Ever since our Barbastelle bat first came to visit us in 2014 we have been thinking of ways to provide shelter for bats in the garden. See “A furry visitor”
A bat box seemed the obvious choice, as did a web search for information and help because we do not know a lot about these fascinating creatures.
One of the good sites we came across was the Bat Conservation Trust
This site provides not only loads of information but also plans for building your own bat box. Many more plans can be found by searching the web.
Kourosh tackled his bat box on a cold, wet day last February. He had bought his untreated wood and cut it up to the required dimensions in the workshop.
I popped in from time to time to provide the much needed encouragement and I was pleased to see he had managed to assemble it.
The roof of the box was added and the holes to attach the box were drilled inside the house, where it was warmer to work.
The finished product looked the perfect new home for a bat! (Well, we thought so.)
Kourosh was insistant that it should be painted to blend in with the house and decorated to be pleasing to humans after all the work he had put in. For bats that appear to have a penchant for white painted shutters this may be a good ploy.
We felt that having the box ready in February would give the bats plenty of time to settle in this year.
However, so far we have had no takers. We look regularly of tell-tale signs of occupation, but so far it is unoccupied.
However, this September the same white shutter, so favoured by the Barbastelle bat, was adopted by a Pipestrelle bat.
There is no accounting for taste!
We are still waiting to see if the bat box will eventually tempt any bats. In the meantime I wonder if I have tempted anyone to have a go at building their own bat box?
a french garden 