{"id":42119,"date":"2026-09-27T18:12:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/?page_id=42119"},"modified":"2026-09-28T20:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:21:03","slug":"our-little-lodgers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/?page_id=42119","title":{"rendered":"Our Little Lodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 28%\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"alignwide wp-block-paragraph\">For several years we have seen evidence in church that we are home to bats but we have known nothing much about them other than that they are a protected species.&nbsp; This year, local professional ecologist Ed Leszczynski has kindly offered to work with us to determine the extent of their numbers.&nbsp; On Thursday 27<sup>th<\/sup> August 2026 Ed and his colleague Liz who have been exceptionally generous with their time managed to identify that \u2018our\u2019 bats are arguably the cutest type of bat.&nbsp; Ours are brown long-eared bats which Ed describes as looking rather like flying rabbits (although thankfully they are much smaller than rabbits!).&nbsp; On Thursday through red filtered light we saw briefly six adults and one juvenile so we officially have what is known as a maternity roost.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42120 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1.png 460w, https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1-300x244.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:38% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"523\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42121 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-2.png 523w, https:\/\/astwoodbankchurch.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-2-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 523px) 100vw, 523px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are stock photographs, not pictures of \u2018our\u2019 bats.&nbsp; Ed has offered to come to one of our services in the near future to tell us more about them and will also help us to apply for a grant from the Bat Conservation Trust to try to purchase some covers for items of church furniture which are at risk of being damaged by excrement and urine. The bats are protected and have as much right to use the church building as we humans.&nbsp; Perhaps we could try naming them to give us a different perspective on their presence and encourage interest in their presence from local children and adults.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-theme-palette-13-color has-text-color has-link-color has-large-font-size wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\">        <strong>Coming Soon !!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ed has now visited one of our services as mentioned above and kindly has allowed us to record it. The video is available below.  You can switch to full screen with the North-West \/ South-East arrows.  Automatically generated sub-titles are available by pressing CC in the top right corner whilst paused.  Pausing and pressing CC again will turn them off.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_19973\"  width=\"1946\" height=\"1095\"  data-origwidth=\"1946\" data-origheight=\"1095\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BJRXnTqGm8E?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&controls=1&disablekb=0&color=red&cc_lang_pref=&rel=1&autohide=2&theme=dark&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are also developing an on-line quiz to try and dispell the myths surrounding bats. It may help to watch the video first.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For several years we have seen evidence in church that we are home to bats but we have known nothing much about them other than that they are a protected species.&nbsp; This year, local professional ecologist Ed Leszczynski has kindly offered to work with us to determine the extent of their numbers.&nbsp; On Thursday 27th&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.5 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Astwood Bank Church | Redditch WorcstershireFor several years we have seen evidence in church that we are home to bats but we have known nothing much about them other than that they are a protected species. 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