Bats about Habitat First Group

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).

 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.

 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