Bat House Forum

[newbie]

I thought this article was rather nice:

http://www.echonews.com/912/gardening.html

[Joe Spencer]

Very nice thank's for post

[Len Kerry]

Just a comment to prevent readers from being misled by over-zealous journalists.

Unfortunately, as is commonly done by journalists, the bat in the article's photo is either Pteropus poliocephalus or Pteropus scapulatus, both frugivorous Megachiropterans of several hundred grams weight.

Nyctophilus gouldi is actually an insectivorous Microchiropteran weighing less than 20 grams.

Regards,
Len[/i]

[Joe Spencer]

Thank's Len great to hear from you. How is your bat house progress?

[Len Kerry]

Hi Joe,

I'm pleased to report that three pole-mounted, "Rocket" style roosts were installed on the 4th March. The three poles are in-line with separations of 6 metres. The Poles are galvanized square cross-sections of 75mm x 75mm. The poles are painted black.

The roosts are dual cavity. They are raised-up so that the pole is short of the top by 350mm. The centre hollow (where the pole has been excluded from) is filled with dry sand. Then the top of the whole structure (above the roosting space) is sand-filled to a depth of 50mm. There is a metal cover over the wooden "roof" to exclude water from the structure.

Two of the outside walls have horizontal vent slots 250mm from the bottom of the panel and all four inner walls have 40mm transit holes spaced 100mm below the level of the vent slots.

The three roosts are different shades of grey, the darkest is near black, the lightest is whitish-grey and the third is somewhere in-between. The landing platform sections of the panels and the inside of the roosts are un-painted timber with horizontal scoring!

Apart from inspecting the roost poles for stability etc during strong winds soon after installation, I've made no effort to determine whether or not the roosts are occupied. I think it will take a little time so there's not much point at the moment!

It's early Autumn here so the few remaining weeks of sun-heat should evaporate off the smells of freshly cut wood and glue solvents. Hopefully between now and the end of Winter (end of August) the bats will have time to discover and inspect the roosts and then start making use of them in early Spring. Thats when I'll start monitoring them after dusk, both visually and with bat detectors.

I'll let you know how things progress. Hopefully in the meantime, I'll be contibuting to the forum on other issues of interest.

Regards,
Len

[Joe Spencer]

Great News Len! Are you in Australia? Forgive me if I have forgotten that. Additionally do you have access to a digital camera even a crude one? If so I have space here at the forum for you to post photos which would be helpful. Great info and post above!

[Len Kerry]

Hi Joe,

I've uploaded a couple of images (nos 14 and 15 on the list).

Len

[Joe Spencer]

Great! IMAGES are BELOW Nice Houses indeed. The images you uploaded were too large to be posted within the thread so before you upload future images I highly recommend the best free non-spyware image software which quickly resizes your images: www.irfanview.com

After resize and saving them to your computer upload them again and place/post them in the thread below:

http://www.batnic.org/forum/viewforum.p ... fe390627a5