Over the last
20 years Lower Mill Estate has concentrated its efforts on providing artificial
roosting sites for bats by installing bat boxes on buildings, under bridges and
at various locations around the site, as well as converting the roof voids of
several bin store buildings on site into bat roosts. With an abundance of
foraging habitat and a good population of insect prey, it is no surprise that
these artificial roosts are regularly used by species including the Common
pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), Soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus
pygmaeus) and Natterer’s bats (Myotis nattereri).
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| Lower Mill Estate by Luxury Marketing House |
Excitingly, in
recent months the Estate has discovered that the Habitat Houses on site are
living up their name and are being regularly used by roosting bats. Bat droppings
discovered at specific sites on the outside of the Habitat House were sent to
Ecowarwicker Ecological Forensics for DNA analysis to confirm the species. The
results of the analysis came back as positive for Natterer’s bat. Known for
using small cracks and crevices in buildings and trees for roosting, the
species has been using the gaps behind the wooden cladding on the Habitat House
for roosting. It is now intended to carry out bat surveys over the summer
months in the villages on the Estate to determine which other species are
present and where they may be roosting.
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| Lower Mill Estate by Luxury Marketing House |
With similar
style of housing being built at Habitat First Group’s Silverlake site in Dorset
it is hoped that the local bat population there will also benefit from new
roosting sites. Meanwhile the bats are already making good use of the bat boxes
installed on the boat stores in the villages and the unique bat loft created
for Brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) has recently been used by
both Brown-long eared bats and Common pipistrelles. Perhaps the only bat loft
in the country built from an old quarry sandhopper, this bat loft is a super
example of HFGs commitment to sustainability supporting the Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle principle.
Habitat First
Group has a great reputation for building alongside nature and Lower Mill
Estate is thought to support the largest House martin colony in the UK thanks
to installing 60 artificial house martin nests 12 years ago. The artificial
nests were soon used by the House martins arriving in the summer from Africa
and year on year the number of birds has increased until there are now on
average of 200 nests annually. In coming months 150 nest boxes designed
to support House sparrows (Passer domesticus) are to be installed around
the buildings on the Estate. These birds are now on the Royal Society for
Protection of Birds (RSPB) Red-list of birds of conversation concern following
a decline of over 65% in their population numbers population over a 30-year
period. It is hoped that the new project at Lower Mill Estate will help boost
the numbers of these gregarious birds. Silverlake is set to follow suit and be
a leader in building alongside nature as it progresses over the coming years.
For more information on Silverlake, Lower
Mill Estate and the Habitat First Group, visit www.habitatfirstgroup.com
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