Bat House Forum

[Erik]

In addition to all the cool messages about returned big brown bats and little brown bats....
Sunday April 13th I did my first count thi syear of emerging bats at the nursery bat house in Tilburg (The Netherlands).The result was 151 emerging pipistrelles!
I have never counted so many bats this early in spring!
In my small bat houses we counted a total of 56 bats (big eared bats, noctule bats and pipistrelles) in 23 bat houses!. Pictures will soon follow!

Hurray, a good bat season for you all! :D

[IowaNate]

 Awesome news Erik! This year seems to be an early arrival for most of of bats, I wonder if there is any connection...I can't really say it has been much warmer this spring than any other year.

[Terry Lobdell]

Yes, that is great news Erik! I am up to between 55-60 bats at my home. Definitely ahead of last year.......As in past years it seems to be my little browns that are increasing in numbers.........my big browns are staying about the same.........

[Erik]

The past months I have done several counts of emerging bats at the nursery house. Numbers were always between 160 and 180 pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) in may and June. Last night I counted about 197 emerging pipistrelle bats, including 5 emerging from wall cavities in the building the bat house is mounted on.
I also opened and cleaned the flap at the bottom of the bat house. It was about time because the bat droppings almost blocked the entrance! The weather was very bad and taking pictures didn't work very well. But I will post one later.

To my surprise there was also 1 emerging serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus) from the roof of an opposite building. That's a first sighting of that species roosting in that building. Quite cool stuff!

Erik

P.s. : from this fall the bat house will be subject of health research. One university is conducting research on the presence of salmonella and heliobacter-bacteria in bat droppings. We already collected droppings from bats that were caught with mist nets, but the bat house can be a provider of bat droppings.

[Erik]

And here it is. It is not a great picture but I always get very happy with so many bat faces looking down on me! :D 




Erik

 

[Joe Spencer]

Erik, very nice thank you!  Is the photo below depicting the flap?  Is this the/a single chamber bat house?

[Erik]

Hi Joe.  The picture is showing the front chamber of a 4-chamber bat house. The bottom hatch (flap is not the right word I guess) is open. With the hatch closed you can only see the 4th chamber (between the bat house and the wall). for details on the bat house see my first post about it.

Erik

 

[Erik]

My first update about my bat house in 2009:
March 13: 2 emerging common pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus).
March 21: 7 emerging common pipistrelles.
April 1: 67 emerging common pipistrelles! Yoohoo! And it's not a joke!

Spring is certainly back!

Erik

[Erik]

Yesterday (10 Jul 09) the number of emerging bats from my Nursery House broke the record from 2006! I counted 261 emerging Common Pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus). Only a handful (+- 5) still roost in the building the bat house is mounted on. They might be bachelors, which often hang around nursery roosts of winter roosts.
Last week the company who owns the building where the large Nursery House is mounted on, has placed two smaller nursery houses back to back on a 5 meter pole. That is the first pole mounted bat house in the Netherlands. We hope the bats will also start to use the pole-house. In a few years time the building has to me demolished and we are planning to move the bat house to another location nearby. The Pole-house(s) might provide the necessary interim-roosts for that project. Pictures of the Pole-house will follow soon!

Erik

[Dave Miller]

Wow, that is great news!

Also amazing that there have been no pole-mounted bat houses in the Netherlands.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Dave

Yesterday (10 Jul 09) the number of emerging bats from my Nursery House broke the record from 2006! I counted 261 emerging Common Pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus). Only a handful (+- 5) still roost in the building the bat house is mounted on. They might be bachelors, which often hang around nursery roosts of winter roosts.
Last week the company who owns the building where the large Nursery House is mounted on, has placed two smaller nursery houses back to back on a 5 meter pole. That is the first pole mounted bat house in the Netherlands. We hope the bats will also start to use the pole-house. In a few years time the building has to me demolished and we are planning to move the bat house to another location nearby. The Pole-house(s) might provide the necessary interim-roosts for that project. Pictures of the Pole-house will follow soon!

Erik

[Terry Lobdell]

Erik, that is great news! Seeing how most of us observe increased usage of bat houses each year it shows the need and importance of mounting more of them......

I live about 200 miles from known wns sites in Pennsylvania and so far my little brown bat numbers at most boxes are slightly increased from last year which is encouraging!