Held slightly earlier in the month than previous years, our autumn night walk was besieged by an almost incessant downpour. With John McCombs (FCWF Chair) leading the event, twelve intrepid explorers joined three of the Friend’s trustees to see which brave creatures would venture out.
The common and soprano pipistrelle bat species had recently been confirmed by an expert from Mersey Biobank who also suggested a strong likelihood that there would be other species present in our wonderful woodland due the age and nature of the treescape.
Pipistrelle bats love to skirt the tree canopy close to the woodland edge. With the ponds adjacent to the trees, the insects flying above the water make for a nutritious fast food (but perfect diet) and contribute to the 4000 insects per night that the bats consume. As dusk fell, the group headed to the pond dipping platform but were disappointed that the few clicks heard on the bat detector did not result in any sightings.
With the rain getting heavier that group took a semi sheltered walk around to and along the perimeter path towards the favourite roost of the tawny owls. Conversing en-route the talk was full of facts and dispensed with the fiction that belies the site’s inhabitants – As blind as a bat? No!!
With an ever-ready supply of recently uncovered and freshly microwaved (to kill the germs) owl pellets Brenda Cameron wowed the group with an impromptu dissection demonstrating the diet of the owls. The group were quite fascinated to hear that the pellets provided proof that the site has small mammals aplenty to keep the owls well fed. The Biobank has confirmed that the bones (skulls, jawbones full of incisors, long leg bones etc) are from wood mice and common voles.
Heading back, now the rain had cleared, we stopped to look down on the bat highway which is our carriageway, where we were treated to a nonstop stream of bats flying under the bridge in their feeding frenzy.
Around to the dipping pond, the group were not disappointed by the aerial acro’ bat’ ics as they swooped and soared. Several of them were seemingly much larger than the others. An indication of different species. We will have to wait for a more formal bat survey to see what other species have made their home on our site.
With thanks to Brenda Cameron and David Howatson.
John McCombs
(FCWF Chair)
September 2024
As a nature reserve are the Woods not closed at night and entry prohibited?
Thank you for this comment. You raise a valid point. Normally we do not encourage night time use of the reserve – the night is for nature. And the city bylaw prohibiting night time use of parks etc confirms this. But in practice we cannot enforce this; only 3 of the reserve’s 6 entrances can be locked at night. And there are exemptions. In the case of this night walk, which was primarily to monitor bat activity, and last month’s night time moth trapping event, we had permission for these events. And if you think about it when else can you monitor the activities of these nocturnal creatures?