Creating a home for bats at Landguard

Bats are quite remarkable animals, and they are the only mammals capable of controlled flight. If you have been lucky enough to see them flying around at dusk, you will know that their aerobatic skills are incredible to watch!

Bats have been around for a long time. Fossil records show evidence of bat-like flying mammals appearing as far back as 50 million years ago.

They are nocturnal, which is why we only see them after dusk, that have adapted to a life in the dark. This is partly to avoid predation during daylight hours from birds of prey, but they can unfortunately still be predated on at night, occasionally by owls and often by cats. Domestic cats are a bat’s main predator in the UK!

British bats eat insects and nothing else. Flying uses a great deal of energy and so bats must consume large amounts to give them the energy they need. So much in fact that our smallest bat, the Common pipistrelle can eat over 3000 small insects like midges and mosquitos in just one night!

Bats catch their food by using 'radar'. As the bat flies, it emits ultrasonic sound waves. These are high-pitched and usually out of the range of human hearing, although some lower frequency calls can be audible to some. The sound waves encounter objects, and bounce echoes back to the bat – this allows the bat to avoid obstacles and find their food.

In Britain, all bats and their roosts are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations (2017). This is because bat populations have declined considerably, due to the loss of foraging habitats, a decline in insect populations and the loss of roosting features across the landscape.

At Landguard Nature Reserve, the Ranger and volunteers have been conducting bat surveys using detectors, to learn more about the type of bats visiting the peninsula. Knowing more about bats at Landguard is important, as the information learned will influence future site management decisions.

Detectors are essential pieces of equipment for anyone with an interest in bats and who wants to watch and learn how to identify them in the field. We use a handheld detector called an Echo Meter. It’s a very clever device that turns mobile phones into bat detectors. This detector picks-up ultrasound (sounds too high for the human ear) and converts it into an audible sound that we can hear.

We also use static detectors, which are standalone devices that can be left outside or placed inside buildings to record bats when present. The recorded information is stored on the device so that it can be analysed later.

There are 18 species of bat in the UK, and so far, at least 9 species have been recorded visiting the Nature Reserve.

We already knew that some bats visited the Fort and the outer Batteries, but the recent surveys confirmed that bats forage across the Nature Reserve and many species were recorded flying around the old Mine Station building.

In light of this, a new project was initiated to create hibernacula within the building, to provide roosting opportunities. This was done by creating and installing features such as modified bricks, imitation wood cladding and hessian sacking, all of which provide voids and crevices for bats to roost.

A hibernaculum is a place where bats seek refuge over winter, but the installed features also provide opportunities for summer roosting too.

This project was funded by the Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund and the Harwich Haven Authority (HHA).

HHA funded handheld detectors and fenced the Mine Station to reduce disturbance. The Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund, provided funding for the installation of roosting features and recording equipment based on evidence that bats roosting and or foraging at Landguard also forage in AONB landscapes.

Thanks to the support of our funders and the hard work of volunteers all the features are now in place. Going forward the building will be monitored using static detectors and recording equipment and it is hoped that some of the bats visiting Landguard will also roost here.

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