Boathouse to Bat House

S5E50 On the edge of Kidderminster lies Hurcott Pool and Wood Nature Reserve. An old boathouse on the edge of the pool has been repurposed by Worcestershire Bat Group and a few minutes away lies Lea Castle Village where the street lighting has been designed with bats at the forefront of its design. We join bat group members Cody Levine and Matthew Terry on a summer evening at the end of July. 

• Watch a video of the boathouse on YouTube
• Discover more about Worcestershire Bat Group and follow them on twitter, facebook and Instagram
• Take a look at the Wyre Forest page on Hurcott.
• Read about the Lea Castle Village and how Worcestershire County Council are rolling out red street lighting across the county. 
• Discover your local bat group

Got questions, thoughts, or curious bat queries? Text us—we’d love to hear from you!

Transcript

Steve Roe: 0:06

Hello, and you're listening to the award winning podcast from the Bat Conservation Trust BatChat where we take you out into the field to discover the world of Bats Conservation Yes, hello This podcast is for anyone with a fascination in the amazing nocturnal mammals that fill our skies at night. And we're back continuing with series five through the festive season. If you don't know by now, episodes are released every other Wednesday from now until the spring. If you're new to BatChat, welcome along. I'm Steve Roe. I'm an ecologist and in my spare time a trustee for the Bat Conservation Trust. This summer in late July, I had the pleasure of heading to the county of Worcestershire to meet with members from Worcestershire bat group, two locations very close to each other. The second of those locations was the new housing development where the street lighting has had that's at the very forefront of its design. But before that, our first guest, Cody Levine is going to introduce where we're headed and what was stood outside.

Cody Levine: 1:08

Hi, so this is Hurcott bat house. And Hurcott is a ward on the side of Kidderminster in northern Worcestershire, where the side of Hurcott Lake, which is a SSSI and local nature reserve, is part of a manmade landscape from the late 18th century and belongs to the manor house, which we can't actually see on the other side of this gorgeous Lake. But that manor house goes back to the sort of 14th century and I'm leaning against a boathouse that was constructed in the mid 19th century part of a trend in the 19th century for people to build these these manmade landscapes where they go out fishing and boating, and it's been running into disrepair over the last decades. The lake itself is looking fantastic now, but also recently went through periods of drying up the EAA have put in some variable dams just a little bit further upstream that's starting to replicate some sort of seasonal inundation so that Himalayan Balsam is dying back and we're now seeing some really nice ground floor

Steve Roe: 2:17

and the and the wider areas, it's all part of a nature reserve, isn't it? Is it open to the public? You know, is it used by dog walkers or is it private land?

Cody Levine: 2:26

Yeah, it's really popular nature reserve. It's a triplet sign local nature reserve, really well used. It feels like we're in deep countryside here. But we're actually just on the edge of Kidderminster, which is quite a heavily built settlement was interesting from from my point of view, we're interested in the strategic value for biodiversity of the site, and it's one of two or three really big blue green corridors that connect the open countryside off to the east and they run through to the west straight into into Kidderminster, this forms part of the brook that goes through Padmore pools, which is also part of the triple Si, and then that connects to the river stauer and the Canal, which runs north south through Kidderminster and that's bounded by pucks to Marsh triplesafe To the North will demolish triplesafe to the south. So you've got this fantastic network of blue and green linear features. You wouldn't know it when you drive through Kidderminster, it looks like a pretty urban environment. But you've got these incredible, really valuable ecological corridors for wildlife. And we're really standing in a honeypot of one at the moment.

Steve Roe: 3:34

Here like Cody said, as I've travelled down the six plus the MCS tollen, then on to the M six here, and it got very green, very quick, all of a sudden, and Quick Left turn onto a little lane and there was only a two minute drive down the lane to where we are to where we are now. Cody, are you involved with the bat group? Is this comes about as part of your professional work? How have you got involved with doing the work here at the boathouse,

Cody Levine: 3:57

a little bit of both. So I'm involved in the back group. I'm one of the county ecologists at the county council as well. And I've got some very good colleagues who work for the district council who manage this nature reserve. So the range of team here we're responsible for public safety and for the biodiversity the site's this building had fallen into disrepair. And it was the sort of structure that I think probably attracted young near will do well as probably have done the same as yourself as a kid and they've been scrambling over it and whatnot, and that there was a chance that someone was going to injure themselves. So the Rangers had been tasked with making it safe, they put a business case together to show that it actually cost more or less the same. To make the structure safe, put a new roof on it and secure it and turn it into something useful for wildlife as it would to knock it all down and remove everything from the site. So bless them on a fantastic look at the bill. So

Steve Roe: 4:50

we're looking at from the back back of the building where the pathway is it looks like it's quite a small structure, but as you walk down to the front of it, the ground slopes away and it's all Almost a two storey building as a big it's pretty Bell Building with a with a pitched roof. And there's a lock doorway that was still in front of lots of bad access points that we can see you there's North about bricks, bad access bricks, as a vents and wildlife just or Colin Morris style wedge box at the apex, as well as quite a large opening about halfway up, which I'm assuming is for horseshoes. Have you got horseshoes in the county?

Cody Levine: 5:26

We do. There's a little story about that, which is really one of my measures of success for this thing. I was three things that I really wanted to see happen with this project. And the first one was to get it over the line. Anyone who's had builders, it knows how difficult it is getting the project from beginning to end. And this one on many, many occasions didn't look like it was going to come through. So again, why forest District Council Rangers are absolutely stars. And they made this happen. So absolute kudos to them. Second thing was really about raising awareness and education about bats and bat conservation. And I think it's been successful. We've had loads of public bat walks from the rangers here and loads of activities from that from the bat group. They've been monitoring it for about a decade or so. And the third thing is really about less than horseshoes. Yes, you spotted it straightaway with with the hopper at the front there. So we've got about 16 different species of bat in Worcestershire, we've recorded about 10 of those species at least here in her cot. When I started at the county council about 15 years or so ago, horseshoe bats are my absolute favourite, you had to go somewhere if you wanted to pick them up reliably. And that tended to be south end of the county, maybe more than hills where there was a decent stronghold of lesser horseshoe still is and an increasing number of greater horseshoes from that direction as well or over towards the Cotswold of Scotland. Over the course of the last decade, we've seen a sweep of Horseshoe records coming north across the county. And that might be from climate change, it could be the fact that species are recovering. It was 2012 I think it was that we started picking up records of lesser horseshoes from a site less than half a mile from here. And this is at the very northern end of the county. So it was a real outlier from everywhere else that we knew we've got this a horseshoe. So we were quite excited about that. So one of the measures of tests for me was could we tempt those horseshoes from that site across a lit road? So what's effectively a honeypot site? So yeah, that was that was what we were hoping to see done the moment we finished work here. So

Steve Roe: 7:30

just before we go in, first of all, when did the project start? And just how much effort has it taken to get it where it is today? You know, how how long did that process take?

Cody Levine: 7:41

By far the most difficult because the getting the money and getting all of the fish and slips in place, and the Rangers did all of that work for us the back group, we we helped advise we supported the back group members came down here in 2018. And we did a presence absence survey just to make sure that there was nothing roosting in it. And it was pretty knackered at that stage, there wasn't much for any bats to roost in. So we knew that we were okay over winter 2018 A firm local firm came in and reroofed it this wall that I'm leaning against was rebuilt, I put the foundations for this in myself, which was first time I tried to be mortar and bricks. And that that winter we locked it and walked away that oh, the back group made a donation you'll see of the bat boxes in there. We've we've paid for. We put an application into the Bat Conservation Trust for their partner group support funder. We're very grateful that we we've got much funding from that. Thank you, Lisa, if you're there. And that was also matched by a contribution from the District Council and the county council donated my time and also the monitoring, that monitors that are in there as well. Then we went to wild care, and they very kindly listened to me flap my gums about the conservation project, and offered us a sizable discount on the bat boxes. So again, thank you to WildCare for making this possible.

Steve Roe: 9:03

Brilliant. And you we say it's a boathouse actually, we're quite far from the edge of the lake here, you know, historically, was the lake right up to the doorway was it been used for other things in the past? Yeah, we

Cody Levine: 9:13

would have been standing in the nice water. That's how much the levels have changed to

Steve Roe: 9:17

have a look inside. So Cody's on the sensible thing has come prepared with a torch as I've left my head torch in the car. And it's really quite large inside. Probably four metres high. There's a nice sandy floor and we can see right up to the to the underside of the tiles. And in front of us is something that's going to be quite familiar to a lot of bat ecologist and bat workers. It's events and wildlife just style, less a horseshoe call tower and you just want to describe what they are what they're designed for coding. Sure.

Cody Levine: 9:54

Yeah. Okay, so this is breezeblock construction. It's about head height and A rectangular, it's split into three or four different chambers. There is a window like opening, so bats could fly in. And the idea is it's going to trap cool damp air inside and create lots of little separate leashes where they'll hopefully overwinter. It's designed to sort of replicate a cave, steady humidity and temperature. So what we're trying to do here is create an opportunity for them to spend winter and just above us, there's opportunities for them to spend summer as well.

Steve Roe: 10:33

Yeah, so just talk about this. So in the middle of the roof, we've got a, essentially a box that looks like a miniature attic. What's it constructed often, and sort of how large is it and what's the purpose then,

Cody Levine: 10:45

it looks like a large dog kennel. It's not for flying dogs. It's plywood, triangular, planes of Flyboard lined with cork inside. And the idea with this is and again, it's from the lesson horse shoe conservation handbook is to try and trap the warm air Warm air rises up to the to the roof avoid. And what we're trying to do here is capture it and create a nice environment for maternity wrists. So this will be hopefully where the bats have come and give birth and hang out in the summer. So we're just trying to create as many different niches for them to fill their their lifecycle with as possible.

Steve Roe: 11:21

And if any listeners have been on to various websites and gone shopping for bat boxes, it's like walking into one of those websites and actually seeing all the different possible types of apples you can buy in real life is like a showroom. What sort of boxes have we got here codeine? Are they for different species?

Cody Levine: 11:37

Yeah, we've got a little bit of everything. So we've got some Kent style boxes. And I like the fact that the back group members who have come in and monitor them have scrolled their name on that's my daughter's name on one over there. So she comes in here and check these boxes periodically. We've got some Schwegler style boxes here would create style boxes. Those are great at keeping the heat in, we've got some more wedge style boxes, the Vincent style ones over there. And then we've also got these these are quite interesting. They replicate mortise and tenon joints. So these tend to be used by Myotis. I think they're quite like those little cavities inside. So we've got a few of those as well. And

Steve Roe: 12:20

then Cody, what sort of access points, you know, once the doors shut, it's actually really dark in here one of the access points where bats can actually get inside this building, we've

Cody Levine: 12:28

got four different access points, we got to try and balance that because we didn't want through draft. So we got to try and reduce it to what we're think's likely to be used. We've got this hopper above the door, which has got this baffle behind it that tries to trap a little bit of the wind, just to the side of that I'm not sure you can see it from inside there is an access brick. And that goes through a sort of twin leaf wall. And then we've closed the eaves down almost all the way around the building because otherwise we'll get some numpty trying to stick something and just above head height, you can't reach it. But you can just about see from the outside on both sides, you've got some access at the eaves point there so bats could fly in and out. And then lastly, there is one or two raise rich tiles which is above this rich plate, you will be able to see the light coming in very easily from here but the bats could if they wanted to either roost on top of that rich plate or flip out of the raised ritual. And

Steve Roe: 13:24

you've got no under filter on this on tonight of these tiles. Was that a conscious decision to make it easy for the rats to find the way in? Yeah,

Cody Levine: 13:30

a little bit of both. We didn't want to put a membrane in here because we could reduce the cost. And also we thought we didn't need it

Steve Roe: 13:38

since the project's been completed so you say we will chat in the carpark earlier the project's been completed for about the last three, three years or so. Have you had any evidence of actually using it so far? About

Cody Levine: 13:49

four or five weeks after we close the security doors and Ron the the bat detectors came back and found that there were less a horseshoe bats fluttering around inside it periodically that they come in and spend a couple of nights and then disappear again. So we know that they're using it probably as a satellite roost, maybe maybe as a feeding perch, but because the very quiet calls very directional calls, the chances of them being outside the bat house are absolutely negligible down but debris coming in here and using it. So there's that we did a couple of emergency surveys and we've seen pepper sterols and brown longbeards. Moving around, we've seen one less a horseshoe hanging up in here once and just by your feet. There are some fresh bat droppings on the floor so we know that over the last couple of nights and all likelihood we've had some visitors here to spreading

Steve Roe: 14:41

that so even within the last you know within weeks you say of days of closing up the bats already found it. I know you started using it so clearly there's a need for for this sort of thing in the wider area. If there are people with projects like this or back groups with projects like this and they've got disused buildings and and there's the opportunity It's a What would you say to those groups to try and coach them to take the plunge and actually actually put the hard work in? Oh

Cody Levine: 15:06

god, you absolutely do it. This. This, I think demonstrates that conservation just needs the resources, people's time and effort and that there is funding out there if you can bid for it, get it, do it. There's knowledge and expertise out there to tap into so talk to people who have done it already. And you know, wildlife is crying out for some help. If you can find another opportunity like this sees it.

Steve Roe: 15:31

So we've come back outside and Cody, we're just explaining that immediately outside, there's a very small space before we get into brambles in the in the vegetation down to the edge of the lake. And there's quite a few Silver birch trees that were that were stood outside and Katie was saying that the Rangers are about to do some thinning of these or at least haloing. What sort of management have you got in mind for the long term is there any sort of long term management plan for the for the site,

Cody Levine: 15:55

or the the Rangers manage is 50 hectare nature reserve and they are progressively removing the amount of conifer on here and increasing the broadleaf. And there's some really nice bits of woodland up on the top of the hill, which I can show you originally I was reticent about taking down any trees around here. I will just try and get as much cover a close to the to the insurance as possible. And I think that was probably my mistake, because the horseshoes found it pretty much straight away, didn't they? So the next thing really is trying to make this as suitable as possible for them. And the Rangers said, let's let's get more sunlight on the roof. So yeah, they'll they'll take some of these trees down. And I think that might make it more suitable inside the hot box as well. Here's the thing I was going to ask you if you wanted to see that site that I mentioned half a mile away. So

Steve Roe: 16:37

at this point, Cody and I jumped in his car and left the other bank group members to get set up ready for the emergent survey of the boathouse whilst we took the four minute drive across her carts to the new Lee Castle Village Development, which became the first homes England site to gain build with nature accreditation. And a really short drive away from her caught nature reserve. Katie just bought us to a new build development than ever, which was escaping already. This is certainly Castle, which is been developed by Linden homes, and Katie's brought me here because it's received some national recognition in the form of its lighting. So the main road is lit with what looked like normal LED street lamps, lamp posts, like lighting columns. But Cody tells me that these are a bright red lights. And that's because it's a homes England project. And they came to you guys at the council to ask for advice on how to get this through to planning you were saying,

Cody Levine: 17:34

Yeah, that's right. So was the show we are particularly interested in linear corridors for ecology and trying to make sure that we avoid fragmentation of those by effects like street lighting. And we knew that this particular site just around the corner from her car got horseshoe bats, as well as a number of other species. So when it came to be built out, what we wanted to make sure was that the residential lighting had to be safe for residents had to be safer, drivers have to be safe for people coming to visit the sites. But we also want to make sure that the bats we're still going to use it afterwards. So one of the solutions from the original solution was to try and maintain dark corridors. And because this is a main spine roads, because we got buses going to come up and down here that that's not safer for people to use, we couldn't do that. We tried to look at individual corridors of darkness in between otherwise lit spine road. But then what you have is people driving from light to dark to light. And again, that's just not safe enough to comply with highway standards. So what we have here is a compromise. These lights are as bright as normal street lights, but they are monochromatic red. And there's some studies done in Europe that seems suggest that for species like Brown, longer bats and some meiosis species, they act much the same in darkness as they do in red light. So we're hoping that with these lights, the risks that have been found from those species on sites will not be deterred. from continuing to use these lovely corridors, you can see these big blocks of woodland on either side of the road. So that the reason why the bats continue to cross the road, so they'll still be here. But now we'll have people living and enjoying the site as well. We saw some of them on a recent bat walk her carts, who said they've moved in here because they knew it was good for bats. So that's I think, winning for everyone.

Steve Roe: 19:21

Yeah, and you were saying in the car, you were quite worried originally, in terms of winning the site has been developed whether people actually want to move here. But it's the site still in development. The first phase has been done. There's all the houses are, are in occupation, and the rest of the site has been developed at the moment. But you were saying when you walk down here, and you were worried that people are going to like the unlit streets themselves in You said that's not happened Touchwood

Cody Levine: 19:43

it's not happened yet. No. So people seem to understand why bits are dark, and they clearly support the agenda.

Steve Roe: 19:50

And as we've driven down the site, Katie's points that are on the edge of some semi ancient natural woodland, and where we're stood at the moment on the main road in there's a A decent block of woodlands line in the site. surveys were presumably done prior to the to the work has been done. Cody what sort of species were found on site?

Cody Levine: 20:10

Oh from memory I think they had common and soprano peps Bran longbeards. There were the usual nocciola occasional BBs still, I think pottering around Myotis. And brown longer were roosting on site as whether less a horse user originally, I think there was a series of underground structures. So the developer here, very proactive, very innovative, they've worked with the District Council and the county council, in finding compensation mitigation strategies for the for the batteries on site and linking those to make sure that you've still got that connectivity. Now earlier, I was talking about those blue green corridors and how important they are for wildlife. So maintaining those corridors, both inside the site and connecting to the surrounding landscape. So I think they've done as good as they can. And they've achieved a Building With Nature water, a green infrastructure award for that work as well.

Steve Roe: 21:00

And given the successful the popularity of this different licence strategies, it's something that was to show a look into to roll out on a county wide scale to you know,

Cody Levine: 21:10

so it's something that we're already thinking about, we are replacing our traditional lighting stocks on the main roads here, we have recently undergone an upgrade of about 10,000 LED lanterns, rapid led upgrade project, that was a spend to save because of the energy saving that we can make by transferring from old lighting stock to new, we knew that introducing light, changing the light, rather, where it was already lit could have an effect on wildlife. But similarly, we could use the sort of mitigation lighting mitigation to reduce the effect that lighting our main roads already has, we're not going to get the opportunity to Unlight our main roads for safety, obviously, but what we can do is switch inside woodland corridors or overwater courses and use warmer wavelengths of light. If not for bats, then by removing the blue light content of the lights. We're reducing the phototactic effect on invertebrates. So we're protecting the food webs inside ecological networks.

Steve Roe: 22:08

Brilliant, and we'll put a link to more information about lightning fun to the BCT website as well. So Katie, thanks very much for for bringing us a very short drive of a mere four minutes from site. So thanks for that. My thanks to Cody for taking the time to do that interview, especially since he was feeling under the weather. Back at the hercog pools and wood nature reserve. I joined fellow Bat Conservation Trust trustee Matthew Terry. So I've left Cody back at the boathouse and I've come a little bit further along the path to a little lookout point with some benches overlooking local pool and I'm sitting with the Chair of Westeros back group Matthew Terry. Matthew, how long have you been involved with that conservation? And what's the history of Worcester Shabbat group?

Matthew Terry: 22:50

Well, the history of Worcestershire bat group goes back to the 80s. I got into bats in about 2014 2015 When my wife started a job as a librarian at a local school, and no one told her it was a maternity roosts of soprano pipistrelles, she found out one day when she came in in May, and there was a lot of scrambling in the roof. And that just sparked curiosity for both of us. And it went from there. We went into backcare. So we did backcare for three or four years. And that was incredible to be so close to Tibet so quickly, even though it is you know, it can be quite stressful, quite something to take on. And then I did burst into his chair. And then COVID hit. And now I'm back as chair again.

Steve Roe: 23:40

Great stuff. And how many members does the group have? And what sort of activities apart from the risk count? We're doing head start on boathouse? What sort of other activities do you guys do alongside this? And things like backcare.

Matthew Terry: 23:55

Things have changed a lot since COVID. It's a bit boring to bang on about COVID. But it really did sort of tear the heart out of local wildlife groups, generally, I suppose. And it's been quite a struggle to get it back up and running. People have gradually started to emerge and come along to events. So we're still in that growth phase, I suppose. But we've got 100 members now, which which I think is really healthy. We're doing bat walks. And some talks, we started a new project in the Y forest, working with the Y community land trust, to try and encourage local people to gather more records of wildlife more generally, someone's lost his dog behind. You can pick that up. And I'm hoping to do something more substantial around records, possibly an atlas of bats in the county as a longer term project at MDMP. We do a really nice countless of horseshoes every year that Chrome caught which is National Trust properties. Just One of the most spectacular places you can go to see bits of an evening. So a bit of everything really.

Steve Roe: 25:05

Matthews just casually dropping in Croome Court there which has got, how many lesser horseshoes these days?

Matthew Terry: 25:11

Oh goodness. Oh, I should know because we've just done three counts. And I can't think it's I think it's about 150 101 site and about 50. The other

Steve Roe: 25:20

so many is just blase.

Matthew Terry: 25:23

Yeah, and in two sites, one is an orangery and old I think it's sort of Georgian greenhouse, which is quite spectacular. And the other one is the complete opposite. It's a blacked out x 1950s RAF airbase. So yeah, it's an amazing place to see. To see and hear wishes.

Steve Roe: 25:45

They one of the first times I saw and heard lesser horseshoes was we did a did like a mass expedition from Derbyshire bat group down to visit these guys down in, in Worcestershire, and they're very welcoming. And yeah, we've helped them count cannabis down. And that was 15 years ago. Now something like that was a long time ago. So it's nice to know that, that that site is still being monitored. In terms of Worcestershire on the map is quite a big County, what sort of area does it cover? You know, what sort of landmarks will people recognise in the county?

Matthew Terry: 26:18

Well, I'm going to do landmarks by backs, probably. But if you start at the north, we've got y forest, which is still, you know, an ancient woodland. Still pretty sizable. Probably not that well covered recently for bat records. And that's one of the reasons we're doing, we're keen to do this work with the wider community land trust. So that's a good place to start. We've got the river seven that comes through, pretty much runs all the way through the county. I only know the north of the county really, I mean, one of the challenges of the bat group, the bat group has is the county is just so big, trying to get events and activities run across the county is really, really difficult tends to depend on where people live as to where the activity is. The seven is a great location for for bats. And then travelling down the seventh to the middle of Worcestershire, you've got Worcester itself was to city and the big draw there sorry to bang on about horror shows but it's the it's the whole show roost under right under the Worcester cathedral. It's not huge. So it's a it's a it's a hibernation was done to the cathedral and then a maternity roost in one of the I think it's the bishop's palace at the Cathedral. So there's lots of Horseshoe activity there. And that's particularly interesting because it's right in the heart of a city and, you know, it's quite unique to have all shoes right in the heart of the city, I think. And they they forage over the over the river on the meadows. And then what I know less about is the Malvern hills. So there are bats there are some I've done some I've was taken on a midnight scramble through the through the wooded steep inclines of of Northern hills just before COVID about 2019 Looking for barbastelles plenty of other styles there and again there are a whole shoe roosts in the tunnels that go under the under

Steve Roe: 28:21

the hills. It has shown up now.

Matthew Terry: 28:24

I mean we are to use a you know an Instagram term we are blessed for with the number of species we've got here. I think don't quote me although you are quoting me it's about 15 species we've we've had recorded in Worcestershire which is just you know, absolutely great. The ones we don't have we don't have great horseshoes as far as I'm aware. That's the only sort of major species that we that we haven't got in the county as far as I'm aware. And

Steve Roe: 28:55

the wind is just picking up as the moons very picturesque Lee rising over the tops of the trees and it's just about going dark enough then I'm expecting to see a pipistrelle or something or other to slip around the corner these oak trees that were sand an eighth So shall we go and help the guys count out the house there Matthew Yeah let's go I can see a pip over there in the distance good too far for you guys to pick it up here right. It's just been kicking around here. So that's in the county you guys go through your fears.

Unknown: 29:59

One

Steve Roe: 30:57

So there's a number of volunteers. Here tonight counting the bats out of the boathouse and you can hear that there's not chosen come come a pepper chosen Spanner pipistrelles floating about just squeezing down. Just squeezing down the side of the boathouse where Charlene and Leah here, you had a tonne of guys. Nothing coming out. I think flying around a lot got gotten knocked over in my circles thanks to Cody Matthew and the other was to Chabad group members, you can watch a video showing the hercog bat house on YouTube. We've put a link in the show notes, along with links to more information about the red lighting scheme at the Lee Castle Village Development. And if you'd like to find out more about your local bank group, there's a link in the show notes which will take you to your closest Bank Group's website so you can see what your local group is up to. Whilst during this festive period. We'd really appreciate it if you could please tell the world about Batchat on your social media channels. We'll be back in two weeks time So until then, Happy New Year.