Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

Two of the three the new cedar bat houses I built for 2011 have been used by at least one bat each. The rough cedar boards for baffles seem to provide good footing. I have 6 total very small bats at present , most in my old cedar three chamber. I am
pleased with the start of the batting season. I am not taking photos yet as I don't want to disturb these bats with a flash. I have seen no little browns, big browns, or freetails yet. The hollow pole idea from Terry Lobdell is doing well, still straight and holding three houses. If this warm weather holds, I would expect some little browns to start arriving in about three weeks along with some freetails maybe.
Anyone else have bats yet?

Frank

[William Bagwell]

Just the one I noticed back in the eves of the house a week or two back. It may also be smaller than the little browns we had last year but I have no others to compare him or her with at the moment.

Oh, if this picture really is a juvenile little brown as the file name suggests I'm now 99% certain the bulk of our colony last year were little browns.
http://www.npca.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/

Had forgotten we had took pictures of one of the fallen young last year. Had tried to identify it at the time but gave up since there are so few pictures of juveniles on the web. Guess I need to crop and re-size one and post it...



The bat is just over two inches long nose to toes in that picture based on an object I cropped out.

[cloudman75]

William,
I can't tell what species the little bat is at this stage. I have been very lucky not to have fallen bats, only a couple over several years. I have about 5 small bats, no more have arrived yet. I suspect that a few little browns will arrive in a couple more weeks if it stays warm. I have seen no big browns or freetails yet.


Frank

[William Bagwell]

Frank,
Thanks for trying to id him! Wish there were still folks from BCI active here as they were in the past Need to get a couple of my 'practice' houses up before the rest of the bats return. Almost have a second house finished as well as my router jig to cut the bottoms out neatly. Will try to get a few pictures up later.

William