Many of us who “bid” on the Bat Walk led by Biologist Susan Broderick at the Fall 2019 Bash and Benefit had given up hope that it would ever happen. The date was changed from June 2020 to August 2020 to “pending” and then remained pending for nearly 2 ½ years! But all things come to those who wait…and our August Bat Walk was well worth the wait.
On a coolish but clear Sunday evening in August, a group of about a dozen of us, ranging from elementary school age to “well into” retirement, finally had the opportunity to join Susan and her husband Bill at the lake just after sunset for a fabulous evening of bat watching. But wait, can you actually watch bats? It’s dark out! Why yes, you can if you are with Susan and Bill, because Susan has a receiver that registers the high-frequency sounds that bats use to navigate the nighttime skies and find their prey. The receiver plugs into her tablet and the sounds show up as visuals on a real-time graph on the screen. Susan’s software also indicates the species of bat (Merlin for bats!), or a list of possible species in some cases. While Susan operated the tablet, Bill was able to find and track many of the bats with his special high-lumen focusing flashlight – a rather remarkable skill in itself – so that we could catch a glance at the various bats in flight over the lake, the wetlands west of the lake, and along the creek. An especially batty area was the area between the boardwalk bridge and the west end of the lake.
I had no idea that there were so many bat species right here in Evergreen! In about an hour or so, we were able to identify 8 species: Big Brown Bats, Hoary Bats, Little Brown Bats, Silver-haired Bats, Mexican Free-tailed Bats (just recently being sighted here in Evergreen), Long-eared Myotis, Long-legged Myotis, and Western Small Footed Myotis were the stars of the night. Susan pulled up photographs of each species so that we could see them up close, and she talked about their similarities and differences, including their flight patterns, and how and when they hunt. Did you know that they will come out at different times during the night? That they will gorge on insects, then rest a while, then head out to gorge some more? That some species migrate and some hibernate? Susan also touched on why they are so important (think pollination and insect control) and some of the threats that they face (climate change and disease are two).
Kathy Madison, co-hostess for the evening, provided hot chocolate and homemade cookies, and two surprise guests provided additional entertainment as they called out and hooted from the roof ridge of the Lake House. It seems that the resident Great Horned Owls were not happy that we were invading their territory as we tracked bats. The most amazing fact of the night for me? Owls eat bats!
Many thanks to Susan, Bill, and Kathy for making the event happen!