Low Moor and Oakenshaw Wildlife

Well I have just about recovered from the family day and ‘ALL’ night event with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Sarah Goldsmith, Peter Gurney and their excellent team put on the event and with so many experts on hand I knew new species would be found for the reserve.

My main role along with Peter and Simon was finding new moth species with the aid of a sweep net and moth traps.

However, the event got off to a great start with Peter finding some Betony in the wildflower meadow, which is a new species for the reserve.

As always the pond dipping at Toad Holes Beck was very popular and encouragingly many Smooth newt tadpoles were found.

Time just seemed to fly by as it was soon time for the bat walk when Peter lent all the excited children their own bat detector! Four Common pipistrelle were at RN and at Toad Holes Beck six Noctule bats put on a fabulous display in the early twilight.

At 3.30am myself and Simon had an excellent experience at Caldene fields when we were near surrounded by a minimum of 9 Common pipistrelle bats feeding ‘ Inches ‘ above our heads!!

Then it was the turn to see how the moths had faired. However, sadly the night was cool and a total of only 31 species were recorded. However, 9 were new species for the reserve including 3 which are new for our recording area bringing my overall total to 411 species.

An adult Hedgehog was in the meadow at Raw Nook NR ( A welcome sighting) and 2 Wood mice were also recorded.

Apart from the new moth species for the reserve, 2 new plant species were recorded ( Including Wood Sage ha..ha Peter), and we now know Hedgehog and Wood mouse use the reserve. A new Hoverfly species was added to the species list and we also know that there is a healthy population of Noctule bats at T H Beck.

So I have to thank wholeheartedly Sarah Goldsmith, Peter Gurney and all other members of YWT team for staging this excellent unforgettable event!!!