Head out this weekend in search of your local bats!

Since 1997 more than 3,500 volunteers across the UK have taken part in the National Bat Monitoring Programme, helping us to track how our bat species are faring.

One of our most popular surveys is the Sunset/Sunrise Survey. This survey is ideal for everyone, from complete beginners to bat experts. Simply head out at dusk or dawn (or both!) and look for bats in your local area.

If you decide to do the sunrise survey, this has one challenging part to it, which is to get out of bed an hour before dawn! Once you have overcome that hurdle it really is a magical time to be out and about. If you are really lucky you may see the amazing spectacle of bats swarming before they go back inside their roost - one of the best ways to discover where bats are roosting in your local area.

Virtually everyone who takes part in this survey - whether at dusk or dawn - manages to spot bats, and there's a good chance of seeing or hearing other wildlife as well, such a foxes, badgers and owls.

You can take part in this survey any time until the end of August, but the weekend of 18th/19th July is our official Sunset/Sunrise Survey weekend when we would like as many people to take part as possible.

Full details of how to take part, including a video and downloadable survey form, are at

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/sunset_sunrise_survey.html