Volunteers give a helping hand to bats
LICHFIELD Canal restoration volunteers have always been a bit batty about the wildlife frequenting the canal route.
Now they know how many different species of bats use the Tamworth Road section as a buffet, thanks to the efforts of a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award student.
Having chosen the project as his voluntary subject for the DoE award, 14-year-old Owen Smith discovered seven different species of the flying mammal during his survey, carried out from April to October 2021.
Walking the kilometre and a half A38 to London Road stretch with his bat detector, usually from 7-10pm but sometimes later, Owen, the son of Garry Smith, senior ecologist for specialist consultants Chase Ecology, noted that the most frequent visitor was the common pipistrelle, with myotis, soprano pipistrelle, brown long-eared, whiskered, Daubenton’s and noctule also making appearances.
Chase Ecology has provided and installed five Woodstone small-chamber bat boxes to persuade the commuting mammals to roost along this section of the canal as they come out of hibernation.
Garry explained: “A lot of the woodland habitat along the stretch does not offer a massive amount of roosting features.
“Most of the bats recorded seem to come in from the wider environment but use the waterway sections for feeding. The point of putting up the boxes is to give them a bit more roosting habitat.”
Chase Ecology will come back over the next few years to see if the bat boxes are being used and by which species, and Owen has also offered to lead 7th Lichfield Scout group on bat walks.
A video of the survey and installation of the bat boxes is available to watch at https://youtu.be/9o6mZ7jk6Nk