A nocturnal walk along the Wensum Way

Our next walk saw us visiting the lovely All Saints Church in Swanton Morley on Saturday 20^th of June 2015. Built in the 1300s, All Saints is a grade I listed building, located close to the Wensum Way. It has had a long history with bats, with a maternity colony of Natterer’s bats using the building, and has been involved with recent research looking into ways to implement techniques, that will provide a solution for churches affected by large bat colonies, without causing undue harm to the resident bats.

At 21.00, we welcomed 7 people plus 2 volunteers, Laura and Jamie. As the sun began to set, we headed down to the Wensum Way, a Norfolk County Council Trail, aptly called the ‘River Walk’ by the locals. Taking us into a beautiful Norfolk landscape consisting of open pastureland, hedgerows, and fragmented woodland, it looked like promising territory for our walk.

Around 10 minutes into the walk, we heard our first bat, a Noctule. Looking up we saw 2 Noctules flying above our heads (Noctule prefers to fly in straight lines high up above the tree line, over open habitat), followed shortly by a few others. Seeing these many Noctules, indicated to us that their roost was probably nearby. Noctules tend to roost in trees, particularly ones that have old woodpecker holes. We then heard our first pipistrelle, a Soprano Pipistrelle, one of our smallest bats weighing between 4- 7g.

Learning how to use a bat detector © Norfolk Wild Nights, Sonia Reveley

Progressing towards the River Wensum, we looked back towards the church and we were rewarded with a view of the sunset lighting up the sky with flashes of red, yellows, and gold. This view was in stark contrast with the sight we saw when we arrived at the side of the river, a darkening horizon and mist rolling into the fields. It was here that we heard and saw our first Daubenton’s bat, a Myotis species that prefers water habitats and is aptly nicknamed ‘the water bat’. Having satisfied ourselves with listening to Daubenton’s and Soprano Pipistrelles by the riverside, we started our journey back to the church and heard our first Natterer’s, most likely part of the colony exiting from the church. In addition, we also heard some Common Pipistrelles as they flew along the hedgerows.

On arriving back to the church faced with the possibility of getting caught up in the impending rainstorm, we quickly checked the moth trap that we set up earlier. We found a Straw Dot, Small Magpie, Heart and Dart and 2 Dark Arches. Afterwards when packing up the equipment we also found an Elephant Hawkmoth and a Figure of Eighty moth.

Moth trapping © Norfolk Wild Nights, Sonia Reveley

The Small Magpie is a micro moth, part of a group of smaller moths regularly caught in moth traps. This moth is common and widespread and has distinctive black/grey markings and yellow body parts. It flies around in June and July, so now is the best time to find them in your trap. It is found in gardens, woodland, fens, heathland, grassland, and scrub. The larva feeds on nettles and occasionally woundwort.

The Figure of Eighty is a quite a distinctive moth. It has a white ‘80’ mark on its forewing, which gives it its name. It flies around from May to July and is found in woodland, parks, heathland, grassland, and gardens. The larva feeds on aspen and poplars.

Thank you all for coming along. Your support for the project has been much appreciated.