Aug, 22
We had a nice little surprise come zooming into the net last night. He wasn’t too happy about being hung up.
But he got over it. This is the first time I have to handled a live Eastern Screech Owl so it added a little fun to the night.
He was having a bad hair day -probably going through a late summer molt… but was perfect for a new facebook profile picture… Too bad we didn’t catch any interesting bats.
Aug, 8
Is it really August already? Wow -what happened to July? As for me things have been going well -a bit too well actually. I have hardly had the time to blink lately. The field season is moving right along. Our bat captures for the year have exceeded 500 and we have been collecting lots of data tracking their movements (believe me, I’ve been typing it all in).
Lots of interesting things have come up like this Hoary bat. These guys are so great looking -and hard to catch, I always love to see them. Despite the innocent looks they are hard to keep track of. This guy, even though he was a juvenile, zipped along at least 4.2 miles of creek -in one night.
The job leaves little room for anything else but I did slip out to the park the other evening. It was a short little walk and I stopped only to click exactly two frames. This is one of them. Not too bad if I don’t say so myself.
Jun, 13
Last night was pretty slow at the nets and (sigh) we didn’t catch anything we were looking for.
We did come across this very pregnant Northern long-eared bat though. She was being very calm and cooperative (or perhaps she was just so fat she really couldn’t move…?) and I was able to get a bunch of decent pictures before she slipped back into the darkness.
There were also a pile of these Eastern Cricket frogs down there making a terrible racket. If you haven’t heard one from 2 feet or less it is quite an experience. I think I can still feel the pulsing in my ears…
I didn’t get any pictures that were real winners but I didn’t have all night…
Finally if you haven’t heard about the new and fast spreading illness that is taking a huge toll on many bat populations -well its probably past time I said something about it. It’s called “white-nose syndrome.” The best idea is to read up on all the latest info on the illness right here. But in short we still don’t know what exactly is killing the bats or how or if it is even possible to stop its deadly spread. I did attempt a couple of pictures that express the plight of our bats. Hopefully soon we will know more about this illness.
Jun, 6
Bats aren’t the only things that end up in the nets. This guy came zooming by last night.
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