The Congresbury Christmas Market is back this year and will be held on Wednesday 8th December from 6-8.30 pm. Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group (YACWAG) is taking the opportunity to put up a display about their new nature reserve off Cobthorn Way. The reserve has been given to YACWAG through the planning process to manage, especially for the Greater Horseshoe Bat. There are estimated to be only about 12,000 of these larger bats left in the UK and Congresbury has up to 1000 of them visiting local pastures to feed on insects. Greater Horseshoe Bats particularly like a landscape with lots of trees and hedges with small fields that are grazed by sheep and cattle. YACWAG will be managing the reserve especially to provide the dung beetles and moths that are needed by juvenile bats in the summer.
You can find out more about Greater Horseshoe Bats during the event, talk to YACWAG members and sign up to be a volunteer for YACWAG. YACWAG is a partner with UWE (The University of the West of England, Bristol) in a Greater Horseshoe Bat project that is collecting information about these mysterious creatures of the night. Next spring there will be a chance to be involved in this citizen science project as well as doing some practical work on the reserve.
Hope to see our Congresbury members there!
Our dedicated Cobthorn reserve page includes spectacular aerial photography of the site. To learn more about our involvement with bats please visit our Bat page.
