Rainy Shereford

For this walk we found ourselves in the remote parish of Shereford, near Dunton located four km from Fakenham. It lies close to the east bank of the River Wensum. Three people came to this walk which started under a dark, gloomy sky promising rain and eventually led to us sheltering under the porch when the heavens opened. When entering the church while it was raining, the interior was strangely quiet, even though it was getting dark. However once the rain stopped the bats started to echolocate and fly inside the church. These bats were identified as both common and soprano pipistrelles.

Outside the church we heard and saw more pipistrelles but nothing else. It was only when we walked along the road towards an old disused railway line and towards where the river was that we heard a bat that was not a pipistrelle. By a gate overlooking a field surrounded by hedges we heard and saw a natterers's bat, which stayed in the area foraging around the edge. The walk back to the church gave us more pipistrelles with both species of pipistrelles (common and soprano) heard and seen commuting along the hedges that lined the roads in this rural part of Norfolk.

On returning to the church we headed to the moth trap and found that in just over an hour, we had caught a trap full of flies, including a few interesting moths. After swallowing half the trap, I was able to extract the moths that we wanted to look at. These included a Popular Hawkmoth, several Common Swifts and a few Straw Dot moths.

Poplar Hawk-moth
One of our largest hawk moth, normally found with its hind wings pushed forward.
Said to resemble dead leaves, therefore a great camouflage. Regularly comes to light,
so a common catch in moth traps and the adults don't feed. Flies around from May to July
with a second brood in August to September. The larva feeds on willows. 

Straw Dot
A small light brown moth with a dot on each wing. Can be found in many
habitats like gardens, grassland, wet meadows and woodlands. Flies around
from June to July. The larva feeds on grasses including purple moor grass.