Bats in the belfry

Ron has gone through several filters shop-vaccing up bat poop from our walk-up attic. We realized these were not passing visitors when talking to fellow Bellevue-ers who've also had bats in the attic. We checked with the pest folks who specialize in bats (yes, there is that much in demand.) Upon hearing Ron's description of a large band of bats wheeling and squealing around the battic at dusk, Tom the bat fellow says we most likely have a mother colony. That sounds darling, doesn't it. Like a day care center in the attic.
Bats are protected so we can't just kill them, though that isn't something we would have done even if we could. Tom told us that we can't do anything about the bats until August, until the baby bats have weaned and can fly on their own. (Who knew.) Then he'll clear the attic of bat/batling pairs and replace all their ingress/egress with egress only doorways. I hope he brings about a million doorways: that's how many openings are likely in the attic. I like bats, but not well enough to go up there at night with a camera. Instead, here is a brown bat purloined from the web at getmycritter.com