Bat Boxes In Bryan Park

by Kathy Butler Springston 11.2023

Bats scouting for warm nighttime shelters and dark daytime hideaways should detect with their sharp echolocation the three bat boxes Scout Sam Whipple recently placed in Joseph Bryan Park.

A member of Scout Troop 770, Sam, 15, is the son of Keith and Cabel Whipple of Henrico County and a freshman at Douglas Freeman High School.

In the rain, on Saturday, October 14, Sam, along with his dad, and brother, Finn, set in place the three black boxes he had attached to tall heavy poles, just north of Lower Young’s Pond, near Bryan Park Avenue.

“I’ve always had an interest in the environmental side of things," said Sam. In school he is taking advanced placement environmental science.

When he reached Life rank in scouting in 2022, his dad asked if he had an idea for his Eagle project. Sam remembered reading about bats in a book about endangered animals. Perhaps helping the small nocturnal mammals would be worth pursuing, he told his dad.

They visited Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County, where a ranger talked to them about the bat colony there.

“Dad and I came across Bryan Park,” with its ponds, “and it looked like a great place” to pitch the idea for putting up a few boxes. Bats need a body of water to attract aquatic insects and other flying critters they eat. Protein-rich moths like the area, too.

Friends of Bryan Park President Rick Sinsabaugh, member Sue Ridd and former Times-Dispatch environment writer Rex Springston (my husband) met at the park to brainstorm with Sam. Rex put the scout in touch with Chris Hobson, then a state-employed bat expert, now retired. He lives in Quinton in New Kent County.

“Mr. Hobson and I emailed several times and we met in person,” said Sam. “He gave me pointers on what to do, what type of box to make. He was a great help and taught me everything I needed to know.”

They talked about how white-nose syndrome has really taken a toll on the numbers of so many bats, especially the species Sam hopes to attract, the little brown bat. White-nose fungus, introduced from Europe, creates a white fuzz on bats’ muzzles, ears and wings. The sickness causes the bats to stop hibernating in winter when there are no insects to eat, so they starve to death.

Sam is fascinated by the work of Chris Hobson and his colleagues “who have been trying to bring back bat populations and recording what’s happening.”

The evening bat is the species folks around Richmond usually notice coming out as night is falling, Chris said. The smaller little browns are rare because white nose reduced their population by 95% to 98% in Virginia over a decade or so, he said. “But small isolated colonies of little browns made it through for whatever reason.” Females have one pup a year. It will take decades to see a growth trend.

Sam and Chris are hopeful some little browns are out there to find these new homes in the park, even if evening bats and other species are roommates, or live in a box next door. Diversity is good. Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) weigh about eight grams and stretch their wings out about eight or so inches.

The coolest thing about bats to Sam is that with limited sight they must use echolocation to locate insects and navigate around objects by emitting high frequency pulses and listening for the echo. “It’s like a sixth sense,” he said. Their tiny eyes are adapted for pitch-dark places.

“Bats are a keystone species in our ecosystem. They help limit the pest population and actually prevent people from using pesticides which are harmful to the environment,” Sam said, as if giving a classroom lecture.

“Because bats eat a lot of small insects, many larger animals – carnivores like hawks and owls – will feed on bats. But since they have become so endangered this has really impacted our food web and how many animals get their energy,” he said.

After pushing the third pole into its PVC pipe stand that was sunk two feet in concrete weeks earlier, Sam looked up and said, “I’m just hoping these houses help give bats good homes to reproduce and shelter from predators.”

Sam found house plans for what Chris Hobson calls “modified rocket boxes” on the internet.

Each is double-chambered– like a box within a box – so the bats can move from the cozy outer chamber that gets sunlight to the inner compartment which is cooler as their temperature needs change, he explained.

Sam said two vents provide airflow and entry, and holes between the chambers allow the bats to go from one chamber to the other. Bats can also enter crevices at the bottom. All the walls of these quarters have been roughed up so the bats can climb and dig their claws in to hang upside down.

About 24 hours went into planning the project. Then, Sam and five helpers met twice on weekends for the construction. Assisting him were scouts Charlie Bridge and Hatcher Cox, and friends Evan Diers, Benjamin Parent and Drew Levasseur.

They used exterior grade wood for each roof, topping it with metal to protect it from rain, snow and ice. On the wooden sides, they applied a good primer and black paint to absorb sunlight. The bat expert had suggested where the boxes should go so they get six to eight hours of sun.

Each 18-foot metal pole runs through the center of the inner chamber of each four-foot house. With the bottom of the pole secured two feet in the ground, each house sits 12 feet off the ground. Positioned away from branches, the boxes are out of reach of owls and hawks. Chris was pleased with the height because bats also need to swoop from up high to take off.

The scientist was impressed recently to see a picture of Sam and his boxes. He thought the metal poles are an “interesting design twist” and choice instead of wooden four-by-fours that can warp. Also, predators like large birds and raccoons would have a hard time clinging to the slippery metal. Baffles can be added to deter hungry rat snakes that can climb poles, Chris said.

Near the boxes looms a big dead tree bats use by the water off Bryan Park Avenue. Sam said Chris told him “when that one falls or is taken down – probably soon – it would leave the bats without a home. So these boxes will actually help because they are near” the bats’ usual roosting spot.

Chris had quite a park bat story to tell Sam.

“When I met Sam, I told him one of my most vivid memories of Bryan Park was being at my mother’s annual sorority picnic in one of the shelters,” said Chris. “It was late in the afternoon and all of a sudden all these bats started flying out of the chimney into our shelter.”

He said everybody was freaked out and men swung baseball bats and tennis rackets, killing as many bats as they could.

So, Sam’s boxes “may be a way to flip that on its head.” They’ll show these animals are welcome and doing a service. “Granted, most people don’t want bats in their potato salad… but we should understand bats are here for a reason and support them,” he added.

“Sam is a very nice, intelligent young man,” said Chris. “He was very open to listening to ideas and obviously soaked up a lot of information in the short time we had together…I’m proud of him. I just pointed him in the right direction and he took off. He did a lot of research on his own.”

Now that winter is close, the park’s bats will use familiar hibernation sites and are unlikely to find Sam’s houses right away. But he hopes some bats discover them by spring or summer. Moms could use them to deliver their pups in May or June.

Chris Hobson told Sam that establishing a substantial colony can take a couple of years. Each box could hold 100 or so little brown bats.

To become an Eagle Scout, Sam still has a review to write and must meet with scout officials.

Sam will come by the park every few months to monitor how many bats are hanging around. And he’ll see if repairs are needed.

Would Sam give a program on his project whenever the park’s nature center reopens? “That would be amazing,” he said. “I’d be honored.”

How does it feel to do something that helps the cycle of life?

“It makes me happy,” Sam Whipple said.

“We all do small things that help,” he added. “But I think for the average human what we do in our entire life will really hurt the environment no matter how we act. It’s just how our economy and our lives are built. So, it makes me feel better that I’m doing this one small thing to help a little bit.”