The Norfolk Bat Group is a voluntaray wildlife conservation group focussing on the conservation of wild bats within the English county of Norfolk. The Norfolk group were first formed in 1961 and were the first of the present day ninety county based bat groups in the UK.

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A day in the Thetford Forest Making Bat Boxes

The commercial pine forests around Thetford on the Norfolk/Suffolk border (U.K.) were chosen in 1975 for a long-term study of bats and bat boxes. There are approximately 600 boxes and these are monitored and maintained jointly by the Norfolk Bat Group, the Suffolk Bat Group, the Forestry Commission and The Robert Stebbings Consultancy. Many of the boxes are used by five species of bat that live there, and up to 200 can be found in reisdence, especially during the autumn.

This series of pictures shows the making of a short film for "About Anglia", due to be screened on Anglia Television, on Tuesday October 26th 1999. It shows Anglia presenter, Vicky Kimm with John Goldsmith from the Natural History Department of the Norfolk Museums Service and four children from Colkirk school making bat boxes and looking at some of the bats already using the bat boxes in the Thetford Forest.

If you go down to the woods today..............

Bears, bats and people gathered in the Thetford forest on a sunny day in October to make a film!

Here John shows the children how the six sides of a bat box fit together from a kit of pieces using a picnic table as a temporary carpentry bench.

At the High Lodge Visitor Centre the cameraman discusses details of the next sequence with the sound engineer.........

The lighting engineer uses his collapsible shiny reflector to fill in the shadows, while boxes are being constructed by the children.

A long boom and fluffy microphone enables the voices of Vicky and John to be recorded, without needing individual microphones.

This scene shows the children (or some of them!) concentrating on making their own bat box.

The camera pans past a finished bat box with the children busy in the background.

Many thanks to Sue and Roger for their vital back-up roles during the day and to Roger Bell and Colkirk school headmaster, Andrew King for transport and supervision, and special thanks to the four junior star performers - Francis, Laura, Robert and Sam............

More details under discussion as to what will make an interesting television sequence.

Vicky has a bit of a 'plank look'.

Sorry Vicky!!

DON'T FORGET TO WATCH!

ABOUT ANGLIA, October 26th 1999