After a week of exceptionally hot weather for May a group of 15 assembled at Poles Coppice for a bat walk, a cooler and breezier evening than most in the week. Following introductions in the car park the group moved along a footpath into some open fields. With some sheep grazing quietly bat detectors were turned on and eyes went to the skies to hopefully see our first bats of the night.
All was quiet, slowly the group moved through the fields between a hedgerow and the woodland edge of Poles Coppice. After a stop for some discussion about bats and their behaviours movement was slow towards a gate into the woodland. Then just before the gate the first ‘clicks’ were heard across the group’s detectors…finally bats! A few minutes were spent stood watching a pair of Soprano Pipistrelles foraging along the woodland edge. Through the gate and over a stream the group emerged into the woodland, a short walk along the path brought us into one of the quarries within Poles Coppice. Common and Soprano Pipistrelles were filling the skies and creating a cacophony of noise as bat detectors picked up their echolocation calls, unfortunately no other bat species made an appearance with only a quick passing from a Myotis Sp. at the quarry entrance. After about twenty minutes of watching bats feeding over the ponds and scrub within the quarry the group moved towards the top of Pontesbury Hill through the woods and to the viewpoint towards Pontesford and Earl’s Hills. A quick stop was made at the dipping platform extending over one of the ponds to look for bats and a quick torch of the water to see what newts were lurking in the depths.
With darkness quickly moving in the group headed back along the paths towards the start point, with a few stops to talk about the ‘bat house’ and various bat boxes through the woods. With lots of excellent discussion and some decent bat activity, the group made their way back to the cars and headed homewards.
