Static acoustic recorders were deployed between May and September 2024, to provide extensive acoustic data for the Connecting Constable and Gainsborough Country Landscape Recovery Project. The priority was to look at the potential for using acoustics to detect a wide range of taxa, including the presence of flagship species such as Hazel Dormouse, Nightingale and Turtle Dove. This report provides an overview of the survey coverage and main results. 

Over 2024, 40 different locations across the Connecting Constable and Gainsborough Country project area were surveyed. Recording was undertaken on 41 different days between May and September, amounting to a total of 570 days of recording effort across sites. 1,375,296 ultrasonic recordings were collected which, following analyses and validation, were found to include 505,497 detections of at least 11 bat species, and 1,136 detections of four small terrestrial mammal species. This includes Hazel Dormouse, which was recorded from two sites. One of these sites was close to Bradfield Woods where there is a well-established and long-monitored population of Hazel Dormouse, and the second site was in a small patch of woodland at Stone Street, just south of Boxford. Four bush-cricket species and two audible moth species were also detected. Additionally, presence was confirmed for 54 bird species.