text: The Northern Ireland Bat Group saves grounded and injured bats.
  The poor summer has had a big impact on the small, flying mammals.
  Some of the very young ones have been abandoned because their mothers found it difficult to get out to feed and produce milk.
  And volunteers are hand-raising the mammals in their homes before releasing them back into the wild.
  Juvenile bats have been turning up in all sorts of strange places.
  They have been found in a pot of oil outside a takeaway, stuck to flypaper in people's homes, in vases and even in a stove.
  Karen Healy is one of a network of volunteers, and at one point she had 19 bats in her home in Ballykelly, County Londonderry.
  She said what was happening in Northern Ireland was being repeated across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
  "We've been getting calls every day, there hasn't been one day where I haven't had a bat call," she said.
  "We're getting a lot of juveniles who haven't had enough food - they're basically starving and they've heavy parasite loads so they can't fly.
  "They haven't had enough time to feed, the weather has been so unpredictable with the rain and the wind, and we think the reasons there are so many pups or babies is that the mothers need to get out and feed in order to produce milk so the pups sometimes have to be abandoned."
  Grounded bats are susceptible to cats. Any that are too badly injured are put down.
  But ones that have damaged wings are nursed back to health.
  Their wing covering rejuvenates much like human skin.
  They are checked for weight as part of a pre-release assessment.
  Ms Healy also flies them in her living room to test their readiness.
  They have to be sustain flight for 10 minutes before she'll set them free.
  She says people have a lot of misconceptions about bats.
  "They're worth millions to the economy, especially in agriculture because of their pest control powers.
  "One bat will eat over 3,000 midges in one night.
  "So we do need bats and they're nothing to be feared.
  "They don't drink blood and they're not blind.
  "They can see just as well as we can except that they use echo-location at night to hunt in the dark."
target: A charity that rescues a protected species has said it has taken 600 calls in what has been one of its busiest ever years.