Holywell Pond Light Show n bats !

Looking over towards St Mary's as I headed down to the hides at Holywell

Well behind with my posting so I will have to catch up, this is from the evening of my last post I went to Holywell Pond to wait for the Bats to emerge and get some recordings , going up on the bus with the intention of walking down through the Dene the bus took a different route to the norm asking the driver he informed me the route had now changed so I had to get off along way from the normal stop,  as on a previous visit  in the evening the Little Grebes collected in a group of about 20 birds they settled in the weed about 15-20' from the shore and called to each other which I recorded . As it was getting dark I noted a Water Rail just coming out of the reeds very cautiously it slowly came nearer but the light failing fast , through the viewfinder it just looked like a black shape so I upted the iso to the max  and took some shots till it was right underneath me .  Looking out across the pond a flash of light from the direction of the Avenue seemed to come from the ground up , then to the right  a large low mushroom shaped cloud also lit up from the ground up just like a light bulb flashing on then off, it was the strangest thing Iv'e ever seen  it lit up again I tried to video it with the phone but it did not do it again , expecting distant thunder  of perhaps a storm in the distance but nothing  nor was there any mention of it anywhere or by anyone  very strange !!!.

Well about 30 mins after sunset the Bats appeared and I got some recordings of Pipistrelles very active they where and then a Tawny Owl started up in the wood opposite very vocal but with the air  being  so still the traffic noise spoilt the recording . Well as the bats drifted off to feed elsewhere I headed off home  soon realising when I left the hide even with a torch I could not see where the hell I was going and to go down via the dene would be stupid, I can be rather stupid at times and this one one occasion why the hell did I not just come in the car  and I would have been home in ten minutes  .not the hour and twenty minutes to find the new bus stop and wait for a bus  as they had also changed the times .

Water Rail  at iso 6400