Last night was Moth & bat night at Llyn Coed y Dinas, a collaborative event run by Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust & Montgomeryshire Moth Group. I was there to record and interpret the bats.
Couldn't have asked for better weather; warm enough without a coat even at 1:30am, dry and quite clear, but a slight breeze largely keeping the midges at bay! 20 people turned out to discover the nocturnal creatures on this nature reserve. Despite it being an MWT reserve for over 20 years, moths and bats have not been surveyed before, so every record was likely to be new to the site.
Following introductions to moths by Peter Williams (County Moth Recorder) and bats by myself, we set off to look for some of the latter. As soon as we switched on the detectors, we heard Soprano Pipistrelle and indeed, these were the most numerous species recorded all night. In fact, they were the only bats we heard on the heterodyne detectors; they were EVERYWHERE!
Thankfully, I had also brought along the Trust's Anabat, installing it in a quiet part of the site, well away from the numerous moth traps and beside the lake. This also recorded lots of Sopranos, but there was a brief pass by Common Pipistrelle and several recordings of Daubenton's Bat. This brought the total bats recorded to three, covering all the species I had expected to easily detect on the site.
When I left about quarter to two, the moth-ers had reached a total of 74 species, but they weren't ready to pack up yet! You can find out more about their night on the Montgomeryshire Moth Group blog.
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