Going batty at Sewerby Hall and Gardens

Members of the East Yorkshire Bat group have installed nine bat boxes over the Bank Holiday weekend at Sewerby Hall and Gardens.

The venue  - which hosts a regular bat walk every summer - already has a community of these nocturnal visitors, and it is hoped that they can be encouraged to thrive through the use of these boxes.

Geoff Wilson, of the East Yorkshire Bat Group, said: “By erecting bat boxes, the East Yorkshire Bat Group and Sewerby Hall and Gardens hope to encourage those bats already seen in the area and to promote interest among the visiting public.”

A team from the East Yorkshire Bat Group will routinely inspect the boxes to see if any bats use them. According to Geoff, the most likely bat residents will be Common and Soprano Pipistrelles.

Six of the boxes were put on trees in the zoo, and an information panel will be installed there to interpret them. John Pickering, the head Zoo Keeper at Sewerby Hall and Gardens, said: “This project is in many ways an extension of the conservation commitment we have in the zoo into the gardens and parkland to enrich the native wildlife and fauna we have on site.”

The East Yorkshire Bat Group set up an information stall in the Orangery, where Adam, a Pipistrelle bat in the care of the EYBG, stole the show. For children and families, a make-and-take craft session was also held in the Orangery. Children could make and decorate their own flying bat.

Robert Chester, Education Officer at Sewerby Hall and Gardens, said: “This is a great opportunity to support the work of the our local bat conservation group and also to enable our visitors to gain an understanding of the rich and diverse wildlife we have here at Sewerby Hall and Gardens.”