Training Update

Recently, we had a week of very interesting and informative training, starting with a two day 'Bats and Woodland Management' course run by Fran Flanagan from Natural England's Field Unit.  We were interested in learning more about bats and their habitat needs because we manage some of the finest ancient oak woodlands in north east England, at Derwent Gorge and Muggleswick Woods, near Consett in County Durham.

The course was held at Castle Eden Dene NNR, which was a perfect location for it with its fantastic stands of ancient oak and ash.  During the course we learnt about many different types of bats and their ecology, lifecycles, and habitat preferences, including their different roosting requirements throughout the year.  For example, bats have different roost sites for day, night, maternity and hibernation, and they roost in different numbers according to their species.  We also learnt how to recognise potential roost features on trees, such as knot holes, splits, cracks and loose bark.  This was of particular significance as it means that we can now take this into consideration when cutting and/or felling.  Without dedicated equipment we may not always be able to  tell for sure whether bats are roosting in a tree but at least we can now recognise potential places they could be roosting and take appropriate action to avoid disturbing them or damaging their habitat.  It was in fact surprising to learn just how small a gap a bat can squeeze into and that you can find some species, such as the common pipistrelle, roosting in trees whose trunks are as small in diameter as a baked bean can.

Separate from this, some of our volunteers  were given an introduction to Fungi by local enthusiast, Rachel Richards, to help develop their identification skills. This half day course began with a PowerPoint presentation at Bowlees Visitor Centre, giving a basic overview on what fungi are, their role in the ecosystem, their structure, reproduction, taxonomy, plus how to collect and identify them.

This was followed by a foray around the Low Force area, where we were both surprised and delighted to discover a large number of different species, once we got our eye in (they can be rather well hidden).

We then took our samples to Wynch Bridge End Cottage, where we had a go at identifying what we had found.