S3E29 This week Steve joins Martyn Cooke outside a holiday cottage in Staffordshire as they set up a matrix of bat detectors to record the sound of Brandt's bats emerging from their roost before flying into the adjacent woodland. Martyn explains why he is recording the calls, why he's travelled all the way from Surrey to record these bats and what the calls will be used for. Steve finds out how an injured serotine bat got Martyn hooked on bats and they talk about the advances in automatic bat call identification.

If you're interested in finding out more about bat detectors, your local bat group are likely to be able to lend you a detector and you can learn more about them on our website here.   Listen to our earlier episode from series one about Brandt's in the Churnet valley here.

• Follow Martyn on twitter
• Borrow detectors from us to help us grow the call library
• Bat Detector Info
• Low cost AudioMoth detectors on twitter

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Producer: Steve Roe @SteveRoeBatMan

This week it’s the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower show and for the first time ever, the Bat Conservation Trust have a show garden there. The nocturnal garden demonstrates how you can create a beautiful, wildlife-friendly garden that supports bats and other nocturnal species. Discover our tips on how to garden for bats and keep an eye out for the nocturnal garden on the BBC coverage all this week.

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Bats are magical but misunderstood. At BCT our vision is a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together. Action to protect & conserve bats is having a positive impact on bat populations in the UK. We would not be able to continue our work to protect bats & their habitats without your contribution so if you can please donate. We need your support now more than ever: www.bats.org.uk/donate  Thank you!