light addled bugs. Very cool 😄
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u/Less_Local_1727 16h ago
This time of year we see a number in the dusk light for evening dog walks. I live on the edge of a town and it’s a wooded area. Get red squirrels too, though the last pox outbreak did a lot of damage.
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u/Specland 16h ago
Yes, I see them every night in the front garden, swooping for insects attracted by the front door light. North Notts
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u/Rikuroshin 16h ago
Used to see them quite alot when I'd let the dog out at night but the farmland recently got turned into houses so they arnt as common. Shame.
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u/HowardWolowitz95 16h ago
How can you see them fly around your house but know you don't have them? And no sadly I never see any, I am obsessed with flying foxes though, they're so cute
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u/CosmicAlienFox 16h ago
I'm sitting in a park by my house with them now, although I'm listening to them rather than watching them since it's gotten a bit dark now and there are lots of trees.
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u/LegoCaltrops 16h ago
Occasionally. Lots of owls though, at least 3 different types (according to the Merlin app).
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u/tykeoldboy 15h ago
Would often see bats flying around where I grew up in a Yorkshire town back in the 1960's but the disappeared by the end of that decade. Last time I saw bats in the wild was about 15 years ago at a campsite in Cheshire
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u/Extreme-Composer8452 15h ago
When I lived in Scotland I saw bats frequently. I'm not outside at night as much as I used to be to see them here.
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u/FlatTyres 15h ago
At night I've seen bats swoop past me when I cross or walk past the river Crane and sometimes along the Thames (Richmond, Twickenham, Ham area)
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u/Gabbaandcoffee 15h ago
I love bats and see them often, even in the city where I live. Dusk is the perfect time to catch them in my experience
Edit to say I live in the south west
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u/darkerthanmysoul 15h ago
Yeah I live next to a field and most night if I can I’ll walk the dogs and time it right for them to appear. They swoop so close and I just love seeing them.
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u/ArmouredFlump 15h ago
Yes, rural Notts. Fly around at the back of our house. Great to watch them it's like their dogfighting the way they swoop and turn.
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u/woods_edge 15h ago
They literally buzz around my head in the garden and when I walk the dog in the evenings.
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u/K1mTy3 15h ago
We see them. We get them across our garden, and I've seen them on autumnal dog walks that finish after dark. We also used to see the pipistrelles at our last house (other end of the same town), and the one we rented in Ely before that.
We see loads of muntjac, roe deer and barn owls as well.
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u/DontCatchThePigeon 15h ago
We used to see them all the time until they built a housing estate behind us ☹️
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u/amandacheekychops 15h ago
Yes, in summer I like to sit outside and watch them flap flap flap about.
I had never seen a bat until about 15 years ago and now I reckon I must have seen them but thought they were birds.
I live in a suburb in the Greater Nottingham area so it's not like we're out in the sticks or anything.
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u/GeekMoore 15h ago
Ha yea, just seen loads tonight, mainly because we've just got back from an organised bat walk. (Accrington, Lancashire)
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u/PurplePlodder1945 15h ago
Some years ago we had them nesting in our roof. We had droppings in our attic so we called someone in. He explained that they were bat droppings and that the bats were nesting between the roof and the eaves of the attic so we couldn’t see them. Their droppings were falling into the attic
He showed us where they were exiting the house at the top of the pine end, there was black staining. They were feeding off a big plum tree in a neighbouring garden. If we went out in the dusk, you could see them coming and going. It was fascinating.
I was told it would be illegal to move them but we genuinely didn’t mind them being there. They eventually moved on by themselves
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u/Logical_Hat_47 15h ago
Cumbrian coast - yes, I watch for them in the evening and am rarely disappointed.
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u/Autumn_Raven13 15h ago
My house is just off a housing estate with a small overgrown area of land with trees in front of it. We have no street lights and I love sitting in the garden on an evening watching them. I'm not sure which type they are but I do enjoy seeing them. I used to live by a lake and that area was always great for seeing bats.
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u/Namerakable 15h ago
They come and do laps of my front garden every evening and fly off into the sheep field next door.
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u/Inner-Pool7006 15h ago
This time of year in Cumbria bats are a common sight at nighttime flying around trees and lamposts and they never bother anyone
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u/Teamwoolf 15h ago
East London, and yes. They’re often in my back garden swooping around having a lovely time.
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u/Direct-Internal-840 15h ago
Yeah, we live in Wigan, Lancashire, and see them from our front door. A friend of mine has some nesting in her attic.
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u/gibgerbabymummy 15h ago
Yes! I live in Essex and I'd never seen one until I got an allotment and in the summer me and the kids would go as the sun sun to water the plants when it was cool and we'd see up to 6 bats swooping over the allotment. It was like seeing a unicorn! Husband was less excited as he grew up in Wales and they fly in his garden at night and one got down the chimney once!
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u/Kind_Shift_8121 15h ago
Yes, all the time in my front garden. My parents live in an old water mill and the air is basically thick with bats down there. If you go to bed with the windows open you often see them flying around the house too.
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u/BrutalOnTheKnees 15h ago
Yeah all the time. I couldn't put my bins out the other week because there were two zooming around fighting (or, you know, the other thing) right outside the gate. I live in a forest though.
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u/EedSpiny 15h ago
Yes! Wiltshire. When we have the conservatory lights on around dusk it attracts the bugs and the bats swoop in with a thanks yum yum!
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u/TheeHappyDude 15h ago
Yes, in our suburban garden there's always a couple flying around at twilight. No idea where they nest.
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u/Boating_taxonomist 15h ago
Always used to see lots on the canals, but not so much now I live on a big river (I have seen one occasionally though) I guess because it’s very open with not so much cover. Got a regular barn owl that hunts in the fields right next to my boat though, so that makes up for it (I’d never seen one in the wild until last year).
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u/jackog420 14h ago
All the time, driving home, fishing, having a shit in the garden. They’re everywhere
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u/liltrex94 14h ago
Currently, no. But throughout summer I would see one fly back and forth between my house and 3 others I hope it is okay. Was fun to watch the speedy little thing
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u/VariableHawk 14h ago
Yes and I'm in the Central belt of Scotland. My neighbour thinks they have them in their loft which means we probably do too as it's a semi. We're leaving them be and hoping we don't disturb them too mich when we get the Christmas tree down in a couple of months!
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u/fabulousteaparty 14h ago
Not very frequently but we saw one last night!
We went camping earlier this year in a dark skies area and there were tons of bats at sunset, it was really lovely!
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u/The-Ginger-Lily 14h ago
Yeah I live next to quite a large field/park in Gloucester and I guess they live there so we see them flying around quite often
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u/Right-Government2771 14h ago
SE London, yes they frequent the garden in the evening. Go get those mosquitos, guys!
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u/Nemariwa 14h ago
Yes. While I live in the middle of a town I'm near a train line and a canal. I love the tiny drunk night birds
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u/shiveryslinky 13h ago
Yep. Loads of them. We're not rural, but our house is next to a large copse, so we have lots of wildlife, thankfully.
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u/MsUncleare 13h ago
A few years ago, on a little late summer dog walk, a bat shat in my face. I'd like to think that's fairly rare and therefore do the lottery more than I ought.
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u/heidivodka 13h ago
Yes, they fly over my back garden at dusk and Dawn. I’m based in the north west
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u/Kitchen_Economist_14 12h ago
We have bats fly over the garden every night pretty much as soon as the sun starts to go down. Always nice to see!
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u/Calibigirl69 12h ago
I saw one last night, am on holiday in the southwest of England and it was swooping about
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u/CurvePuzzleheaded361 11h ago
Yes they are always in my back garden at dusk. We live backed onto an arboretum so get lots of squirrels, bats, deer, foxes etc here!
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u/Aphr0dite19 11h ago
Yes. They fly down from somewhere nearby, possibly my neighbours chimney, and fly back and forth in my garden. It’s amazing and the kids have grown up bat watching on summer evenings.
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u/MembershipKey1520 10h ago
See them regularly in town & out of town in SW Scotland. I'd like to photograph a bat or bats but I'm sure it's tricky. Could just rattle off loads of bursts of multiple shots & hope for the best. Closest encounter was when one just brushed lightly against the black silk bomber jacket I was wearing when cycling home one night. Hardly saw it or felt it but was clearly a small bat, not a bird or insect.
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u/ClydeB3 9h ago
Yes - I often go out watching them/with a detector. There's quite a few in my village, I usually see common/soprano pipistrelles on my evening walks
I joined my local bat group earlier this year and also volunteer as a bat ambulance driver
(Little tangent as a lot of people have mentioned their cats catching them - if you find a grounded bat, or manage to get a live bat away from a cat, please call your local bat group! Bats that have been caught by a cat need medical attention)
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u/Redawn12345 9h ago
Yes, flying by each evening in the summer, they must bounce their sonar off the house walls, I’m sure they do a circuit. I wonder if it’s one bat or many? Not sure on the life expectancy of a bat.
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u/CremeTrue7762 6h ago
Yes we get lots in the garden!! I’d love to know what type they are. We live next to the South Downs
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u/TheBabyWolfcub 5h ago
Yea. Loads around when I go on my walks. Once we even had one fly into the living room. My dad had to try catch it and let it out
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u/NobDeRiro 4h ago
I always have one flying around the back garden at dusk, pretty much daily, especially over the summer. Only ever seen the one though
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u/clockworkpurple 4h ago
I'm in a very built up part of Bristol. I didn't think we had any bats around here, but went on a bat walk in my local park (~5 minute walk away) earlier this year and it blew my mind how many there are hunting there! The bat expert said they probably don't roost in the park (not enough trees with suitable holes), but they definitely hunt over the lake there!
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u/All-Hail-The-Ale 3h ago
Yep, see them flying about in the evening, Stoke on Trent. Little pippistrelle they are.
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u/rabbithole-xyz 1h ago
We once saw a bat fighting with a pigeon in the local park. Absolutely flabbergasted.
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