A thank-you for your bat group volunteers: a photo of the survey site at dusk as a jigsaw, with your note at the end

Published on October 19, 2026

Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it. We're not affiliated with any bat group, bat conservation charity, wildlife trust, monitoring scheme, rescue or rehabilitation service, nature reserve, landowner, museum, school, university, parish or town council or wildlife organisation. Nothing here is legal, wildlife licensing, health, veterinary, safeguarding, copyright or data protection advice; check your own group's guidance on gifts, photos, bats, roosts, sites and members' details.

It's twenty to eight on a still evening at the end of the summer, and a retired librarian called Sheila is standing by a gate at the edge of a village pond with a folding chair, a flask, a clipboard and a small grey box the size of a television remote. The box is a bat detector. It turns the high-pitched calls bats use to find their way in the dark into sounds a human ear can hear, and Sheila has been standing by this same gate, at about this time of the evening, on and off for eleven summers.

She writes the date, the time, the temperature and the wind on the survey sheet, and then she waits. The sun has gone behind the church, the swifts have gone in, and the sky over the water is turning from orange to a deep, soft blue. At eight minutes past eight, the detector starts to crackle: a quick, dry clicking that speeds up into a buzz, the sound of a small bat catching an insect over the pond. Sheila looks up, sees a flicker against the sky, and makes a mark on the sheet. Then another. By half past eight she has counted forty-one passes, two different species and one long, slow series of clicks she isn't sure about, which she'll ask about at the next meeting.

A mile away, two other volunteers from the same group are sitting quietly on camping stools outside an old barn, with a tally counter each and the owner's permission, counting the bats as they come out of a gap under the roof for the night. In a spare bedroom on the other side of town, a volunteer called Tom is feeding a young bat that was found on a doorstep last week, with a soft paintbrush and a dish of mealworms, the way he was trained to, wearing the gloves he always wears. And in a kitchen across the county, the group's records officer Anjali is putting the kettle on and opening a laptop full of sound files from last weekend's survey, ready to go through them one call at a time.

At nine o'clock, Sheila folds her chair and walks home with a red torch, and nobody who passed her by the pond has any idea they've just walked through a small, careful piece of science.

If you've ever been on a bat walk at dusk, held a bat detector and heard the clicks for the first time, found a grounded bat and rung a helpline for advice, you've seen the work of a lot of volunteers, whether you knew it or not. This guide is about saying thank you to them, in words first and, if it fits, with a small digital jigsaw made from a photo of the place where they wait for the bats to come out.

Who we mean

Bat groups come in many forms. Some run surveys, bat walks and talks across a county or a city; some run a care network for injured or orphaned bats; some help with national monitoring schemes; and some are a handful of people who met on a bat walk and never stopped. Almost all of them depend on volunteers. The roles vary, but you'll usually find:

the survey volunteers, who stand by gates, ponds, rivers and hedgerows at dusk with a detector and a survey sheet, sometimes on the same route for years;
the roost count volunteers, who sit quietly outside a building or a tree at dusk or dawn and count the bats as they come out or go in, always with permission;
the licensed volunteers, who have the training, the vaccinations and the licences needed to handle bats, check bat boxes or visit roosts and hibernation sites where the law in their country requires it;
the bat carers, who look after injured, grounded and orphaned bats at home, often through the night, until they're ready to be released;
the helpline volunteers, who answer the phone or the messages from members of the public who have found a bat in the kitchen, on the doorstep or in the cat's mouth;
the bat walk leaders, who take groups of families, scouts and curious neighbours out at dusk, hand round the detectors and explain what everyone is hearing;
the sound analysis and records volunteers, who go through the recordings, identify the calls, check the records and send them to the right places;
the outreach volunteers, who give talks at schools, libraries and village halls, run stalls at fairs, and make the posters and leaflets;
the committee, the secretary and the treasurer, who deal with the meetings, the grants, the insurance, the training and the bank account;
the people who started it, or kept it going, who founded the group, bought the first detectors, or refused to let it fold when numbers were low.

And behind all of them, of course, the partners and families at home who have learned that a warm summer evening means a late supper, a box of mealworms in the fridge and a phone that might ring at eleven o'clock with someone who has found a bat behind the curtains.

The words matter most

Before anything else, it's worth saying: the thank-you that most bat group volunteers remember is the one that tells them exactly what they did and why it mattered. "Thanks for all you do" is kind. "Thank you for answering the phone when we found a bat in the bathroom; you talked us through it so calmly, and my son still talks about the night we watched it fly away" is the one that gets kept.

If you're not sure what to say, these questions might help:

What did they do that you saw or heard, or that you only found out about later?
What did it make possible: a bat that went back to the wild, a child who heard the clicks for the first time, a roost that was protected, a survey that showed what lives in your area, a group that kept going when it might have stopped?
What will you remember about that evening, that walk or that phone call because of them?

A few honest sentences, handwritten or typed, are worth more than any present. Everything else in this guide is optional.

Who might send one

A photo jigsaw is not right for everyone, and it doesn't replace a card, a thank-you at the end of a bat walk or a mention at the annual meeting. It tends to suit:

a survey volunteer who has walked the same route for many summers and is handing it over;
a bat carer who has looked after a bat you found, or who has cared for hundreds over the years;
a helpline volunteer who calmed you down at an awkward hour;
a bat walk leader who gave your family, your class or your scout group an evening they still talk about;
a whole group, as a shared thank-you at the end of the survey season or on the group's anniversary;
a partner or family member who has supported someone through years of late evenings, early mornings and mealworms in the fridge;
someone who likes small puzzles on a phone or tablet in the evening, while they wait for it to get dark.

It's less suited to someone who doesn't use screens at all, or who would feel awkward about a gift. In those cases, a card and a warm word at the next meeting are perfect.

Gifts, bats and good manners

Most bat groups run on very small budgets. Detectors, training, insurance and care supplies all cost money, and many groups have rules to follow. A few things to keep in mind:

Group money: if you're thinking of a thank-you paid for from the group's funds, check with the committee first. Grants and donations are usually meant for equipment, training, care and surveys, and funders may have rules about how they're spent.
Donate to the care, too: if a bat carer looked after a bat you found, a donation towards their care costs is often the most useful thank-you of all. A puzzle can go alongside it.
Never handle bats yourself: in many countries bats are legally protected, and some can carry diseases that are dangerous to people. If you find a bat, don't pick it up with bare hands; contact a bat group, a helpline or a vet for advice. Leave handling to trained, vaccinated and, where required, licensed people.
Roosts and hibernation sites: disturbing a roost or a hibernating bat can harm them and may be against the law. Don't go looking for roosts, don't shine lights or use a flash near them, and never share where one is.
Homes and private land: many roosts are in people's houses, barns, churches and gardens, and the owners have agreed to let the group count them. Respect their privacy, and never photograph or name their property.
Children and young people: bat walks often attract families, scouts and school groups. Never photograph children without the right permission, and don't include them in a gift photo at all, even in the dark and even from behind.
Members' details: keep names, phone numbers, addresses, the group's message group, the survey rota, the helpline rota and the care list private. A thank-you shouldn't share anyone's details.
Recordings and photos of bats: a photo of an evening sky is fine; a licensed volunteer's photo of a bat, a researcher's recording or a professional photographer's picture may not be yours to share. Ask first.

None of this should stop you saying thank you. It just means keeping it simple and kind.

When to send it

The bat year has its own natural moments for a thank-you:

at the end of the survey season, in autumn, when the evenings get colder, the bats start to look for places to hibernate and the detectors go back in the cupboard;
after a bat walk or a bat night, when your family or your group had an evening out with the volunteers;
when a bat you found is released, or when the carer lets you know how it's doing;
at the annual meeting or the winter social, when someone hands over a role or the year's records are shared;
when someone moves away, steps down or does their last survey, at whatever time of year that happens.

There's no wrong time to say thank you, but a thank-you that arrives close to the moment it's about tends to land best.

Why a jigsaw can fit

Bat work is patient work. It's made of many small pieces: one pass on the detector, one mark on the sheet, one bat counted out of a gap in the roof, one call identified on a sonogram, one feed with a paintbrush at two in the morning. Put together over months and years, they show where the bats live and whether they're doing well.

So a jigsaw is a small, quiet version of the same pleasure. Putting together a photo of the pond at dusk or the lane where they walk their survey route, piece by piece, with real tab-and-blank shapes that click into place, gives the person a few minutes with a place they know very well, in the light they know best. And because the note appears when the last piece goes in, the thank-you arrives at the end, as a small surprise, a little like the first click on the detector after a long wait by the gate.

If you're thanking the survey volunteers

The survey volunteers are the people who stand still for an hour by a gate or a river, in the midges and the drizzle, writing down every pass and every species, often on the same route year after year. A thank-you for them might be a photo of the pond or the lane at dusk, with the trees black against an orange sky, with a note that names something specific: "Thank you for eleven summers by the same gate. Forty-one passes on the last night. We counted."

If you're thanking the bat carers

Bat carers often work through the night, feed tiny bats with a paintbrush, keep careful notes and give up holidays because a bat needs them. A photo of the empty sky over the place where a bat was released, a soft paintbrush and a dish on a kitchen table, or a hand-drawn calendar of feeds stuck to the fridge, makes a good puzzle for them. Keep any photo of the bats themselves for the carer to decide on, and never include their home address or anything that shows where they live.

If you're thanking the bat walk leaders and outreach volunteers

The bat walk leaders and the outreach volunteers are the people who turn a dark park into an adventure, hand a detector to a nervous ten-year-old and explain why that clicking sound is the most exciting thing they'll hear all week. A photo of the path at dusk where the walk always starts, a row of detectors on a table before the walk, a hand-drawn poster for the bat night or a plate of bat-shaped biscuits makes a warm puzzle for them. Keep the families and the children on the walk out of the frame.

If you're thanking the records, sound and equipment volunteers

The records, sound and equipment volunteers carry the parts of the group that nobody sees at dusk: the spreadsheets, the sonograms, the batteries, the loan book and the reports. A photo of a sonogram on a laptop screen, with its bright lines climbing and falling like a little mountain range, a neat box of detectors with their batteries, or a stack of bat boxes waiting to go up, is a cheerful image for them. Keep file names, grid references, maps, site names and anything that shows where the bats are out of the frame.

If you live with a bat volunteer

If your partner, parent or friend is the one who goes out at dusk with a folding chair, keeps mealworms in the fridge, has a bat detector in their coat pocket and stops on the way home from the pub to listen, a puzzle can be a small, private thank-you for all the summers. A photo of their chair and their flask by the back door, their red torch on the kitchen table, or the sky over the garden at the moment the first bat appears, with a note that says what you've noticed, can mean a lot.

When a long-serving volunteer steps down

When someone who has been with the group for many years does their last survey or hands over their care work, a bigger puzzle can mark the moment. A 130- or 252-piece puzzle of the view along their survey route at dusk, or the river where the group has counted bats for twenty years, shared with the volunteers so everyone can add a line to the card that goes with it, is a warm way to say goodbye.

In memory of a volunteer

Bat groups are often where a community remembers a familiar figure by the pond at dusk. If a volunteer has died and their family would welcome it, a photo of the gate where they always stood, the lane on their survey route or the evening sky over their garden, can become a gentle puzzle for their family. Always ask the family first, and let them decide whether they'd like it. A quiet note is often enough: "This was her gate. The bats still come out at eight."

For bat groups elsewhere

We've used words like "bat group", "bat walk" and "survey route", but the same volunteers exist in many places: local bat groups across the UK and Ireland; bat volunteers and bat nights across Europe; bat counts, acoustic monitoring and cave volunteers in North America, where some caves have strict rules to protect bats from disease; flying-fox and microbat rescue and care volunteers in Australia, often busiest in heatwaves; and bat volunteers in many other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Whatever the name, the roles are similar. The guidance here should work for any of them. Check your own group's rules and your country's laws on bats, roosts, photos, gifts and members' details.

The best photos for a bat group thank-you are often the quiet ones, taken in the half-light before the bats come out, with no people in them at all. Some ideas:

the pond, the river or the lane on the survey route at dusk, with the trees black against an orange sky;
a bat detector resting on a gatepost as the light goes;
a folding chair, a flask and a clipboard with a blank survey sheet;
a red torch glowing on a path, with nothing else in the frame;
a sonogram on a laptop screen, with the calls drawn as bright lines;
a wooden bat box on a tree trunk in daylight, with no clue to where it is;
the open window or the empty sky where a bat was released.

Things to keep out of the frame:

faces, unless the person has agreed;
children and young people, at any time, including families on bat walks, scouts and school groups, even from behind;
bats themselves, unless the photo was taken by a trained or licensed person without disturbing them and the group is happy for it to be used;
roosts, hibernation sites and anything that would help someone find them, such as the roof of a known roost, a cave entrance or a church tower the group monitors;
people's houses, barns and gardens where bats roost, house numbers, street names and anything that shows where someone lives;
grid references, maps, survey site names, file names and screens that show locations;
the survey rota, the helpline rota, the care list, the loan book, the group's message group and the noticeboard with phone numbers;
anything that might upset someone, such as a photo of a volunteer who has since died, unless their family has agreed.

Never use a flash near bats or a roost, and never disturb bats for the sake of a photo. If the photo has people in it, ask them first. A photo with no people and no bats at all, just the sky, the water and the trees, is often the easiest and best choice.

Getting the JPG right

Puzzlify works from a JPG. Most phone photos are already JPGs, or can be saved as one. A few practical tips:

dusk photos are beautiful but dark; hold the phone steady against a gate or a fence post, switch off the flash, and let the camera take its time, or use the phone's night setting if it has one;
tap on the sky to set the exposure if you want rich colours and dark silhouettes, or on the trees if you want more detail;
skies that fade from orange to blue, reflections on water and the shapes of leaves and branches make lovely puzzles, because every piece has a little bit of colour or edge;
large areas of black or plain dark sky are tricky, so crop them or pick fewer pieces;
landscape images usually make the most comfortable puzzles on a phone turned sideways;
if your phone saves photos in another format, change the setting to "most compatible" or export a copy as JPG;
remove location data from the photo before you upload it, especially if it was taken near a roost, on private land or at someone's home. On most phones, you can switch it off in the share options or the camera settings.

Privacy, an optional PIN, and saying it's from you

The puzzle is private: it's shared as a link, not posted on a public board. You can add an optional PIN so that only someone who knows it can open the puzzle, which is useful if you're sending it to a volunteers' email list or a group chat. Even so, treat the photo as if it might be forwarded, and keep anything private, including where the bats are, out of it. Puzzlify doesn't use your photos to train AI.

Many bat volunteers, especially helpline volunteers and committee members who get messages from all sorts of people every summer, are rightly wary of unexpected links. Say who it's from and what it is in the message itself: "This is a little jigsaw of the pond at dusk, with a note at the end. It's from me, and it's safe to open." If you're sending it to someone who doesn't use email much, hand it over as a QR code inside a card at the next meeting.

How many pieces?

Pieces	Feels like	Typical time
24	a single bat box on a tree trunk	a few minutes
48	a detector resting on a gatepost	around 5–10 minutes
80	the pond at dusk with trees against the sky	around 10–20 minutes
130	a whole survey route fading into the evening	around 20–40 minutes
252	a whole summer of surveys, one pass at a time	an hour or more

If you're not sure, 48 or 80 pieces suits most people on a phone. Keen puzzlers may want the hardest version, but dark skies, black trees and still water get tricky at high piece counts, so start lower if the image has large areas of one colour.

The leaderboard: only for a group

If you're sending one puzzle to the whole group, the optional leaderboard lets everyone see who finished first. Some groups enjoy the rivalry; others would rather solve it quietly while they wait for dark. If it's a personal thank-you to one volunteer, you probably don't need it.

A few note ideas

"To Sheila: eleven summers by the same gate, and every pass written down. Thank you."
"To Tom: thank you for every two o'clock feed, and for the night our bat flew home."
"To Anjali: thousands of calls, one at a time. Thank you for every sonogram."
"To the helpline: thank you for talking us through the bat behind the curtains, so calmly."
"To the bat walk team: my daughter heard her first bat that night. She hasn't stopped talking about it."
"To my wife: thank you for the late suppers, the mealworms in the fridge and every warm evening by the pond."

(Change the names, and keep anything personal or identifying out of a puzzle that may be shared.)

How to make one (about a minute of setup)

Open Puzzlify's puzzle maker in a browser: https://puzzlify.app/en/puzzle-maker/
Upload your JPG: the pond or the lane at dusk, a detector on a gatepost, a sonogram on a screen or a bat box on a tree.
Pick a piece count from 24 to 252.
Write your note. It appears when the last piece goes in.
Add a PIN if you want one, and preview it for free.
When you're happy, publish the link and send it by email or message, print it as a QR code inside a card, or ask the group secretary to pass it on.

Honest pricing and notes

Making and previewing a puzzle is free in your browser. You only pay when you publish the link to send it: one credit is EUR 3.99, three credits are EUR 8.99, and Plus is EUR 14.99 a year for ten credits, which can make sense if you want to thank several volunteers separately. The person you send it to doesn't need an account or an app; they just open the link in a browser.

This is a digital jigsaw you play on a screen. It isn't a cardboard puzzle in the post, a printed product or a public puzzle board, and it isn't connected to any bat group, charity, trust, monitoring scheme or rescue service. It's also not puzzlify.io (a chess site), Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify, which are different things.

Ideas that are not a puzzle

Honestly, some of the best thank-yous for bat group volunteers cost nothing at all:

a handwritten card, handed over at the end of a bat walk or at the annual meeting;
a donation to the group or to a bat carer's care costs, especially if they looked after a bat you found;
going on a bat walk, joining the group or helping with a survey yourself, after someone has shown you what to do;
making your garden friendlier for bats and the insects they eat, with a pond, some night-scented flowers and less outdoor lighting;
a flask of good tea or a tin of biscuits for a long evening by the pond, which never fails.

If a photo puzzle feels right as well, choose the pond or the lane at dusk, a detector on a gatepost, a sonogram on a screen or a bat box on a tree, keep faces, children, bats, roosts, homes, grid references and anything that shows where the bats are out of the frame, pick a piece count and add your note. You only pay if you decide to send it. You can open Puzzlify's photo puzzle maker and try a free preview first.

Whatever you send, the most important part is the sentence that sounds like you, written to the person who stood by the same gate for eleven summers, counted the bats out of the barn roof, fed a tiny bat with a paintbrush at two in the morning, answered the phone at eleven at night, handed a detector to a nervous child and went through every call one at a time, so that next spring, when the evenings get warm again, the bats will still be there over the pond.

Written by the small team behind Puzzlify (info@puzzlify.app). Not legal, wildlife licensing, health, veterinary, safeguarding, copyright or data protection advice. Check your own group's guidance on gifts, photos, bats, roosts, sites and members' details.