Happy freaking fourth of July
Long weekend - I was off yesterday since any bat survey would have carried over into the holiday and we had enough hours for this week.
Our second bat survey was at a very deep pond near Dog Lake. We only caught 12, since our nets weren't over the best spots (open water). A bat freaking showed up at 6:30! Of course we didn't open the nets at this point. Usually we open the nets when we see the first bat, but it was too early and we didn't want to catch any birds. We did catch a dragonfly though...Todd was saying how they're impossible to get out and if you don't like pulling bugs apart to avoid trying. Well, it was just beating its wings helplessly! So I waded out and set about untangling it. It took about 15 minutes but I got it out intact. I am not sure if it ended up surviving the trauma though - I put it on a stick and it was still there, alive but not moving much, by the time we left after midnight. Glenn had to get most of the bats out since he's tall and the best net was set 5'' above the water, which would have been over my waders. We caught a long eared myotis, some silver hairs, and some little browns and/or yuma myotis. Mosquitoes were bad. I'm pretty sure I accidentally swallowed one...
Wednesday night's bat survey promised to be a busy one. Last year they caught 70 at the site! We had some volunteers - three who couldn't handle bats and one from our training that could, so that was nice. We only ended up catching 28, but it was pretty busy anyway. Big browns, california and little footed myotis, silver hairs, and some others I don't remember. Heard a pack of coyotes yipping, and the now familiar sound of nighthawks. I got three out of the net, including the last one, a big brown bat! They're usually very aggressive, but this one was pretty calm. It did bite me right before I released it with its little glow stick though. Our glow sticks are way too big for most of the bats we catch (we really need smaller ones) but it fit fine on the big brown. He flew up and circled for a minute before taking off.
It's July 4, and it's the second year where I have no access to any special happenings. Oh well. I may make cookies later.
Long weekend - I was off yesterday since any bat survey would have carried over into the holiday and we had enough hours for this week.
Our second bat survey was at a very deep pond near Dog Lake. We only caught 12, since our nets weren't over the best spots (open water). A bat freaking showed up at 6:30! Of course we didn't open the nets at this point. Usually we open the nets when we see the first bat, but it was too early and we didn't want to catch any birds. We did catch a dragonfly though...Todd was saying how they're impossible to get out and if you don't like pulling bugs apart to avoid trying. Well, it was just beating its wings helplessly! So I waded out and set about untangling it. It took about 15 minutes but I got it out intact. I am not sure if it ended up surviving the trauma though - I put it on a stick and it was still there, alive but not moving much, by the time we left after midnight. Glenn had to get most of the bats out since he's tall and the best net was set 5'' above the water, which would have been over my waders. We caught a long eared myotis, some silver hairs, and some little browns and/or yuma myotis. Mosquitoes were bad. I'm pretty sure I accidentally swallowed one...
Wednesday night's bat survey promised to be a busy one. Last year they caught 70 at the site! We had some volunteers - three who couldn't handle bats and one from our training that could, so that was nice. We only ended up catching 28, but it was pretty busy anyway. Big browns, california and little footed myotis, silver hairs, and some others I don't remember. Heard a pack of coyotes yipping, and the now familiar sound of nighthawks. I got three out of the net, including the last one, a big brown bat! They're usually very aggressive, but this one was pretty calm. It did bite me right before I released it with its little glow stick though. Our glow sticks are way too big for most of the bats we catch (we really need smaller ones) but it fit fine on the big brown. He flew up and circled for a minute before taking off.
It's July 4, and it's the second year where I have no access to any special happenings. Oh well. I may make cookies later.
2 Comments:
At 5:50 PM ,
Becky said...
Mer, it's not that you don't have access, it's that you're BOYCOTTING FIREWORKS. Which I kind of am hoping to do, since we have freaking 300 wildfires in CA (and that's actually considered a low number?!). And I'm tired of waking up to smoke and MORE DEAD TREES...
At 8:30 PM ,
Ricki said...
Liked your red & blue heading! Happy freakin' 4th of July to you too! We didn't do much either if that's any consolation. But there will probably be an upper valley fireworks show.
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