Bats

We woke this morning to a bit of a surprise. Sleeping peacefully upside down, suspended from our bathroom ceiling, was a bat :

I imagine it gained access by flitting through one of the many gaps where a tarpaulin doesn't quite fit over a hole.

We were quite excited to see a bat, but also a little perturbed that this might be the "scout" about to invite her mates around to stay for a few months. We quite often see bats flying at dusk, and Jan has thought before that maybe some live in our loft. It was a worry to us because of the onerous legislation attached to this protected species. If they elect to roost in our part-completed building site, work may have to stop.

Jan called the RSPCA. She made me laugh - apparently having followed a series of key press options you get to "Press 1 for foxes, 2 for bats, 3 for snakes etc". Reminds me of that joke - "Press hash for drugs". Anyway, she was given the name of a bat-man (don't laugh) in Cheltenham. She rang him and straight away he said he would come over.

It took him a while, but he arrived eventually, clutching a wooden box. However, he took one look at our bat, concluded that it was a "lesser", and said that due to it's rarity there was nothing he could do. We had earlier done some www research ourselves and had decided that we had a "Lesser Horseshoe Bat" and our man confirmed this. Apparently these are rare (though not as rare as the Greater's) and thus even more protected than normal everyday bats. Unless the bat is injured he risks his bat-handling license being revoked and a prison sentence, just for touching it. Seems a bit extreme, but that's the way it is. His recommendation was to keep the door closed and to open the window just before dusk. Chances are that it will fly off of it's own accord. He thought it unlikely that it would return with a host of other bats - much more likely that it simply got lost the night before.

We learned some interesting facts about lesser horseshoe bats. Most bats can crawl, but these cannot. They can only fly, hence must land in the upside-down roosting position. They are unable to launch into flight from a flat surface, so they should not be detached from their roost and placed outside. Due to their very low body mass they have small energy reserves and can only fly for a short time. They must catch the insects they need for food during this time, so it is important not to disturb them and make them fly when the insects are not about.

We were out for the evening, but left the window open as suggested. When we returned, our bat had flown.

During the excitement of the morning I noticed a small dot of sunlight on the under-side of the felt, in our stair well. I didn't think this would be possible as this was an area for which tiling had been completed. I went outside to investigate and found what I think is the source of this. In the photo below, if you look in the gap between the two adjacent tiles, where my finger is pointing, you can just about see the line that marks the top edge of the tile underneath :

The base tile is either broken or is too short. If the sun is able to shine through the gap, then driving rain is sure to be able to gain access too. I will bring it to the builders attention when I next see them.