Natterer's Wood

Natterer's wood, as the sign says, is a site maintained by Woodland Ways, the Moreton Hall wildlife group of volunteers. It is literally just down the road from us, running alongside Mount Rd on the way into Bury St Edmunds. Until a couple of years ago it was just a bare field, but the group have been creating a new woodland.

The street lights along the Mount Rd cycle path beside the site are a curious design.

They were modified a couple of years ago to reduce light spillage away from the road, footpath and cycle path so as not to disturb the bats living the other side of the field. The colony includes Natterer's Bats - hence the name of the site.

In the new design for the site there is a wild flower meadow. It contains this peculiar ditch.

It isn't all straight. Here's a funny little corner...

Have you guessed yet what it is? There is a clue in the placename. And if you go to the Woodland Ways website, all is revealed...

Yes it is a giant bat! With a wingspan of about 200m! Here is the story in the Bury Free Press at its opening in March.

And now, according to last week's BFP, it has been nominated as 'wackiest project' in a national competition - The Environment Agency Action Earth Awards. It is on the shortlist and the winner will be announced on September 13th. I hope they win. It looks wacky enough to me.