I just read this article about abandoned bats http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/high...998409.stm

Unfortunately, there's no mention of whether or not anything can, or could have been done, to help the abandoned pups.

It's not good news though.

Kingfisher

It's bad news! It's difficult because if I'm right bats are already protected so you can't move them on if they nest on your property which is a good thing, but if even that isn't doing any good then apart from encouraging people to allow bats to nest on their property what else can people do? Hopefully next year will be more "normal" weather wise and therefore better for our bats.

You can buy bat houses I believe, which would be useful for the bats and provide a place for them to live, but I think it is more the weather that is causing the problems rather than lack of roosting places. The article says that the bats have been abandoning their young because there is so few insects. I have definitely noticed there is not many insects around this year compared to most years.

I think there is a definate shortage of insects which obviously has a knock-on effect on other wildlife. We were talking on another thread about lack of bees, & I for one have not even seen a daddy longlegs yet!!

I've seen a few daddy long legs but usually we are overrun with them, there's definitely not many about. The same with bees and wasps.

My friend who had bats living in his barn found to his surprise that they only stayed there for a few days. The numbers living there increased to about ten over the space of a week, then one day when he went to look they had all gone and never returned. Is this normal behaviour? Or could this be an example of bats having a bad year looking for food?

This highlights the need for everyone, if they are able to, to stop keeping such neat and tidy gardens and spraying with pestacides every time they see something remotely insect like!

My neighbour was saying there used to be lots of song thrushes where I live, but there aren't any anymore. He looked very guilty when I explained that it was probably due to everyone using slug pellets.

It is really easy to provide homes for insects that don't cost the earth like the ones in the wildlife gardening catalogues!

If a garden has plenty of insects it naturally attracts all the insect eating creatures, including bats!

Saying that though, it has been a bad year for insects because of the weather but if everyone could supply habitat and food for them they would not have such a bad time.