Laurie and I are just about recovering from out two night Big Wild Sleepout extravaganza...
Over the weekend 75 visitors camped with us in the wildlife explorer meadow and met all sorts of night creatures out on the nature reserve.
We began with an evening pond dip finding water stick insects, backswimmers, mayfly, caddis fly, damselfly and dragonfly larvae amongst other goodies. At the moment there seems to be an abundance of very tiny dragonfly larvae (mainly emperors) which should be no surprise to those of you who have seen the fantastic adult dragonflies patrolling the pond. These tiny striped larvae are really rather cute having not yet reached the size where they look (and are) fierce and gruesome.
The sunset was glorious...
Having safely liberated all our pond creatures we took a look at some marvelous moths. With around 2500 different species of moth in the UK, and at least 500 species recorded at Pulborough Brooks, the moths are always wonderful. There are so many different shapes, sizes and patterns and there are some fabulous names. Amongst others we found 3 types of hawkmoth - including this lovely poplar hawkmoth.
Thanks to Terry Hollands for this cracking photo!
Sophie (Age 8) told us "My favourite thing was holding all of the interesting moths. I loved it.”
As the light began to fade we set up the moth trap and some mammal footprint tunnels before heading out on a bat hunt. Having marveled at a tiny pipistrelle's ability to catch and eat around 3000 midges in a night we headed out with our bat detectors and found both common and soprano pipistrelle bats flitting around the hedgerows and particularly the large oak trees at the bottom of the zig zags. We returned for hot chocolate before taking a final peak at the moth trap - as well as attracting moths, we were also attracting the bats who were taking the opportunity to feast.
One of my favourite moments were the excited shouts of a dozen children 'There it is!' when our first bat of the evening appeared and swooped low over our heads. Daisy (Aged 9) told us “Itwas EPIC!!! I adored the bat walk”
My other favourite moment was hearing and then seeing a snuffling hedgehog - my first sighting of one of these special creatures on the nature reserve (and I've been working here for 9 years now!)
I won't claim to have slept well, but waking up to the sound of song thrush isn't a bad thing. After breakfast we checked out the mammal tunnels - a woodmouse had been enjoying the food we left for him (and now has slightly inky paws) and we went on a reptile ramble finding adder, slow worms and a tiny grass snake.
Tired but happy we packed up our tents...
Thanks to our lovely volunteers Rob and Dorothy for their help over the weekend, and to all of our guests who made it such a fun experience!
Sorry if you couldn't make it to our Big Wild Sleepout this year, but if you like the sound of some of the creatures we have several evening events coming up in the next month or so...
Just for families we have our 'After Dark Adventure' on Saturday 22 August, a National Moth Night special on Friday 11 September and bat-themed evenings on Tuesday 01 and Saturday 19 September. You can book your place by contacting the visitor centre on 01798 875851.