As part of our GoGreen week, several members of staff stayed after-hours at Lockington Hall to trap both moths and bats!

We counted a total of 7 noctule bats emerge from the natural tree roost present in the Hall and later on, under a special project licence from Natural England, we set up three harp traps which are special devices used to harmlessly catch bats. We undertook a single survey in the grounds last year and caught seven species but were keen to see if there was anything different around at the start of the survey period. Just two Natterer’s bats were caught on Wednesday and were both adult males.

Meanwhile, associate Antony had set up his moth trap on the lawn outside the Hall and as darkness fell a number of species started dropping into the bottom of the trap (again, the moths were harmlessly released following identification). Antony uses a Robinson moth trap with a halogen bulb. Despite the cool night we still caught 7 species, the records of which will be sent to the local biological records centre.

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