Regular readers of this blog will know that we do a lot of talks for young children and adult groups, today saw something new for us.
Luton Cultural Services is involved with the National Citizen Service Project which encourages young people to get involved a six week course which involves a community based project.
One of the groups involved in the current scheme are going to be making bat boxes for the wildlife garden at Stockwood Discovery Centre. We were asked to go along and do a session on bats
In a previous life Jude used to work at Luton Sixth Form College , so it was nice to meet up with some people from that age group again.The talk gave her an excuse to show pictures taken during some of our bat trips abroad before going on to talk about the bats of Bedfordshire. Then, after a quick break, we went on to look at the importance of bats in bat conservation and the work of the Bedfordshire Bat Group.
They were a great bunch and showed lots of intererest, despite the appearance of the third of this set of photos.
In fairness to both him and me, I would point out that he was listening hard and had lots of good questions about the bats
At the end of the talk I introduced them to the captive Noctule. She was very docile early on and stared around somewhat blearily as she had been fast asleep. However, within a few minutes she had perked up and looked round the group with interest and by the end of the session was very lively – which made for some good photos.
The session finished with a visit to the wildlife garden. As well as boxes they are going to make bug houses and other wildlife shelters. Next session they will be building the boxes .
We hope they will keep us up to date with their progress.
You can check out their facebook page here