Visitors to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust in Welney can get a new insight into the lives of bats using brand new equipment.

The Friends of Welney Group has donated money to the centre to invest in some new bat detectors and the equipment is set to be put to good use at a series of upcoming bat and barn owl events.

They are taking place on Saturdays, May 23, June 20 and July 18, from 8.30-11pm.

Louise Clewley, WWT Welney warden, said: “All nocturnal wildlife is fascinating to us because these creatures use totally different ways navigating their world and finding the food they need to survive.

“Bats use echolocation to ‘see’ their prey in the dark. If we use specialist detectors we can hear the soundwaves they are producing. The most common bat species, common pipistrelle, can often be heard catching prey on the detectors with the rapid waves sounding like someone blowing a raspberry.”

WWT Welney Wetland Centre is also a bat monitoring station for the Norfolk Bat Survey, a citizen science project which aims to map the counties bat populations. Anyone can get involved through the Norfolk Bat Survey website, hire the simple kit and record the bat species on their local patch to feed into the counties data. South West Norfolk is a particularly under-mapped area, so every effort is important.

For more information, or to book a place, visit www.wwt.org.uk/visit/welney or call 01353 860711.