Bat News
Bat Survey at Ploughman's Wood
9 May 2008
Ten members of the batgroup took park in this first visit to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Lambley. I visit this wood fairly often and have wondered for some time which bat species might be present.
The wood is situated on the east-west ridge that runs between Lambley and Woodborough. Documentary evidence of the wood dates back as far as the 13th century and Ploughman Wood once formed part of a much larger area of woodland which covered more than 120 hectares. The site is mainly an oak/ash woodland, with some hazel, holly, field maple and beech. This mix of tree species provides an excellent range of habitats for wildlife. Read more about the reserve on the Notts Wildlife Trust Website
We started by walking down the main ride which runs down the centre of the wood. A few of us waited close to some bat boxes that were put up by the group many years ago in the hope that something might emerge (it didn't!). The first bat to be seen was a common pipistrelle which flew over the path but it didn't stay for long. Further down the path Barry Collins and Paul Stone picked up a very brief series of calls from a brown long-eared bat.
We then moved to the area of meadow at the edge of the wood close to the pond (see picture above). This area turned out to be the most productive part of the wood. Here we recorded more common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, noctule and a myotis bat which was probably a whiskered bat. Another probable whiskered bat flew along the hedgerow close to the meadow gate.
The image on the left is a spectrogram from a recording on a common pipistrelle by the pond. Right at the end of the call you can just see a social call. Listen to the call here. The social call is the trill right at the end of the recording (recorded using a Tranquility II time expansion detector with the call slowed down 10 times)
The image on the left is a spectrogram from a recording on a myotis (probably whiskered) bat by the pond. Listen to the call here. (recorded using a Tranquility II time expansion detector with the call slowed down 10 times)
