We enjoyed a truly enchanting evening in the woodland with our ecologist friend, Alex Wilson, guiding us through the secret world of bats. The night was alive with pipistrelles dancing above our heads, their rapid twists and turns revealed by our detectors. We were treated to the delicate call of a soprano pipistrelle and the thrilling sight of noctules, their powerful, direct dives sweeping steeply from the treetops, perhaps in pursuit of supper.
The youngsters added to the magic as they lit the woodland paths with their torches, seeing the familiar woods in a completely new light.
Our dusk walk began with the Watchers Charm read by the children, a blessing to open the woodland night. Soon dusk folded into darkness. Around the pond we waited in hope for a Daubenton’s bat to skim the water’s surface with its broad feet, but it was not to be this time.
Still, the chorus of detectors clicking and chattering with each passing bat gave everyone the sense of truly stepping into another world, a place where the night shift of pollinators and hunters rule the skies.
It was incredible how dusk slipped so quickly into darkness and with it the woodland came alive with bats overhead.
The project is delivered by Caerphilly Woodlands Trust with the support of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Countryside Service and the Gwent Green Grid Partnership.
This project is funded by the Nature Networks Programme. It is being delivered by the Heritage Fund on behalf of the Welsh Government.
