Bats in the belfry?

Not just in the belfry, but in the church itself! Mary Miles noticed this Longeared Bat on the lectern in Little Abington church on Satruday 26 September and Derek took this photo:

Young Muntjac in Cambridge Road garden

Derek took this photo of a young Muntjac in their garden this morning (25 September).

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World Rivers Day

River sampling - 9 September 2015

Riverfly sampling - Sept 2015
Organisation: Abington Naturewatch
Site name: The Ford, Abington, Cambridge (not the usual place)
River: Granta
Grid ref: TL534490
Monitoring Group Coordinator: Rob Mungovan
Date: 09 September 2015, 6.30pm
Recorded by: Peter Brunning

Cased caddisfly: Nil
Caseless caddisfly: B, ca 10
Mayfly (Ephemeridae):  Nil
Blue-winged olive (Ephemeridae): Nil
Flat bodied up-wings (Heptageniidae): Nil
Olives (Baetidae): C, ca 200
Stoneflies: Nil
Gammarus (Freshwater shrimp): C, ca 100

A:1-9; B:10-99; C:100-999;D:>1000

Hatches seen: none
River low; fine, dry weather, cool evening; 3 kick-shuffles undertaken within the allotted 3 minutes (1. Some Weed (water crowfoot) with rocky gravel bottom; 2. Gravel/rocky bottom in main flow, deeper water; 3. Lower flow, rocky bottom, edge of weed).

Other fauna:
1 signal crayfish - 3cm
4 fish (stone loach) - 3 x 10-12cm, 2 x 5 cm

Non-sightings (we’ve often found these): leeches, worms, minnows etc.

Stone Loach

Signal Crayfish

Olive nymphs

Caddis larvae, Shrimp

Freshwater Shrimp

Caddis larva, Shrimp, Olive nymph 

Shrimp

Grasshopper visits Church Lane

The Brunnings had a surprise visitor on 18th August:

River sampling - August 2015

We had a fine, dry and warm evening on 12th August for our sampling session near the cricket nets. The river was very low and we used the usual 3 kick-shuffles of one minute each in three slightly different places, all under trees which are increasingly shading the river.
(1. Gravel/rocky bottom in main flow; 2. Some Weed (water crowfoot) with rocky gravel bottom; 3. Deeper water, rocky bottom)

We submitted the following report on the Riverfly monitored species:

Organisation: Abington Naturewatch
Site name: Cricket Pitch Reach, Abington, Cambridge
River: Granta
Grid ref: TL534490
Monitoring Group Coordinator: Rob Mungovan
Date: 12 August 2015, 6.30pm
Recorded by: Peter Brunning

Cased caddisfly: Nil
Caseless caddisfly: B, ca 10
Mayfly (Ephemeridae):  Nil
Blue-winged olive (Ephemeridae): Nil
Flat bodied up-wings (Heptageniidae): Nil
Olives (Baetidae): C, ca 100
Stoneflies: Nil
Gammarus (Freshwater shrimp): B, ca 20

[A:1-9; B:10-99; C:100-999;D:>1000]

A few photos were taken: 

Olive

Caddis

Caddis

Freshwater Shrimp (Gammarus)

In addition to the monitored species, we caught 3 small signal crayfish - 7cm, 5cm, 2cm

Signal Crayfish

Small Magpie Moth on North Road

Emma Jones took this beautiful photo on a North Road smallholding, on 23rd May 2015.

Small Magpie Moth