Field Reports

It was a fine and sunny afternoon when we met at Fishbourne Meadows for a session with John Arnott helping us to identify grasshoppers and bush-crickets using bat detectors.  John had run a session like this last year so this was a revision – but much needed by all 5 of us!

The group was shown what frequency was best for grasshoppers and then for bush-crickets.  We were then let loose in the Meadows to try and find calling males.  John explained that we should pick up more bush-crickets as they tend to be more active later in the afternoon but grasshoppers should also be active.  We saw many grasshoppers, all of which turned out to be Meadow grasshoppers when the bat detectors were pointed at them.  Other species identified were Roesel’s bush-cricket, Speckled bush-cricket ( a species not expected to be found on our site at Medmerry as they prefer shrubs rather than grass) and Long-winged conehead.

This was thought to be a very useful session and we are looking forward to next week’s Grasshoppers and Bush-crickets survey.

Philippa Arnott