Moth and Bat survey

On 20 th August what a fabulous night we had with Jill Keys, moth and bat enthusiast and expert! Some thirty of us gathered for a delicious cheese and wine buffet to start the evening in style. Thank you Anne, for the lovely spread.

Jill then gave a most entertaining talk on the habits and life styles of moths (who knew it could be so funny as well as being so interesting!) which segued neatly into the lives and habits of our local bat population. After a lovely ‘cake moment’, thank you Hilary for that delicious vanilla sponge, topped with sprinkles!, we ventured out into the gloaming armed with high tech bat detectors and later returned to look at moths collected in the traps set out earlier. (No moths or bats were harmed during this exercise!)

A really huge THANK YOU to Jill, assisted by the very knowledgable Tess. It was a splendid evening and we identified five species of moths: Setaceous Hebrew character; Square-spot rustic; Yellow shell; Brimstone moth and Chinese Character. Bats were also five species: common and soprano pipistrelle behind the church and also daubentons, noctule and brown long-eared.

Our thanks to The National Heritage lottery fund and the Lottery players for their support for this event.