Country diary: on the hunt for one of the UK's rarest bats

Teignbridge, Devon: There was a ragged silhouette, as if torn from the darkness, twisting noiselessly over the building before heading off into the nightIt was dusk and we had the house surrounded. Spread out so that all angles were covered, the five of us took our places on camping chairs in the garden facing the rural Victorian manor house and waited patiently.I was seated on the lawn beside ecologist Craig Dunton and was advised to keep a close watch on a line of lichen-mottled roof slates below one of the chimney stacks - a possible exit point for the species the survey was hoping to spot. Continue reading...