One of the highlights of being outdoors as dusk falls on a long summer’s evening is to see, or sometimes just sense, a bat flying past.

These magical creatures can be identified by the way they fly - the common pipistrelle has an erratic flight, the brown long-eared bat has a slow and hovering flight, and Daubenton’s bat usually flies low over water.

These types of bat can all been seen on the Isle of Man.

There are lots of bat ’hot-spots’ around the island where the odds of spotting them are fairly high as the sun sets during the summer months.

These places include Silverdale Glen, Poulsom Park, Port Soderick, Summerhill Glen, the Onchan Wetlands, Laxey Glen Gardens and Mooragh Park.

It is illegal to handle a bat if you do not have a Bat Handling Licence. If you find an injured or grounded bat, you must call the Manx Bat Group (366177), the Department of the Environment, Food and Agriculture (685844) or the ManxSPCA (851672) and we will contact the relevant agencies.

All bat species, their breeding sites and resting places are protected by law, although licences can be obtained if disturbing bats is unavoidable (e.g. when demolishing a house).

The Manx bat population has declined over the past century due to changes in habitat, pesticides and intensive farming practices and so the special protection they enjoy is needed in order to secure their existence.

The bat species found in the Isle of Man eat insects, using echo-location and their amazing flying skills to catch even the smallest of prey, and moths are often high up on the menu!

Discarded moths’ wings are usually a sign that bats are roosting above, either in a roof space or a tree.

We don’t get many calls about bats in comparison to the number of calls about birds, especially at this time of year.

The aviary is full, and our statistics show that more than 120 birds have been cared for in the first half of the year.

The majority have been herring gull chicks, ducklings and corvids (the family name for rooks, jackdaws, crows, etc) but we have also seen rarer species such as herons, owls and seabirds such as fulmars and cormorants.

When possible we take injured birds straight to the vets for immediate treatment and we encourage members of the public to do the same.

An injured adult bird that allows itself to be caught by a human is usually very badly hurt and shocked, and so the mortality rate in the aviary is fairly high at just over 40%.

The majority of birds, though, do survive and are often given a ’soft release’ from the pens, which means they are able to come and go freely, and food and shelter are still available for them. Sometimes these birds ’hang around’ Ard Jerkyll for months, even years, after their release and they co-exist peacefully.

Sadly, we said a final good-bye recently to Magwitch, aka Maggie, a male magpie who came into our aviary more than 20 years ago and who died peacefully in his sleep during lockdown.

Despite many attempts over the years to release him back into the wild, he simply didn’t want to leave and he became permanent fixture at Ard Jerkyll.

He was a cheeky bird and was clearly very intelligent - he would chat to visitors and staff alike, and shout ’hi’ as he was about to be fed.

But his favourite trick was to meow like a cat!

Maggie now has a plaque in his honour in the memorial garden at Ard Jerkyll.

Pet owners are welcome to use the garden to mark the deaths of their beloved companions - they can hang a dog tag or collar on the ’tree of remembrance’; they can put up a plaque on the wall, or they can simply sit in the garden and allow its tranquillity to help with their grief.

Rest in peace Maggie - you are missed.