Bats!

Well, as part of the planning process our plans get sent to various depts in the council. We got the ecology one back, and they said that because of the age and ‘abandonment’ of the building we’ll need to have it check out for bats, as they are a protected species.

So, we had to fork out for ANOTHER report…

Luckily, we were recommended from two independent sources Natasha Estrada from Estrada Ecology. She was great and explained the process and what they were looking for, and showed me this amazing bit of kit called the Batbox Baton.

Basically, it’s a microphone that records the high frequencies that bats talk in. It records directly onto an SD card that you stick into your computer that tells you not only that bats are present, but what kind of bat they are.

Apparently each bat works on different frequencies and patterns and the software analyses the data and works it all out for you.

The good news?

We’ve got no bats thank goodness.

The bad news? We’ve got ‘feral’ pigeons. Like I didn’t know that. Luckily, because of their public health risks, they aren’t protected and will fly off to find new homes.