malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk

Big Garden Birdwatch 2026

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 23:59:33 +0000

Bat survey in Luckington

Jenn — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 11:04:00 +0000

On the 16th May a group of us went to St Mary with St Ethelbert Church in Luckington to carry out an emergency survey.

This was prompted by the discovery of a rare Lesser Horsehoe bat close by last year and we wanted to know if this was an isolated occurrence or whether there were more in the area. Furthermore, the individual found was a juvenile, suggesting there may be a maternity colony close by.

Within Luckington the church tower looked a probable place for use as a roost with multiple possible entry/exit routes on the tower and roof. We positioned ourselves at 5 points around the church, each group with a bat detector. So with camping chairs and flasks at the ready we waited for the sun to go down….

Luckily we weren’t disappointed. Plenty of bats flitted over our head once dusk hit and we could discern at least a couple of different species by sight – the quick flitting pipstrelle overhead and larger serotines zipping along the hedgerows. We also wandered down to the river and were treated to a beautiful display of Daubenton’s bats skimming low across the water up and down.

We recorded bat calls on a variety of different detectors – EchoMeter Touch 2 Pros which make recordings of the calls and provide suggsted IDs, a basic but reliable heterodyne detctor and Phil Atkins’ (aka ‘Pip Detector’) new “Griff” detectors which turns your phone into a bat detector with the help of a bespoke microphone and some software he has developed. As an aside, Phil has put in an incredible amount of effort to develop affordable bat detectors, which is making bat surveying so much more accessible to all.

We spent some time verifying the calls with the help of Phil Atkins, some auto-ID software(s) and visual checking of the call recordings, and were pleased to confirm the following species: Daubenton’s (Myotis daubentonii), Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipstrellus), Serotine (Eptesicus serotinus), Noctule (Nyctalus noctula), Brown long-eared (Plecotus auritus) and the rarer Barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus) and Lesser Horseshoe (Rhinolophus hipposideros). Some of the calls are shown below (in order from top to bottom: Common pipstrelle, Daubenton’s and Lesser Horseshoe). All of these records were submitted to the Bat Conservation Trust to help with local and national monitoring efforts.

Strangely enough we didn’t see any bats emerge from the church tower. Therefore, where the Lesser Horseshoes roost remains a mystery we have yet to uncover! However it was still a fantastic night with some excellent species recorded.

We would like to give a huge thanks to St Mary with St Ethelbert Church for allowing us to carry out this survey on their grounds.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2025

Jenn — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 09:22:56 +0000

Athelstan 1100Walk on the Wild Side

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 20:02:00 +0000

On Tuesday 2nd July at 2.30pm in Malmesbury Town Hall, our Chair, Miranda Shirnia, will be giving a talk as part of the Athelstan 1100 celebrations comparing wildlife in Malmesbury in 924 and today.

Here is a short film as a little introduction…

Tickets available here: https://www.athelstan1100.co.uk/…/talk-one-day-in-may…

Swift Awareness Week(29th June to 7th July)

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 06:00:45 +0000

Swift Awareness Week is a national event which was first held in 2018 with swift activities promoted by groups throughout the country. This year it takes place from Saturday 29th June to Sunday 7th July.

In the Malmesbury area we are behind a lot of other small towns in that we have only recently founded a Swift Group to study and safeguard these birds. Our focus during Swift Awareness Week therefore is to try to get a good initial estimate of the numbers of nesting birds and thus provide a baseline to monitor how well they are doing in future years.

Our swifts should have young in the nest at this period, which means they will be bringing food to the nest location every hour or so, at least on mild days when there are plenty of insects available. Hence our focus during the week will be to try to confirm as many nests as possible by observing the behaviour of the swifts around the streets.

Our surveys so far have shown that there is an extensive colony of swifts in the area of Horse Fair and adjacent streets, particularly Burnham Road and West Street. There is a smaller colony which extends along King’s Wall and Burnivale.

Please keep your eyes open for any swifts, either in these areas or elsewhere, and if you find any apparently using nests we would greatly appreciate a report.

Here be Dragons!

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:39:47 +0000

On Saturday, 20 of us went for a walk around Lower Moor Farm looking for Dragonflies and Damselflies.

We found Common Blue damselfly, Blue tailed damselfly, Red eyed damselfly, Common Darter, Four spotted Chaser and Black tailed skimmer (both female and male), a male Emperor Dragonfly patrolling his territory and a female egg laying.

We also found a number of Exuviae from both Common Darter and an Aeshna species. Oh and there were quite a few froglets about too…

Many thanks to Teresa Farr for the photos!

Black-tailed skimmer

Dragonfly nymphs

Common darter

Four spotted chaser

Clean up our rivers!

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:49:39 +0000

Are you aware of the pollution being pumped into our river and does it worry you? Here are some photos of the impact of sewage discharges from the Noah’s Ark pumping station in Garsdon. Quite honestly they are revolting!

Sewage in the river at Garsdon

In 2023 there were 50 days of discharging from this pumping station alone – that’s roughly once a week and the people living nearby are noticing that wildlife is being damaged by it.

If this concerns you too, and you often walk along a section of a river near you, why not become a Water Guardian? This involves, walking the route regularly and reporting on the quality of the water. You can sign up on Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s website https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/water-guardians

You might just want to be involved in pressurising the water company to clean up their act. If so please contact us and we will be in touch.

Letters have been sent to all the candidates to become the new MP for the South Cotswolds constituency asking for them to commit to supporting our campaign to clear up our rivers and brooks should they be elected on 4th July. The sewage spills must stop and we want their support to do this.

Hedgehog Project Survey

malmesburynaturalhistory.co.uk — Mon, 27 May 2024 19:38:51 +0000

Great Somerford’s ‘Team Hedgehog’ were out and about installing camera traps for hedgehogs on the morning of 11th May. This project is a collaboration between Malmesbury and District Natural History Society, Wiltshire Mammal Group and the people of Great Somerford.

It was a beautiful morning for a walk around Great Somerford meeting with people who have kindly agreed to host a camera. We started at 10am with a demonstration of how to do it. Then, by 10.30am we broke up into teams of 2 with 4 or 5 cameras each to install. By 12.30pm they were all in – just a morning’s work and it was all done. ‘Team Hedgehog’ you were excellent, everything completed without any stress, in fact it was really quite fun!

Hedgehog survey Great Somerford

In all, 30 cameras are now placed around the village and will stay there for 30 days until the morning of Monday 10th of June when they will be taken back in again for the data to be analysed.

At the end of that week, Malmesbury’s ‘Team Hedgehog’ will be in action installing them at 30 locations around Malmesbury Town!

The cameras will be installed across Malmesbury on Saturday 15th June and removed again on Monday 15th July. At the moment we have 12 volunteers helping to install them and 11 helping to take them out.

We really could do with some more helping hands. It’s not a complicated process and people will be put into pairs so you won’t be on your own.

For those who are interested I have created a video you can watch showing you how to install a camera and the first camera installed on the day will be a demonstration too.

So, if you are free on either or both of those days please think about giving us a hand – it will be a quick and simple process with a few more volunteers. Please contact us via our contact page if you are interested.

This project is funded and run nationally by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Living with SwiftsThe Sirens of Summer

Jenn — Sat, 18 May 2024 17:37:49 +0000

On 7^th May 2024 30 people came to Malmesbury Town Hall to hear about Swifts from Sarah Roberts of North Wiltshire Swifts.

Sarah has been involved in bird conservation for over a decade and started North Wiltshire Swifts in 2019 as a specialist project and advice group. Their aim is to preserve and boost existing swift populations in Wiltshire through nest box projects and support others to do so.

As we walked into the Town Hall we were greeted by about five Swifts flying high above us – newly returned to the town.

Sarah gave a really informative and entertaining talk about the ecology of this charismatic bird, how to install Swift boxes and campaign for all new-build homes to have Swift bricks incorporated from the start.

A staggering half of swifts have been lost since 1995 yet the causes are not well known. Suspected causes are climate change (more erratic weather affecting migration and nesting); global declines in insect abundance that have reduced their food source; and loss of nest sites as houses are retrofitted and nest cavities filled in, and old growth veteran trees are lost from our landscapes, reducing natural nesting sites.

However, there is still much we can do to support Malmsbury’s Swifts.

The practical advice, hints and tips that Sarah had to offer on how to carry out a survey and ways to attract the birds to Swift boxes once they are installed will be hugely valuable as we launch our survey in Malmesbury.

She explained that Swifts often arrive in waves, with established breeders arriving earliest in May to return to existing nest sites. Swifts have high site fidelity and will return to the same nest year after year.

Younger individuals that have not yet bred may then arrive in June/July, searching for new nest sites. This is an excellent opportunity to provide new nesting sites, and you can attract Swifts by playing Swifts calls from inside or close to the nest, which should attract their attention.

It may take a few years for a new Swift site to be noticed and occupied, so it is worth persevering.

Photo credit: Neil Parker

There are several useful places to find out more about Swifts, including: different types of nest boxes, ideal locations and how to install them; guidance on Swifts and buildings/development; surveying for Swifts, and wildlife law:

We will also use Swift Awareness Week 29^th June – 7^th July to further promote and support these fantastic birds in our town.

Bats of Malmesburyand the Braydon Forest

Jenn — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:17:13 +0000

We are particularly fond of bats at MDNHS headquarters, with two committee members regularly volunteering with Wiltshire Bat Group. We are fortunate in Wiltshire to be a bat ‘hotspot’ in Britain, hosting almost all of our 17 native breeding bat species.

Back in June 2023 we had a foray around Malmesbury to see what bats could be found in and around the town. We set off on a circular walk, starting at Conygre Mead at dusk where we encountered soprano pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and common pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) at close quarter flitting above our heads.

Being briefed on bats

We then followed the river to the Bowls Club where we heard tantalising echolocation calls of Serotine(Eptesicus serotinus) and Noctule (Nyctalus noctula) on the bat detectors (as well as picking up the calls of a rat by the river!).

Finally, on our way back to the long stay park we lingered at the bridge at the bottom of Abbey steps and watched with delight as Daubenton’s bats (Myotis daubentonii) skimmed over the surface of the river back and forth under the bridge, dipping down to pluck insects off the surface. Even for seasoned bat watchers this was a thrill!

Take a look at the graphic below… ‘A’ shows the Daubenton’s call as they fed over the water; ‘B’ shows a Noctule flying overhead and ‘C’ is very excited humans squealing with delight!!!

For our second bat event, in February 2024 we hosted Gareth Harris of Wiltshire Bat Group who gave a talk on the Bats of the Braydon Forest to an audience of 34 people. It was fascinating to find out about the bats discovered there and the ongoing research on the topic.

His long-term study, in conjunction with other local bat experts, has showed that 13 bat species are living in the Braydon Forest close to Malmesbury. These include four of Britain’s rarest bats – Bechstein’s, Barbastelle, Lesser Horseshoe and Greater Horseshoe.

Their survey and monitoring efforts are ongoing, some of which you can get involved with through Wiltshire Bat Group.

Following on from the success of our previous bat walk, we will be leading another on 13^th September, with the aim of more comprehensively surveying Malmesbury’s rivers for Daubenton’s bats. Keep an eye out for when we advertise it nearer the time!