WHITLINGHAM: Bat evening

20th September 2018

On Thursday evening there was a bat evening at Whitlingham, organised by the Norwich Bat Group and Broads Authority. This was intended to be the 'adults' version following a childrens one in August, but as it happened a group of children were accommodated on this walk too. After an introductory talk we were shown some rescue bats that are being kept by a licenced bat worker for educational purposes.

 Common Pipistrelle

 Brown Long-eared Bat

 Noctule Bat

We left the barn a bit too late to see Noctules, but there was a lot of Soprano Pipistrelles about. The main reason for attending the event was the opportunity to see Nathusius's Pipistrelles being caught and ringed as part of a national project, so despite slightly inclement weather I was keen to visit the harp traps. Fortunately some other attendees also wanted to have a look, and we arrived just as two bats were ready to be processed. I had seen Nathusius's Pipistrelles here in fight before, but it was very interesting to see them in the hand and the various checks to make sure the in-hand ID was correct.

Thanks to all those involved with an interesting evening.

TARGET SPECIES: Serotine Bat

15th July 2017

In the evening I headed out to help with a bat survey. Ecologist and Norwich Bat Group member Abi had been working with a church that was in the process of commissioning a new roof, and had discovered Serotine and Pipistrelle bats using the church. She had identified where most of the Pipistrelles were exiting, but wanted to locate the Serotine exit points so that gaps could be left in appropriate places. The simplest way of doing this was for people to be placed around the churchyard watching different points. Fellow Norwich Bat Group member Graham and I both volunteered, whilst several locals also came along, making eight of us in total.

I arrived at the church about half an hour before sunset, and was shown a Barn Owl perched up in a tree just inside the churchyard, a silent white sentinel keeping watch on the church. Abi showed us inside the church, where we saw the piles of droppings indicating the likely roosting areas, and also some feeding signs - the bats clearly had a liking for Yellow Underwings!

Twenty minutes before sunset we had assumed positions around the church. My main focus was the flashing between the main roof and a gable where a smaller part of the church joined on. I pitched my camping chair and sat back to begin my vigil. It was surprisingly serene, despite the traffic noise and a nearby combine, that only stopped working at dusk.

Dusk came and went, a lone Swift flew over and a Kestrel did a couple of flypasts. Ten minutes later our first bat emerged, a Soprano Pipistrelle. It was to remain in the churchyard for the rest of the time we were present, circling and darting in front of us. Thirty minutes after dusk and we were beginning to wonder where the Serotines were when I picked up one on my detector. Graham confirmed it (he was using a more advanced detector that displayed sonograms), but neither of us could see that bat. More Pipistrelles were seen, but finally at ten o'clock another Setotine was detected, and flew right in front of us. It defintely didn't come from our 'sectors', and appeared to have flown through the trees rather than from the church.

We remained in place until an hour after sunset, when the light was almost gone and the only sound was a distant Tawny Owl and the static of our detectors. There was one more Serotine flypast, again seen and detected, but it was probably the earlier individual. The most likely explanation for the low number of sightings and no sightings of exiting bats is that they are currently roosting somewhere else close by and using this church to feed in. So not the ideal result, but an interesting experience for me, seeing a new species of bat and reassuring me that I would recognise the echolocation signature of Serotines. Thanks to Abi for allowing us along and for showing us the signs in the church.

WHITLINGHAM: Bat workshop & woundwort shieldbugs

17th May 2017

On Wednesday evening I attended a 'using your ears' bat workshop at Whitlingham. This session, organised by Norwich Bat Group and delivered by Lisa Worledge of the Bat Conservation Trust was aimed at helping people using heterodyne bat detectors to identify bat calls, not just based on the call frequency, but also on things like rhythm and repetition. This proved to be a very useful session, using a mixture of bat calls recorded from magenta detectors, along with simulated calls made up of clicks and artificial notes. Afterwards we did go for a quick walk, but it was raining steadily so we gave up after a short while. I have been on quite a few bat walks before, but I found the session very useful, particularly as one of the species we looked at was Serotine, which I am yet to see.

Before the session started I had a quick look over the broad and in the vegetation nearby, seeing a Common Blue Damselfly and several mating pairs of Woundwort Shieldbugs.

NORWICH: Distracted by a moth

15th March 2017

I went to a couple of talks this week, firstly one by Carl Sayer, who discussed the conservation of the River Glaven for NNNS, and secondly Phil Parker talked about the Norfolk bats in churches project for the Norwich Bat Group. Whilst at the latter I noticed a moth on the wall behind the projector. It wasn't very long into the talk and I kept glancing at it, hoping it would stay until the end so that I could have a closer look. Having not seen many early spring species I suspected that whatever it was it would be a new species for me, and once the talk had ended I had a closer look. it turned out that the moth was a Shoulder Stripe, which was indeed a new one for me. An unexpected bonus!

THORPE MARSH: Bat walk

3rd July 2016

On Wednesday evening the Norwich Bat Group ran a walk at Thorpe Marsh. I had previously attended events at Whitlingham, but not done anything across the river. We met at the footbridge at 20:30, and as it was a light evening the bats were rather slow in emerging. We stopped near the recently created pools north of the broad, and watched as a Little Egret flew off.

Further along, and with still no bats, I took to scanning for Noctules off towards Thorpe St Andrew. The first few things I picked out were the last of the evenings Swifts, but scanning further round I found a Noctule, joined at one point by a second individual. Buoyed the knowledge that we had at least seen some bats, we headed round to the wooded area along the river, where we detected and then had good views of a couple of Soprano Pipistrelles.

After watching the Soprano Pipistrelles we carried on to look over the river, which paid dividends with several Daubenton's Bats skimming low over the water. A Common Pipistrelle was detected flying along the path, although by now it was too dark to see it. Further round we saw more Daubenton's, including some snatching food from the water surface. Our final bat of the evening was a Nathusius's Pipistrelle, which was detected strongly a couple of times but again wasn't seen.

Thanks to the Norwich Bat Group and particularly Richard Moores for leading the walk. The next Norwich Bat Group events are at Scarning on Saturday 27th August and Train Wood (the start of the Marriott's Way in Norwich) on Wednesday 31st August - see the website for more details.

WHITLINGHAM: Bat checks and wildfowl count

21st February 2016

Whitlingham has two locations where bats hibernate over the winter, and monitoring of these hibernacula is carried out by a licenced bat worker from the Norwich Bat Group. A small number of bat group members are allowed to attend these checks to learn more about bat monitoring, and on Sunday I joined them. Firstly we checked the old Lime Kiln in Whitlingham Woods, where we found three Daubentons Bats and one Natterer's Bat. We then headed back down Whitlingham Lane to the old railway tunnel off Trowse water meadow, where there was one Daubenton's Bat. Overall these numbers were lower than normal, probably due to the mild conditions.

Following the bat checks, I returned to the country park to carry out February's WeBS counts. A flock of 47 Greylag Geese were grazing on the field opposite the car parks. Ten Pochard were on the Little Broad, and slightly surprisingly they were the only ones I saw on my visit. A selection of species and the equivalent count last year [in brackets] are listed below:

• Mallard 32 [58]
• Gadwall 27 [93]
• Tufted Duck 145 [155]
• Coot 69 [217]
• Cormorant 31 [16]
• Black-headed Gull 313 [410] 

That rather illustrates the current low numbers of waterbirds, albeit with similar Tufted Duck numbers to last year, and more Cormorants.

Once I had completed the count I returned to the slipway to check for ringed gulls. I only saw the regular Norwegian-ringed bird, so I spent a bit of time reading the metal rings on the Mute Swans. I read four, one of which I had read the previous week, taking my overall tally this year to seven. The BTO have responded to my reports of all of them, and predicatably they were all ringed at Whitlingham, at varying times between 2009 and 2014. A metal-ringed Canada Goose had also been ringed in 2014 at Whitlingham.

EAST NORFOLK: Burgh Castle

29th July 2015

On Wednesday Cathy & I decided to visit the old Roman fort at Burgh Castle, which neither of us had been to before. Three of the four walls still remain of the fort, which is owned by the Norfolk Archaelogical Trust and described as "the best preserved Roman monument in East Anglia". Having parked up we took the path along several fields before heading across the final one to the fort itself. As we went we checked the ladybirds we saw, looking for Adonis Ladybird. This is a species that I haven't seen yet, but is apparently commonest near the coast. We didn't see any, but did see several Small and Essex Skippers.

We reached the fort and had a look around the walls before admiring the view across the river and out onto the marshes. The Berney Arms pub and windmill were opposite, and Cantley Beet Factory was also visible on the horizon. We walked down to the riverbank to get a better look, and I noticed a plant that resembled Wild Radish but with different seedpods. A check at home revealed that the plant was the brilliantly named Bastard Cabbage. I don't why it's actually called that, but I'd like to think that it was named by an angry Victorian taxonomist sick of only having cabbage soup to eat. A shower of rain passed overhead, followed by a period of bright sunshine that brought out more butterflies. Standing near the edge of one of the walls a Brown Hawker flew up to us at eye level, no more than a couple of feet away.

On our way back we saw more dragonflies, with both Brown and Migrant Hawkers perching on the hedge in front of us. We diverted into Burgh Castle church, which had an interesting display about the history of the fort, plus some excellent stained glass windows. There are often conflicts when churches host bats, so it was good to see that the church was embracing its bat population. On Wednesday 12th August they are having a bat walk with Philip Parker. Not only can you hear about the bats, there are also infra-red cameras installed to allow you to see them exiting the church. It starts at 7pm and costs £7 if you live nearby and fancy it.

 Brown Hawker

Migrant Hawker

 This interesting chap is St Fursey

Victoria and Alfred - to celebrate two great monarchs 1000 years apart

WHITLINGHAM: Brief evening visit

23rd April 2015

Having heard that there had been Swifts and a Cuckoo at Whitlingham during the week I headed down for a bit after tea on Thursday. It was too late for any Swifts (I later found out there had been some earlier in the day) and I also didn't hear any of the crepuscular species that sometimes turn up in spring such as Nightingale and Grasshopper Warbler. The main songsters were Song Thrushes, and the Oystercatchers were also making a fair bit of noise. I walked back along the Lime tree avenue, getting excellent views of some bats flying past and over me (probably Soprano Pipistrelles).

WHITLINGHAM: Bat roost checks

14th December 2014

Today I went to Whitlingham with members of Norwich Bat Group to help out with the first roost count of the winter. We headed to Whitlingham Woods and into the old Lime Kiln. This was my first visit here, as earlier in the year we had been unable to unlock it. Inside we found four bats. The first one was in a crack in the ceiling and was noted as a Myotis sp, probably Daubenton's Bat. The other three, including one piggybacking on another, were Natterer's Bats. As well as the bats there were three Herald moths on the walls of the kiln. Interestingly none of the four bats were roosting in the specially made bat bricks that had been installed.

Herald moths, a species commonly found in bat hibernaculae

Moving back down Whitlingham Lane we went to look in the old railway tunnel on the edge of Trowse Meadow. There was no sign of the regular Brown Long-eared Bat, but we did find another three Natterer's Bats, two in a crack in the wall and one in a bat brick. Also in the tunnel were another four Herald Moths, one Buttoned Snout moth and also quite a lot of Cave Spiders.

Many thanks to Rich & the Norwich Bat Group for allowing me to accompany the roost checks.

WHITLINGHAM: Bat walk

27th August 2014

This evening I joined members of the Norwich Bat Group for a walk around Whitlingham Great Broad. We met in the car park at eight, and after a brief talk we set off in a clockwise direction. In addition to the standard heterodyne bat detectors Sam (leading the walk) had an Anabat Recorder capable of making recordings, whilst two other members had detectors that plugged into iPads, allowing us to see real-time sonograms of the bats we were detecting. This technology was not only visually interesting, but also allowed the bat species to be identified with more certainty than using the standard detectors.

The first bat of the evening was a Noctule, Britain's largest bat. It is often easy to see Noctules at Whitlingham just after dusk, but this one only showed in brief glimpses as it hunted near the river. Our second bat showed much better, a Soprano Pipistrelle hunting under a Horse Chestnut tree on the riverbank. As we continued round we detected many more Soprano Pipistrelles and Noctules, and also a scattering of Common Pipistrelles. 

As we walked back along the south shore we stopped at regular intervals to look and listen for Daubenton's Bats hunting low over the water. We didn't find any, but we did find a scarcer species, Nathusius' Pipistrelle. This species is also associated with water, and up until recently was considered to be rather rare. Having detected one, we then found another when we were almost back to the car park. The light coming from the watersports centre and the city were enough to allow us to get good views of the bat as it flew close to us along the waters edge.

Nathusius' Pipistrelle is a new species for me, and my 7th bat (I have managed to see all seven at Whitlingham too). Norfolk has 12 regular bat species - of the remaining five there are two that I hope to see at some point, Barbastelle and Serotine. Leisler's Bat is mostly restricted to occasional sightings near Thetford Forest (although there is a record on the Norwich Bat Group website for Whitlingham), whilst Whiskered and Brandt's Bats are rare and very difficult to separate.

Thanks to Sam and the Norwich Bat Group for leading the walk and for helping me add another species to my patch list!

You can find out more about the Norwich Bat Group via their website: http://www.norwichbatgroup.co.uk/ and you may be interested in finding out what bats are present in your area by taking part in the Norfolk Bat Survey, details here: http://www.batsurvey.org/

NORTH NORFOLK: (Bats and) Chips

9th April 2014

On Tuesday evening we went to NE Norfolk to look for Barbastelle Bats. Before arriving at the roost site we headed to Walcott to get some chips to eat whilst we waited for the bats to wake up. Unfortunately we found out that the inhabitants of Walcott don't eat chips in the evening (at least this appears to be the case as every day except Friday the chip shop shuts at 3). We turned round and tried Bacton, where we just managed to get some chips before that shop shut too. With our precious potato-based meal we headed along the coast and parked up to await the emergence of some bats. Sundown came and went, and there was no sign of any bats. I got out and tried the bat detector at a range of frequencies, but not even a Pipistrelle. At least by trying early in the year there is plenty of time to try again later.

NORWICH AREA: Cringleford & Eaton

5th August 2011

In the evening Adam & I went for a walk to Cringleford, initially following the river down to UEA. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary we retraced our steps and tried the other section of the river, battling along the overgrown path south of the road. We carried on to Eaton Common, where we saw a Kingfisher flying along the river from Keswick Mill. It was beginning to get dark, so we went back to the river at Cringleford to look for bats, and saw a good number of Soprano Pipistrelles hunting over the river before flying off over the meadows.

WHITLINGHAM: Bat & Moth Night 2011

8th July 2011

Cathy & I joined Peter Walton, Albert & Robin from the Broads Authority, a member of the Norwich Bat Group and three others for the annual Whitlingham Bat & Moth Night. After the introduction and a look at a selection of moths caught recently we left for a walk around the broad to find some emerging bats. I picked up a couple of Noctules flying over Thorpe, but they were barely visible to the naked eye. We stood and watched a number of Soprano Pipistrelles hunting amongst he alders, before walking towards the outdoor activities centre and got great views of four Noctules hunting over us. If you haven't heard bats using a bat detector I highly recommend it, the "raspberry" noises they make as they catch a moth never ceases to amuse me.

Heading back to the moth trap we found that as suspected the bright moon and cloudless sky was going to adversely affect our catch. We managed 16 species, including July Highflier, Ruby Tiger and several Dun-bars, but the best moth of the catch took a bit of identifying. In the end it was Cathy who took the book, diligently searched through and then gleefully announced she had it - a smart looking Dusky Sallow. We also have an interesting species pending, having detected a possible Nathusius' Pipistrelle around the trap. This could be the first record for the area, and will need a follow-up visit to take sound recordings.

NORWICH AREA: An idyllic evening

20th May 2011

A lovely sunny evening seemed a good opportunity to go for a drive around some of the nearby villages (i.e. south of the city). The first stop on our voyage of discovery came after going over a ford. Having slowed down to avoid a Pied Wagtail in the road, we spotted a Grey Wagtail right alongside the car. Pulling over we watched as it flew over to its mate on the other side of the river, and they treated us to a midge-catching masterclass, jumping up and catching them in mid-air. We then had to wait as 7 Mallards wandered fown the road, rather amusingly going into the drive of a B&B!

Further along we watched a "singing" Red-legged Partridge and took some photos of the ruins of a church before watching hirundines over Shotesham Common. Turning back towards Norwich I saw a Little Owl hurtle past. It flew onto a telegraph post nearby, so we drove a little bit closer then stopped for a look. A Blackbird then mobbed it, causing it to fly to the post right near our car. In fact, it was so close that to get a photo I had to hang out of the car window, hence the white in the bottom right of the picture. It may clean up in photoshop if I get round to it.

Little Owl. Click to enlarge.

Before going home we decided to drive down Whitlingham Lane as I still need Barn Owl for the patch list this year. Part way down we stopped to watch bats over the meadows. Seemingly somewhere in size between Pipistrelle and Noctule, I hope they could turn out to be Natterers, but I will have to go back with the bat detector to check this out. Further down I saw another owl flying, and drew attention to it in my own reserved style (SH*T! IT'S AN OWL!). Pulling into the Little Broad car park we heard two Tawny Owls calling to each other, before our one flew back over Whitlingham Lane and towards the Lime Tree Avenue. Patch gold, and a marvellous evening close to home.