Bat Survey - Rhos, Pontardawe
Background
This year, we completed a series of bat surveys at this lovely family home with adjacent fields, farmland, and stables. The property is home to an expanding family that need to convert the loft space to be used as a bedroom for their children.
Scoping Survey
The property is located in an area with suitable habitat for bats, with multiple gaps in the roof area of the building that could be used by bats to enter the building. Although no evidence of bats was found in the loft spaces, the building was still deemed to have high bat roosting suitability, so three surveys were recommended and carried out.
Our scoping surveys also include a nesting bird survey, so we also found evidence of active bird nests at multiple points in the house.
Emergence Surveys
This project was an excellent example of why three surveys at a property with high roosting potential are necessary.
During the first survey, no bats emerged from the building, but were seen flying up to interact with the roof and were recorded foraging around the garden and stables.
During the second survey, video review revealed a single bat emerging from a gap under a bargeboard on the rear of the property. This meant that during the third survey, we knew where to focus our cameras to get the best footage of bats emerging and pinpoint the exact access points.
During the third survey, we discovered two bats emerging from the property from two separate access points.
In each stage of the survey, we uncovered something new that we otherwise wouldn't have known.
Licence and Mitigation
A few pipistrelle bats is very typical of the survey results we find at most residential properties, so the licence application with Natural Resources Wales was straightforward and simple. The licence was submitted and granted in no time with no delays to the work that can now go ahead with the only alterations being some contingencies for the bats and birds that also call this place home.
We installed some bird and bat boxes, ridge tile gaps, and access slates - small additions to the plans that are hardly noticeable unless you know where to look for them.
In need of a bat survey for a simple building renovation? Get in touch to see how we can help!
