Leanne has been volunteering with us for a couple of days here at Loch Gruinart. Along with her many skills, Leanne holds a Bat License, which means she can check our bat boxes along our Woodland Trail. Bats are heavily protected, you cannot check a roost, disturb a roost, photograph or handle a bat without one - this is for good reason as they are sensitive to disturbance. They are also in decline across the world, so they need our protection.
We have 18 boxes along our trails, which haven't been checked for a number of years as we do not hold a license on the reserve.
Out of these 18 there were: 2 wren's nests, 1 blue tit nest, several slugs and spiders, but 0 bats! With Leanne's advice, we need to move our boxes to a more sunny spot, preferably to the south facing edges of woodland. To do this we will need permission as, even though they aren't in use, they are still bat boxes.
One box was situated well, and Emily had heard bats in it through early July. Though no bats were there when we checked, we did find poo:
Wildlife photography at its best! But evidence that the roost is used, probably by non-breeding females and solitary males. It also goes to show the importance of location for the boxes.
Our last roost to check was our brown long-eared bats, who prefer roof spaces. These have evolved huge ears to hear moths without having to use echo-location, which can betray their approach to the moths. We had 16 in one roost, as well as evidence in our cattle sheds in the forms of moth wings scattered about the floor. These bats will often roost in rafters to eat their moths, leaving a concentration of wings below.
Leanne was able to take a photo for us.
For more information on what you can do to provide safe homes for bats, visit the Bat Conservation Trust's website.