HARDY volunteers braved wind and rain to create new roosting spots for bats.

A group of around 30 attended an event at Siblyback Lake, with the aim of building 50 bat boxes.

Senior countryside warden Nigel Tomkinson said: ‘Sadly, the loss of suitable places to roost, along with loss of suitable habitat, has had a big impact on bats.

‘By installing bat boxes at Siblyback we are providing bats with somewhere safe to roost.’

The group managed to construct almost 40 boxes and then Cornwall Bat Group members helped with the installation around the lake.

And young members of the Linkinhorne Beavers have agreed to build the remaining 10 boxes during one of their weekly sessions.

Some of the completed, numbered roosting boxes have been put up near the toddler play area, and others further along the lakeside path near the bird hide - and some even bear their maker’s name, to make them easier to spot in future.

Mr Tomkinson said that the boxes themselves had been easy to assemble - but that the wood itself had been quite hard to come by.

‘The hardest part was trying to source non-treated, rough timber to build the boxes from,’ he said.

‘Travis Perkins in Bodmin really helped out by sourcing and even delivering the timber. So a big thank you to them.’

The South West Lakes Trust is now very much hoping that bats will be observed roosting in the new boxes. A Summer Bat Walk at Siblyback on August 10 will see the Trust and the Cornwall Bat Group out and about with bat detectors to identify species that use the site.