I came home from work last week and found Kata in the front garden weeding among the flowers. When we turned to go into the house we both spotted a large brown blob on one of the gladioli next to the house. It was certainly not a flower, and we conjectured that it was a bat. What it was doing out in the open on a sunny afternoon clinging for life to a flower close to the ground was a mystery to us. We called Sándor Boldogh, Aggtelek National Park's bat expert who advised us to put on gloves and pick it up with a broom before placing it on a tree. He explained that larger bodied bats cannot take off from low to the ground and must climb to a higher point, kind of like the Greatest American Hero needed three steps. In double gloves I attempted to pinch the bat by the nape of the neck but the gloves were too thick and the bat turned around to face up. Then I grabbed the whole body and gently placed it on the broom where it showed me a lot of little teeth. When I placed the bat on a nearby plum tree it immediately started scrambling up and took flight. It hung around feeding all evening. Sandor identified the bat as a male common noctule, and as all bats in Hungary, a protected species. These bats hook up in the Balkans and mate in Hungary. The females then migrate to Russia while the males stay in Hungary until the females return. Then they all go back down to the Balkans. I had no idea bats migrate and need travel diaries. Nearly 20 bat species have been identified in Aggtelek National Park; among them the three Rhinolophus species, of which the Mediterranean horseshoe bats is of outstanding importance.