I had my first fire pit of the season on Friday night. I was out there early, well before dark, as I didn't want to be out there very late.
It was a nice evening, cool but not cold, and the winds were light. I got all the little stick litter burned up that had accumulated in the fire pit since last fall.
The lilac that I had to remove for the fence installation last spring got cut into smaller pieces to burn, but is a bit wet yet.
And I forgot about a pile of sticks from neighbor Jane's small trees that were hanging over our driveway by the garage. I'll have to get those next time.
The moon was a day away from being full, and nice to see the last two solar lights, which I left out all winter, continue to be working well.
After several years with just a rare visitor or two, I'm very pleased the bat house is getting used.
8 comments:
The first firepit always seems a turning point. The flame pattern is very interesting. You have bats too, how exciting!
Yay! The first fire pit and lovely to see the flames. Having bats is a bonus as we see ours flitting about at times, mainly late summer evenings. I worry that they nest in the old buildings opposite us and the planned building works plus the current works will chase them away.
If I take one picture of the fire then I take 3, because you can't plan what the flame will look like.
I usually see a few about the sky around sunset, but it is early, too. I was on my phone that night with my mom for quite some time so never looked up. Still, very happy to have them around.
If there is a population of bats in an old building I believe they need to be re-homed or otherwise dealt with before demolition, I would think the same for over there. Bats are an asset to our communities, especially with all the mosquitoes we get.
You're right Scoakat, a bat survey should have been required as part of the planning permission, and bats in buildings are highly protected in the UK. But, developers have ways of conveniently overlooking such matters, and not all Local Authority planners are savvy enough to think of it and require it in other than rural areas. delcatto - if you look at the planning portal on your local authority's website, you'll be able to find the application and check what was included (if you haven't already done this).
I did the search and as follows:
Bats
Preliminary roost assessment
There are records of common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus from 2019, a single record of brown long-eared bat Plecotus auritus from 2012 and a single record of noctule Nyctalus noctula from 2011, all within 2km of the site.
No suitable niches or gaps were noted within the fabric of the mill; the internal and external brickwork is tight, there are no gaps within the roof fabric and the interior has high ambient light levels. No evidence of bat presence was found associated with the building.
The mill is considered to offer negligible potential to support roosting bats.
Which I find odd as it is the nearest building which they could use.
Aha! I found the latest update and bat roosts and nesting boxes for Swifts have to be added to the conversion. I shall keep a close eye on the works to see this is done.
delcatto - yes do. Although these items are now a requirement in all building conversion applications, no-one actually checks that they are included. In fact, no-one ever checks that anything is actually ever built to plan. Which is why many many things aren't. Once plans are pased by the delegated officer/planning committee, Building Control take over and they only check that buildings are built to the latest rules and regs, not that they are built to the sizes and spec passed by the planners.
(apologies to Scoakat for hijacking here!)
No worries, it's interesting. My place is your place.
Just took a picture of the guano and compared to this picture and there is more now than before, so the bat house is actively being used!
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