Committee Finds Bats at Swiftmud Site

George Marks held a sonar detector over his head and waited.

The sun had just set at the property across from the on Harney Road. Mosquitos were out in full force, and they were hungry. A breeze rustled the tall grass.

Everything was quiet until Marks heard something on the detector.

“First bat,” he shouted.

Five members of the Bat Tower Committee gathered with Marks and his wife, Cyndi Marks, of the Florida Bat Conservancy, on the property owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District Wednesday evening.

Their goal was to find out if there were any bats in the area. Working with the Markses, the , a nonprofit group interested in building a , decided in March that the water district's property would probably be the best place to build a bat tower. The site has space for visitors to park, needed visibility and is located near water, but not on top of water—a no-no for bats.

If built, the wouldn’t be the first in Temple Terrace. The city’s original bat tower was built in 1924 along the banks of the Hillsborough River behind what is now 933 Riverhills Drive. Temple Terrace developers cleared the land for the structure. Arsonists burned it down in 1979. It’s unclear if bats ever lived in this tower.

Committee members want to build the new tower because they say it would recreate the historic icon, allow the city to reduce its use of harmful pesticides, provide habitat for local native bats and create a local tourist attraction.

The new tower would be more bat-friendly than the old one, according to local architect and community activist Grant Rimbey, who has drawn up plans for the new tower. Plywood slats in the new tower would be three-quarters-of-an-inch apart because bats like to be snug. The original lathe slats were twice that far apart.

The site is at the top of a hill on the water district property that overlooks the Hilltop Dog Park.

Building a new tower in a place where bats are already present is important, said George Marks.

“That really improves your chances because the bats have to find the tower,” he explained.

So, everything hinged on Wednesday’s bat survey. The Markses set up their bat detection equipment, which would pick up bats from about 100 feet away.

At exactly 6:20 p.m., the bats came out in force, Rimbey said.

“The bat monitoring devices were going crazy,” he explained, adding the Markses said the amount of bats at the site was greater than normal. “In fact, they said that it was the largest numbers of bats they have recorded in a field, and not standing right next to a river or lake.”

Now, the committee needs to meet with Colleen Kruk, senior land use specialist at the district, at the site to finalize the location and create an agreement to use it, Rimbey said. Then, members can install smaller bat roosts at the site to get bats used to settling there. They’ll also begin finalizing the drawings for the first phase of the tower.

“The bat activity last night was amazing,” George Marks wrote Thursday in an email to Rimbey. “That was one of the most active sites we have ever recorded! Now I’m really excited about your bat tower.”