Saturday, July 25, 2009

Bat quest


We have a maternal colony of little brown bats in the barn next to the New Fork River. There is an old stack of doors and plywood leaning against a partition, and the bats move into the spaces between the wood every summer to have their babies.


I call the photo above "The Four Amigos." Click on the photos to see the larger images.


Yesterday, I asked husband Jim to help me with a project when he got home from work, and he scowled at me, wondering what I was up to. I told him he could hold a beer in one hand, and all he had to do was hold a heatlamp up with the other hand so I could have more light. We went into the barn and with the red bulb in the heatlamp, the bats didn't seem too disturbed. I got about 30 photos in a couple of minutes, before we closed the doors and left them to the darkness.

We also caught a packrat watching us during the photo shoot, but I never got any good photos. The buggers are sure cute with their big ears, but mercy do they stink!

2 comments:

LabRat said...

Your bats are very sanguine. The one and only maternal colony I ever stumbled into (long-eared bats) went APESHIT even before any light became involved.

Anonymous said...

Cat, another wonderful trip to your world! I'm always happy hear about or see healthy bat populations. Thirty five years ago there were gazillions right here, I used to love to lie down after a jog, and watch them fly over me, now there are 2 or 3 individuals,,we can only hope somehow they survive all that we have put in their paths,,
~M