Country diary: Watching bats until it’s too dark to see

We’ve sneaked back to the office after hours. My partner has been working late here recently and has promised me that if I sit by the window as the sun sets, I’ll see something special.

Our office rental is on the top floor of an old Midlands shoe factory. From our window, we can see half a dozen other Victorian relics, some derelict, with buddleia growing through the broken glass. They squat over a maze of cramped terraces: warm red bricks, slate roofs, drooping washing lines and ornate chimney pots.

My high-up view slowly fills with golden rectangles as people switch on their lights. A bright, almost full moon begins to rise. Midges buzz and bounce against the window, drawn to the glow and, ah – could that be a clue?

It is almost dark and then … there … there again! Two tiny bats, common pipistrelle, most likely, our smallest and most common species. Darting silhouettes, iconic in shape. They’re so fast I have to relax into my peripheral vision to try to follow their erratic flight above the car park.

Every time I think they’re going one way, off they dart somewhere else, shearing up and away from walls and windows just in time. I think of all the midges disappearing into their bellies – they each weigh barely more than a 20p coin yet can pack away 3,000 insects a night. Who knew I had such neighbours?

I can never get over the supreme pleasure of urban wildlife. Of course, it would be easy to see bats in the countryside, but in urban sprawl, it’s easier to miss things. You have to really pay attention, to look up from the humdrum grind of daily life. It feels like we’ve passed some secret test to be here, witnessing.

We watch them until it’s too dark to see, then creep home, listening out for echolocation clicks, but I’m far too middle-aged to hear them. I fall asleep, still seeing those dark shapes zipping back and forth. My whole neighbourhood feels bigger, wilder, and I do, a little, too.

This article by Josie George was first published by The Guardian on 22 April 2025. Lead Image: The common pipistrelle is, most likely, our smallest and most common species.
Photograph: David Barnes/Getty.

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