Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

I counted the bats leaving my bat house which I did not relocate yesterday at dusk. We had a nice day in the mid 70s.
I counted 10 little browns, one big brown, and one pipistrelle. Also shined a light in the two relocated houses and saw
two pipistrelles in the 3 chamber OBC house and two in my home built large 5 chamber. No little browns have used the relocated houses yet. Today was rain and cool. I did not see any bats feeding tonight. We have another cold front tomorrow
which slows down the return of the little browns. I have seen no freetails recently. I shined a light into the houses tonight at midnight. I saw 4 pipistrelles and some little browns, but no big brown. I have installed two white plastic bags under the relocated houses to help see the guano. I also used the water closet white lid from previous years under the other bat house. There was some guano on it tonight, but only one or two droppings under the OBC house, none seen under my large 5 chamber. Anyone else seeing bats in your houses?

Frank

[LarryH]

I have a few Big Browns back, but haven't seen any Little Browns yet. We're experincing a warm spell and I'm glad to see the bats returning. Normally the bats and the Purple Martins both return at about the same time, but I haven't seen any martins yet.

I went out last evening to watch them emerge, and counted 12 Big Browns emerge. It'll be nice to get the rest of them back. We had about 250 of them last year, so I'm hoping for even more this year....

[cloudman75]

We have had a recent warm spell for three days. It was 81 today. My previous count for bats on exit was 26. Tonight I counted 83 mostly little browns.
The majority are in a home built house, no ventilation facing west on a 20 ft pole. The others are in a three chamber OBC house, unpainted on a 20 ft pole
facing south. I think I saw one freetail as the bat had long slender wings and flew very fast coming out of the house. I counted four pipistrelles which have chosen the OBC house. I am looking forward to a good year as 83 is a good size maternity colony. I had around 200 that left in 2009. The large 5 chamber is usually used as the weather warms when the bats are having pups. I did not see any big browns tonight.

Frank