A good turn out of 10 people helped check the FC boxes left after last weeks round. A total of 61 good boxes were checked at 3 sites and some 19 boxes that were damaged were removed for repair where possible. In the morning sets at Broadhead and in Wykeham were checked but, after last weeks excellent result, we only had 16 Soprano pips. The differentiation between the two species using wing venation and ‘smell’ still causes a fair bit of discussion but concensus is slowly improving. 5 went on to finish off the boxes in Cropton in the afternoon but sadly this was a complete blank. It did give people a chance to have a look at the Juniper that was growing there.Before we put up any replacement boxes there we plan to have an evening visit with bat detectors to see what bats are around the area as it may be that on the edge of the moor it is too windy and cold to have much success. We will also look at old records to see what has been found there in the past.
