Cayton Bay, Sea Birds and Bats

Today, I enjoyed my first trip to the coast in nearly two years! 

Driving over, I passed a field full of linseed which was a pleasant sight, and I noticed some Dryad's saddle fungus too.

I had chosen Cayton Bay to see the sea, hoping it would be a pleasant beach and it was. The sun broke through the last of the cloud soon after I arrived too! I didn't do a lot there; a look in the rock pools, dipping my feet in the sea and then just sitting and enjoying the sound of the sea and reading a little.

The largest pool was full of these, which I think are young sand eels.

crane fly

As it wasn't far away, I decided to make a brief visit to Bempton Cliffs on the way home. There, I saw the usual birds - gannets, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and puffins, plus tree sparrows.

There were also a few bugs, of course, including the red and black froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata) and a pill bug.

My time outdoors didn't end there though! Home for a few days this week is a former chapel and so this evening, around 10pm, I took the bat detector out for a walk in the neighbouring cemetery. I saw two species of bat - common pipistrelle and another one that I'm not sure about off the top of my head but was much larger than a pipistrelle and I'd hazard a guess at Brown Long Eared. There were also a few cockchafers around. I could hear them buzzing in the air and also walking around in grass and on the shrubs as well as see them flying by.

Home for a few days

30 Days Wild begins properly tomorrow... I don't have a single thing planned for it yet, I'll just take it a day at a time and see where it takes me :)

A Bat Detector Workshop

I volunteered at Wild Wednesday again this week with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust doing sweep netting, campfire bread and various other nature related activities and crafts. There was a staff & volunteer workshop (with a few places for the public too) that evening so we planned to have campfire cooked baked potatoes between Wild Wednesday and the bat workshop but the weather turned at the wrong time, from sunny spells to heavy rain just when we needed to start cooking and I ended up dashing home for an hour instead!

We met up again later on in Matlock Bath for a bit of a training session on bat detectors and bat identification, which was led by Katherine Boughey from the Bat Conservation Trust. We looked at sonograms, repetition, tone, duration and pitch in calls and how to find a bat's peak frequency on the detector plus other bat related knowledge including surveys. After a couple of hours in the classroom we headed out for an hour, walking through the woods and alongside the river.

We found Daubenton's bats, Common Pipistrelles and Sopranao Pipistrelles on our short walk.

As well as the bats, I enjoyed the colourful spiders... The bridge in Matlock Bath has colour changing lights along it and many cobwebs...

Day 94 - Bugs, Boats and Bats

A busy day!  I ran a school outreach session for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust in the morning - at a school site, but it was for a nursery / school holiday club as children are not at school this week here. The favourite activity of the morning was bug hunting with sweep nets (always one of my favourites!). We found orb spiders, all sorts of flies, leafhoppers, craneflies and a few frogs. The children also enjoyed making their own clay animals.

In the afternoon I went over and spent some time at Carstington Water - as a visitor rather than a volunteer for a change! It was nice to just have a wander, sit and admire the view, watch birds from the hide (I saw a kingfisher, always nice!) then I watched the boats and the waves for a bit...

...before heading to the classroom to get ready for a bat night - my last Wild Wednesday volunteer event of the summer holidays. I didn't take any photos during the evening but it was fantastic!

The man who taught me dry stone walling last year attended with his grandson. He's a lovely man and it was nice to be able to catch up with him. I think everyone who attended enjoyed the night and there was no shortage of bats around. After a bat facts trail and making 'flapping bats', we had a walk in the dark with bat detectors and heard all three varieties of Pipistrelle (Common, Soprano and Nathusius') Daubenton's and Noctule and we saw lots of Pipstrelles and Noctules too. A really successful evening!

Day 77 - Bats in the Garden

I took my new bat detector out for a play in the garden this evening and heard lots of Pipistrelles flying around.

 

I used to be a member of the Bat Conservation Trust. It was a gift membership, bought for me a few years ago, but when it expired I didn't renew. I've just re-joined the BCT :)