pete's batboxes

Below is an article giving you an idea of Pete's passion for making a 'home away from home' for Warwickshire's bats......

"Most of us would think twice about an invitation from Her Majesty to take up residence behind bars and barbed wire fences. This invitation is being made to bats living on the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire border and is being enthusiastically accepted!

Peter Maule works at Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institute at Onley, near Rugby, where he was responsible for the in-house sewerage plant. As a new prison has been built next to Onley, and the sewage has gone over to mains, so the plant has been shut down. So Pete has been re-employed as a plumber in the Works department.

He hopes to continue with his environmental work both at the nature reserve, within the grounds of the prison and to become involved in developing a waste management unit. For many years he has worked with selected inmates to develop the site's potential for all sorts of wildlife. Pete cannot emphasize strongly enough the benefits that this conservation work has for the inmates involved. He has often had feedback from officers on the wings, saying that negative attitudes among these inmates have changed for the better. Some of the ex-inmates have also been successful in obtaining employment with wildlife trusts after they have been released. 

The site is dotted with boxes they have tailor-made for different bird species and success has come in the form of nesting kestrels, little owls and kingfishers among others. An elegant and somewhat incongruous butterfly garden has been installed with generous financial assistance from the institute authorities and next to it is a purpose built pair of pools designed for the rehabilitation and release of frogs and newts rescued from the plant's filters.

Peter has installed a number of fairly standard bat boxes over the years with some success. In 1997 he decided to try a more ambitious project. He designed a very large box with many partitions inside, along the lines of some of the larger North American designs, and the inmates installed this on the roof of Peter's office. He rigged up a speaker next to the box from which he has broadcast a tape of roosting Pipistrelles "chittering" noises in an attempt to lure the real thing. Whether it was the recording that did the trick we do not know, but the box has already attracted roosting bats.

In 1998 Peter and his team erected a large post topped by four standard sized boxes and resembling a simple dovecote. Bats immediately moved in. On August 7th he placed a large, flat box in an oak tree on the margin of the site and within days he observed a bat leaving at dusk.

The management of the sewerage operation has been fine-tuned to gain maximum benefit for wildlife. Tertiary reed beds used for the final stage in the treatment have been allowed to develop tall and diverse flora that in turn supports more insects than previously. Peter comments that far more bats can be seen on the site since this change in practice. A stream running along one side of the plant has been cleared of obstructions and is now used by foraging Daubenton's bats. Peter has been using a bat detector to help identify the species turning up to this oasis. He recently joined Warwickshire Bat Group and we plan to help him with a more intensive survey of the site.

Around three inmates a day had the coveted duties at the sewerage plant. They would spend the mornings working on the running of the plant and afternoons were devoted to projects to improve the environment and wildlife value of this quiet and peaceful corner of an otherwise large and rather daunting establishment.

The work that Peter Maule has done has brought enormous benefits not only for the wildlife, but also for the young people he works with. The value and significance of this work was recognised in 1998 when the Princess Royal presented Peter with a certificate "for an outstanding contribution to the quality of prison care" from the Butler Trust.

Peter's plans for his bats have not finished. He is talking about installing a "really big" bat roost tower and the possibility of creating an artificial hibernaculum on site."

The triangular box shown above seems quite successful. It has attracted bats in Tocil Wood, a nature reserve near Warwick University, and also at Coombe Abbey Country Park near Coventry.

These 'pipe' boxes are aimed primarily at Daubenton's bat and so Pete has installed them alongside a canal near his home.

Here's a design for a flightcage for rehabilitating bats...