Trail Guides

Audio Guide Transcript

Detailed guided walk information for each trail to accompany your bat walk around each site

(Please refer to main information booklet for maps and bat detector use information)

Avon Valley Woodlands Bat Audio Trail

Site Introduction and travel information

Circular walk of about ¾ of a mile (1.2 km) 1 hour walk with 6 luminescent way marker trail points. Nearest buses 44 (, Memorial Road) and 45 (St Georges) By car, follow the brown signs for Avon Valley woodlands from the A431 in Hanham. It is best to park at Conham River car park (BS15 3AW) which also has toilet facilities. During the summer the car park is usually locked around 10.00 pm at night but is open until 11:30 pm, Thursday – Saturday to tie in with the evening opening hours of Beeses tea rooms. The trail is relatively flat, with a couple of inclines and declines along the route. The route passes over a mixture of path surfaces including grass, tarmac and gravel. There are a number of seats along the trail. Wheel chair users may find the trail along the river the most accessible section to follow between points 6 and 4 as the path is flat, wide and hard surfaced. Trail point 1 can be found at the entrance to the Avon Valley Woodlands, which is accessed through a small wooden gate from the car park next to a black signpost and information panel.

Trail point one - Entrance

From this point the trail follows a gravel footpath up into Conham River Park. There is a picnic area on your right and a long low building on the left which is home to the East Rifle and Pistol Club. The gladed area merges into coppiced woodland plantations as you reach the grassland. These woodlands contain native trees including hazel, field maple hawthorn and ash.

The reserve is owned and managed by South Council for the enjoyment of local people. Conham River Park forms part of the Avon Valley Woodlands, which was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 2005 in recognition of the rich biodiversity and ecology of the area. You may be surprised to know that you are now standing at the former entrance to Conham Sewage works! In 1937 a sewage plant was built here which served the southern part of Kingswood until 1968, when the trunk sewer was extended to . Later it became a refuse tip, which once full, was landscaped with trees that now provide food, shelter and habitat for a wide variety of birds and small mammals.

This site includes a broad range of grassland, woodland, scrub and riverside habitats, so as a result a variety of bats and other wildlife are found here. On previous walks bats identified here have included Noctules, Common Pipestrelles, Soprano Pipestrelles and Daubenton’s bats. Each species has slightly different habitat preferences, so at the different markers it will be explained which bat you are most likely to hear and why.

To get to marker 2, walk up the gravel path, through a small copse and continue to the edge of an area of open grassland. The distance to the next trail point is 120 metres. 2

Trail point two – Parkland

You should be standing in an open grassy area with a number of trees dotted around. The grass is relatively flat, but watch out for small holes dug by rabbits that populate the area. During the summer, when the grass is tall the field is full of grasshoppers, butterflies and moths. The small coppices around the grassland are home to a wide variety of bird life including green woodpeckers, which can sometimes be seen searching the grassland for ants. In the evenings, tawny owls may also be heard in this locality, especially in the autumn when they re establish their territory.

Open space like this can be a good place to hear our largest bat, the Noctule. This species has a deep voice that can best be heard around 20 –