The Bat Walk and Moth Survey that we completed on the evening of Wednesday 25th September was popular and successful.
Juliette and Ryan from NBRC (Northants Bio-Diversity Records Centre) led a group of 18 around a small portion of the Country Park at dusk, armed with handheld Bat Echo Locators which enabled us to hear the bats’ clicks. Both Common Pipistrelle and Noctule bats were identified. Listen here to a short audio of a Common Pipistrelle that we heard.
We followed the Bat Walk with a look at two moth traps set up in the woods by James and Suzanne (also from NBRC). The traps were not as successful as 2018, when 38 species were recorded (see the full report here), but James and Suzanne did manage to record 7 species, including a very angry and frustrated (and large) hornet. Although the evening itself was generally dry, James thinks that the reduced count was probably due to the recent wet weather.
We hope to be able to make this an annual event, with NBRC’s help, but will try and choose dryer weather next time.
Thank you to everyone who turned out for this interesting evening, and thank you to Ryan, Juliette, James and Suzanne for taking the time to set up the traps and guide us round (and lend us the Bat Echo Locators).
We have put our photos in our Gallery.