Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

This is one very interesting and informative study by BCI. It lists bat prefences for type of house, height above ground, mounting on poles, buildings, type of wood, size of house, etc. Even experienced batters may find it informative. It is good information for all in my opinion.

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-a ... icleID=586

Frank

[Joe Spencer]

IT still is a nice reference Frank Thanks. I read this 10 years ago. Since Mark Kiser left or funding went under it seems as if they don't have the resources to accumulate the data they once did to provide and update after 15 years. There are some new updates in scattered articles. When they update the Bat House Builder's Handbook they often include new findings and preferences although there hasn't been anything significant in the last two isssues over previous ones. Still a great read and book for newcomers.

[Dave Miller]

You know there is a ton of collective wisdom here in this forum (e.g. regional learnings). It might be good for us to someday put our heads together and record what we've learned in a structured manner. Seems like there is probably some grad student out there somewhere who could facilitate.

[Karyl]

should be easy enough as a database similar to ebird.com (which is a bit more complex than the needs here). With ebird.com (Cornell Labs) its a citizen science project where regular people log on and record bird sightings after answering a series of questions.

Same could be done for bats. Have a series of style, locations, distance from nearest object, mountings, whatever type questions and people can report their occupied bat houses. A job for a grad student programmer with a good knowledge of SQL.

[Terry Lobdell]

Joe, Dave and Karyl, That is a really good idea.........I have compiled my own "10 rules for successful bat houses in NWPA" It's just a simple list of 10 rules for people in my area who want to mount a bat house. I had Selena Kiser of BCI look it over before she left there.....

[Karyl]

do you publish this anywhere Terry? If not, please let me publish it on my backyard habitat blog or please publish it somewhere! If you do I'd be sure to pass it around my backyard wildlife circles, twitter, promote from my blog, whatever - experienced info on bats is not so easy to come by even if it is north east.

Fortunately for me cloudman75 is in my area, and he may be sorry about that come next summer once bats return!

[Terry Lobdell]

Karyl, I posted some things on my facebook page.....I try to post my ten rules on here in the next day!

[Karyl]

Terry - This forum would be a place that I could like to. Facebook I can not since you have to be logged on to view it & not everyone has a page...myself included. Thanks!