Birds and bats receive free housing

Local wildlife conservationists are making and selling homes for birds and bats. The Izaak Walton League of America is an environmental organization which was founded in 1922. It is active in 20 states, including Iowa. The club in Washington County is known as the Chicaqua Chapter. Two of the Chicaqua Chapter members, Don Kline and Don Pfeiffer, had the bat houses and birdhouses on display at Thursday?s Farmers Market.

The houses for the animals are made of wood. The birdhouse is about a foot tall while the bat house is closer to a foot and a half. Both houses have a roof so that water does not enter the structure, but apart from that they are quite different. The birdhouse has a thin slit about an inch tall underneath the roof, which is where the bird enters the house.

The bat house, on the other hand, has a slit at the bottom. The bat crawls inside the house and snuggles up in one of the upper corners. The bats are not nursing their young during this time, so they don?t mind sleeping next to each other. Pfeiffer said that the bat houses the Chicaqua Chapter built could house as many as 15 bats.

The birds, however, are nursing, and certainly do mind the company of other birds. The bottom of the birdhouse is enclosed so the birds have a place to make their nest. The bottom board can be moved so that the owner can clean out the nest after the birds are done using it. Pfeiffer said birds don?t like to build nests on top of other nests. Removing the nests is also a good idea because that way the birds don?t contract the mites in the old nest.

Birds and bats prefer different environments, so what makes for a good location for a birdhouse may not be so good for a bat house. Bats are most comfortable in wooded areas. They do not like tall prairies. Pfeiffer said not to put a bat house on a tree because a squirrel might disturb it. He recommended putting the bat house on a pole 10 to 12 feet tall. The advantage of that is other animals won?t bother the bats and the bats will be high enough in the air that they can swoop down before taking flight.

Birds, especially bluebirds, like prairies. Pfeiffer said they eat insects that roam the open grasslands. Birdhouses are ideal for people who live on the edge of town, especially near prairie grass that is not mowed. The trouble with mowing is that it disturbs the life cycles of the insects the birds eat.

Pfeiffer said bluebirds are the birds he?d like to nest in his birdhouse. He said the size of the opening at the top of the birdhouse determines what kinds of birds nest in it. A wren needs an opening about ¾ of an inch tall. A sparrow needs an opening of more than an inch. Pfeiffer said he doesn?t want sparrows in his birdhouse, which is why he only made the opening one inch.

?I?d rather have a wren or a bluebird,? said Pfeiffer. ?Sparrows are a nuisance and they carry diseases. They?re not native to North America. They?re English.?

The Chicaqua Chapter has built birdhouses since the mid-1980s. Pfeiffer said the birdhouses often attract wrens.

?Wrens are territorial,? said Pfeiffer. ?You can only raise one family because one wren would run the others off. There is no need to put up five wren houses together.?

The group started building bat houses about five years ago. At first, the club built only three. Those three were sold quickly. The club members then built five bat houses, and this year they built 10. The club built 10 houses for birds, too.

Pfeiffer and Kline produce the animal abodes with other members from the Chicaqua Chapter such as Denny Sorrell, John Seymour, Dale Venzke and Duane Hammen.

Most bats in Iowa do not stay here for the winter but go south, usually to Missouri or Arkansas where they stay in caves. Some of them find lodging in people?s homes over the winter, usually in the attic. Pfeiffer said that the presence of bats means heat is being lost into the attic.

If a person finds a bat in his house, Pfeiffer recommends simply opening a window and a door. The bat will feel the draft and move toward the exit.

Over the summer, bats eat insects. In fact, Pfeiffer said that is mostly what they do while they?re awake, which is at night.

?Bats come out at dusk, feed for awhile, rest for a little, and then feed again,? said Pfeiffer. ?Bats eat about 2,000 insects per night. If they?re female and they?re nursing, they may eat more than that.?