Country diary: Some bats need a little help to get through the night | Kate Blincoe

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: My week of nursing a long-eared bat back to health ends with me planting evening primrose in my gardenI remove a crumpled leaf from the lawn, but it moves as I touch it, soft and solid, not dry and brittle. I yelp. It's a bat. I grab a gardening glove and pick it up, noting the huge, gossamer-thin ears, each nearly as long as its body. A brown long-eared bat, mouth open, tiny little teeth showing. It makes a buzzing noise at me.The bat needs safety, so I find a cardboard box and try to drip a little water into its mouth. I leave it for half an hour in the shade, and when I come back, there is no movement. I think it's dead, but then the glazed open eye blinks - it's hanging on to life. Continue reading...